Return of the Buffalo: The Story Behind America's Indian Gaming Explosion - Hardcover

by Ambrose Lane (Author)

A small, poverty-stricken California Indian Tribe, the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, successfully fought a long legal battle for the right to operate the business of their choice on their barren reservation--a gambling casino. This is their story, the authorized history of their epic struggle, climaxing with their victory in a 1987 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, the now-famous Cabazon Decision. Their defeated opponents included California's City of Indio and County of Riverside (called one of the most racist in the U.S. by a non-Indian resident) as well as California and 29 other states that joined California's appeal.

This is also the fascinating story of the role played by a white family and its radical, socialist patriarch that helped create one of the world's most capital-intensive industries and triggered today's Indian Gaming Explosion throughout America. Hundreds of hours of taped interviews and years of documents, meeting records, and official correspondence are analyzed to give the reader a clear picture of the impact of this new massive capital on tribal life and the development of a possible future without gambling--as officials in league with Nevada and Atlantic City gambling interests continue their efforts to destroy Indian gaming. The Buffalo, literal and symbolic figure of earlier Indian financial independence, has returned in a new form--cash cow casinos.

Author Biography

AMBROSE I. LANE, SR., a board member of the Pacifica Foundation, is a 15 year political/religious commentator and radio talk show host for WPFW, Pacifica's 50,000 watt station in Washington, DC. He has co-anchored Pacifica's nationwide broadcast of the U.S. Senate's confirmation hearings on the nominations of David Souter and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court as well as its 1991 coverage of the coast-to-coast peace demonstrations and the Persian Gulf War. Lane's journalism background includes positions as owner-editor of the weekly Buffalo Challenger, editor of the National Reporter magazine, editor-publisher of New Spirit magazine, and free-lance contributor to the Washington Post. He has authored hundreds of commentaries on public policy issues, two earlier books, and three chapters in the anthology, The Race. He is currently lecturing at the University of Maryland/Baltimore County.