Panel ponders bill to recognize Native American tribes
HARRISBURG – State lawmakers said they are willing to officially recognize Native American tribes, but they want assurances that the tribes won’t in turn open casinos in Pennsylvania. “We need to preserve the culture of Native Americans, but … our concern is how do we recognize tribes and keep powerful [gambling] interests at bay so that they don’t come in the backdoor,” said Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Perkasie.
Clymer chairs the House State Government Committee which is considering legislation that would officially recognize tribes. At the moment, Pennsylvania recognizes no tribes.
Leaders from the state’s Native American community, which numbers about 20,000 according to the U.S. Census Bureau, told lawmakers that recognition is vital to their culture. Without it, Native Americans can’t apply for federal grants to fund projects such as cultural centers. They can’t market and sell authentic crafts. And they can’t practice certain religious traditions.
“Asking for recognition is a human rights issue,” Sellersville resident Jim Beer, a coordinator for the Lenape Nation, testified during a three-hour hearing on Thursday. “We’re not interested in gambling. We’re interested in the environment, history, education and preservation.”
But, if officially recognized, tribes may be able to open casinos, even though state law prevents slots machines and card games. One tribe has already approached the governor about building a casino in Brownsville, a small town in Fayette County. Becoming recognized can be an expensive and lengthy legal process, so some tribes enter into pacts with wealthy businessmen who provide assistance in exchange for the rights to operate a casino on their land.
“We don’t want to see [this] in our community,” Brownsville Mayor Norma Ryan told lawmakers.
Tribal representatives present at the hearing said they’d be willing to agree not to build a casino in exchange for recognition. However, the bill’s author said she wouldn’t amend her bill to include such a caveat.
“The issue of gambling can be dealt with in another bill,” said Rep. Louise Williams Bishop, D-Philadelphia. “Far be it from me to say, ‘I agree to give you some of your rights, but not all of your rights.'”
The gambling issue is the only obstacle in the way of recognition, Clymer said afterward. The committee will spend the summer examining cases “where compacts worked,” he said. That is, states that recognized tribes without experiencing gambling development.
Clymer said he hopes to bring the issue up for a committee vote sometime in the fall. If it passes, it must then be approved by a majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate and signed by the governor, before it becomes law.
Under House Bill 63, tribes could apply for recognition from the governor for a two-year period, which could be renewed.
Native American tribes may go around state lawmakers by pursuing federal recognition, but both tribal leaders and lawmakers said that would be very difficult to attain without first getting state recognition.