Profits From Gambling Give American Indians New Legislative Clout : Politics:Tribes are learning the art of arm-twisting and gentle persuasion in an effort to protect their casinos.

The wine flowed and the congressmen and their aides nibbled on Southwestern delicacies. The evening bore all the earmarks of a typical exercise in genteel legislative arm-twisting.

Then an American Indian medicine man showed up to bless each guest with the pungent smoke of burning sage.

It was an extraordinary scene in an extraordinary Capitol Hill conflict.

On one side: Donald Trump, New Jersey casinos, dog-track operators and the National Governors Assn., all wanting limits on the $6-billion-a-year Indian gambling industry.

On the other are the Indian tribes, using gambling profits to protect their turf in time-honored Washington fashion--by hiring lobbyists and publicists, forming trade associations and bankrolling congressional campaigns.

“We’re learning how the system works,” said Mary Ann Andreas, chairwoman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians near Palm Springs.

Several bills have been introduced to rewrite the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to sharply restrict Indian gaming or even stop construction of new casinos.

The Supreme Court ruled in the 1980s that states that allow some kind of gambling must permit tribes--which are sovereign governments--to operate similar games.

States want more power now to control the growing tribal gambling trade, which has alarmed Trump and owners of other non-Indian gaming operations.

Trump, who has sued to overturn the law, was recently escorted to meetings with House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) and several committee chairmen by members of Nevada’s congressional delegation.

Trump and his family have contributed more than $100,000 to presidential candidates and various members of Congress since 1987. Several of those lawmakers are members of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which is negotiating compromise legislation.

Trump says the tribes are unfair competition for his New Jersey gaming operations. A tribe is considering New Jersey land for a casino that would compete with Trump’s Taj Mahal.

“Indians are no better or no worse than any other gambling promoter,” said John Dill, a lobbyist for the American Greyhound Assn., dog racing’s trade group. “This is about tribes using loopholes and preferential treatment to go after the exact same customers that states and non-Indian operators have.”

Their unique legal relationship with the federal government has had tribes coming to Washington since Sitting Bull. But they have rarely had the financial wherewithal for the wining and dining that oils the machinery of government, relying instead on congressional Indian affairs committees for help.

Those committees have usually been sympathetic to tribal needs, filled as they are by lawmakers who represent the tribes’ home states. Opposing the tribes’ wishes is “a tough shot” for committee members, said Henry Cashen, another lobbyist for dog racing.

Gambling profits, however, enable tribes to reach beyond their usual allies.

“We couldn’t have even dreamed of doing this before,” said one of the tribal leaders at a recent reception.

“We had trouble paying our electric bill,” said Daniel Tucker, chairman of the Sycuan Band of Mission Indians near San Diego.

Melanie Benjamin, from Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa, said gaming revenues from their two thriving casinos north of the Twin Cities give her small tribe “more access to different people in Washington.”

The tribe, which has 1,100 members at its reservation, recently became the second to open a Washington office. The Navajo Nation became the first 11 years ago. The Mille Lacs band also has at least one outside lobbyist, former Rep. Gerry Sikorski (D-Minn.).