A majority of Indian casinos in the state have chosen to stay closed and are coordinating their reopening with the governor’s office, which has proposed an opening date in early June. More than a dozen Indian casinos across California reopened last week, with Viejas vowing “a hospital-clean environment” and strict limits on the number of people gambling at one time. Under a series of agreements that tribes have with the government, Indian businesses have special status that allows them to operate independently in many areas. Churches and beaches have become bitter battlegrounds, pitting conservatives in California against the Democratic governor, but the issue of the state’s more than 70 Indian casinos, an $8 billion industry that has been shut down for the past two months, has been a separate contest of wills, both legally and politically.Ĭomplicated by the role of Indian sovereignty, the question of who should decide when Indian casinos are allowed to open is shadowed by the legacy of the deadly and degrading treatment of tribal communities for centuries.
