So Sad

Yesterday morning as I bought some repair items at the Jamul hardware store, I heard a discussion amongst several people there about the “commotion” down at the Jamul Indian Reservation. The folks there weren’t entirely sure what was going on, but they suspected that Walter Rosales and Karen Toggery were being evicted. After leaving the hardware store, I drove down to see for myself. The people I talked to there gave me a confused and contradictory version of events, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. The one thing I could be sure of is that there was a vocal confrontation and a significant police presence.

Walter and Karen are Jamul Indians and long-time residents of the reservation who oppose the casino. They refused to move off the reservation, and were “disenrolled” from the tribe late last year — allegedly because of inadequate documentation of their membership in the tribe, but really, I’m sure, because of their opposition to the casino.

Late yesterday, a reader left a comment on my blog, and this was the first verification I had that Walter and Karen were in fact evicted. Here’s the comment in its entirety — a first-hand account of what happened:

We received a phone call alerting us that the casino faction was forcibly taking Walter and Karen out of their houses this morning about 7:40 a.m. It was a very sad state of events, thugs hired by the casino proponents took them out of their houses and then started throwing all their belongings into U Haul vans. Walter called 911 but it took awhile for deputies to respond and actually sheriff deputies did nothing … did absolutely nothing … to protect Walter or Karen and their homes and property. And later when many residents and Walter and Karen’s attorney Patrick Webb accompanied Walter to his house the thugs beat and pushed and maced people with the sheriff deputies still doing nothing. Everyone felt so helpless because we could not help Walter and Karen protect their homes. Walter is such a kind, gentle man. When someone told him not to give up, he likened it to being in a difficult situation in Vietnam with the Marines and things worked out. I hope this does. I hope all of San Diego County sees the type of people the greed of casinos have turned these criminals into that call themselves casino proponents. Unfortunately it ended with their belongings being hauled off to a storage facility. Robby and I took Walter’s two roosters and two pet conures. Walter had his dog and Karen’s cat was brought out to her in a cardboard box. They were not allowed to go back to their homes. Jamul residents that were hurt filed complaints against the so called “Jamul Indian Police”. Grievances will be filed against the Sheriff’s Department. Diane Jacob arrived to try and intervene but with little success other that a written promise from the lying Leon Acevedo, so called tribal chief promising not to level the homes until after the close of business next Friday. It actually did not seem like something like this could happen in America.

Indeed. How could something like this happen in America?

Well, there are several answers to that. The one most immediately applicable here is that we are seeing (once again) the strangeness that can occur at the intersection of American law and Indian law — the tortured mess that is our law regarding the country-within-a-country status of American Indian reservations. But today — unlike a few years ago — we could see this happening even outside a reservation, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision, which opened the doors wide for any municipality (or other government unit) to “condemn” anyone’s property for any purpose they deem worthwhile — including simply replacing someone’s home with something that generates more taxes for the government. Like a casino…

I got to pondering this morning about all the events that had to be in place for Walter and Karen to be evicted yesterday:

The notion of Indian reservations, with their quasi-independent systems of government, had to be in place.

Casinos had to be illegal off-reservation, but legal on-reservation.

Walter and Karen had to be Indians living on a reservation in a desirable place to locate a casino.

A majority of the Indians on their reservation had to support the notion of building a casino.

The reservation had to secure funding for the casino (which the Jamul Indians have done by striking a bargain with Lakes Entertainment).

A majority of the Indians on the Jamul Indian reservation had to be willing to take some very radical steps. Their six-acre reservation is so small that they couldn’t possibly have a casino and still live on their reservation — so they had to be willing to relocate off-reservation to do this. To some members of the reservation (including Walter and Karen), some of the reservation is hallowed ground, with the ashes of their ancestors and their possessions. And a majority of the Indians had to be willing to force the objectors to comply with the majority’s wishes.

What’s motivating all this?

Money, of course. Period, end of story. It’s all about the money.

Do you find that as sad — and pathetic — as I do? Here’s a group of Americans (the Indians) who, were they assimilated into the rest of America, would have the same opportunities as the rest of us. We’d find them in all kinds of jobs, with the same range of success we see in the rest of our citizens. Instead, they’re part of the reservation system, isolated to some extent in their own culture — and feeling desperate enough about their collective situation to be willing to do the things I outlined above. There’s a message in this about the utter failure of the reservation system…

There are a couple of news stories about the incident. Here are a few excerpts from those stories:

Toggery said she was still in her pajamas when she was ordered to leave her home. “I said I am not going to open my door until I get ahold of my attorney,” Toggery said. “They finally kicked it open."

Walter Rosales was also evicted Saturday morning. He was forced to grab his animals and leave a home he says he inherited from his uncle in 1987. “I was evicted this morning be a bunch of goons, you know, the old goon squad,” Rosales said.

The situation got even more heated when County Supervisor Dianne Jacob — she also opposes the casino — showed up. Jacob said she may place an emergency call to the governor to stop the evictions.

"I strongly oppose the evictions that have take place here today,” Jacobs said. “I think it’s wrong. I think it’s shameful"

"I will promise you this — if there is one piece of dirt that’s moved that looks like they are starting construction that I will notify the governor’s office immediately and ask them to intervene and take action,” Jacobs said.

The evictions led to confrontations with neighbors opposed to the casino in which tribal police used pepper spray and metal batons. Sheriff’s deputies stepped in and paramedics treated some people.

Nobody was immediately hospitalized, although one man shot in the eyes with pepper spray went into a hospital later in the day.

The confrontation ended only after negotiations among Jacob, the Sheriff’s Department, the tribal chairman and Patrick Webb, a lawyer working with Rosales and Toggery who is also a Jamul resident.

Acebedo said he would pay for a nearby house in which Rosales and Toggery could stay and agreed that their homes would not be demolished for a week – giving state and federal courts a chance to consider the legality of the evictions.

What a sad, sad tale.

I, and many other local residents, hope that Walter and Karen prevail. My own support for them derives from two things: one, the just plain awful and unfair way they’ve been treated, and two, the fact their objective (stopping the casino) coincides with my own. I’d like to see the casino stopped in its tracks. I’d like to see the Indians succeed the way the rest of Americans do, instead of by desperate maneuvers like this casino that would evict them from their own property and hold them in thrall (by their debt) to the shady world of gambling companies. I’d also like to see the tribal system completely dismantled to remove the artificial differences it creates — to the tribes' detriment — between American Indians and the rest of Americans.

I can dream, can’t I?

The Union-Buffoon article also contained this nugget:

Tribal leaders also announced that they plan to sidestep a 1999 agreement with the state and fill the casino with less profitable games so they can get around local opposition.

Under federal law, the so-called “Class 2” games, based on bingo and poker, don’t require an agreement with state governments as do Las Vegas-style games.

“We’ve broken off negotiations with the state,” said tribal Chairman Leon Acebedo.

This is an interesting development, one that has always been present as a possibility. I infer from this that the Jamul Indian tribe (and their backers, Lake Entertainment) have been entirely unsuccessful in negotiating a profitable casino operation under the pact that governs tribal gambling for most games in California.

The spin from casino supporters in the rest of the article is that this is a good thing for them, and that there is still a profitable casino to be had. But clearly this is the less desirable course for them, or else they would have skipped the negotiations in the first place. However, it must be attractive enough, as a business proposition, for Lakes Entertainment to be willing to fund it anyway. From my personal perspective, it doesn’t matter what games are being played inside the casino — the monstrosity and the people it will attract are just as antithetical to our community either way…