Gabe Galanda has published "Durability and Duress: Inter-Tribal Kinship and Indian Gaming Capitalism," at the invitation of the Arizona State University School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership.
An excerpt:
Kinship is an Indigenous cultural tradition. It is also a political practice.
Indigenous societies and nations withstood colonization for centuries by wielding the political power of kinship. Inter-Tribal kinship alliances prevented the total annihilation of Indigenous peoples during the colonial and early American eras and defeated threats to Tribal national existence in modern times. Indigenous peoples leveraged kinship first to withstand genocidal wars and territorial assaults and later, U.S. Congressional and Supreme Court attacks.
Today, Indigenous kinship and its inter-Tribal safety net are under duress. National Tribal political practices and federal policies catalyzed by gaming capitalism weaken historical inter-Tribal kinship alliances and jeopardize Tribal nationhood writ large. Tribal per-capitalism has transmuted certain Indigenous peoples into casino enterprises. While Tribal gaming politicians wield per capita dollars to sustain their political prominence, Tribal members clamor for the individual distribution of those monies instead of Indigenous community reinvestment and revitalization.
These intra-Tribal dynamics create a race to the bottom with Tribal gaming politicians seeking to increase unearned per capita income by building new casinos and related amenities in the ancestral homelands of others. Meanwhile, the Obama and Biden administrations’ laissez faire approach to the generation and use of Tribal gaming dollars contributes to the erosion of Indigenous kinship systems. These forces create inter-Tribal division and weaken time-honored kinship alliances.
Unless inter-Tribal territorial and relational balance are restored, the divisions will only broaden and deepen, rendering Tribal nations ill-prepared to defend or preempt the next existential attack.
