California’s first governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett, openly championed a racist campaign in the mid-19th century, vowing it would not cease "until the Indian race becomes extinct." His brief two-year tenure, from 1849 to 1851, unleashed a brutal era marked by widespread malnutrition, rampant homicide, and forced migrations, precipitating a catastrophic decline in California’s Indigenous populations by nearly 90% between 1848 and 1900. This genocidal policy was not an isolated incident but rather a stark local manifestation of broader federal and territorial strategies across the nascent United States, often driven by the concept of Manifest Destiny and a relentless push for land acquisition. These policies, including the notorious Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the later Dawes Act of 1887, systematically aimed to dismantle tribal structures, sever cultural ties, and forcibly assimilate Native peoples, denying their inherent sovereignty and communal land rights.

Despite these devastating campaigns, the resilience of California’s Indigenous people proved enduring. Burnett’s genocidal vision ultimately failed; the Native nations survived, preserving their cultures, languages, and identities against immense odds. A pivotal moment arrived in 1905 when the United States government publicly disclosed the existence of 18 unratified treaties it had negotiated with various California tribes decades earlier. These treaties, never formally ratified by the U.S. Senate, had left Indigenous communities in a legal and economic limbo, often dispossessed of their ancestral lands without due compensation or recognition of their inherent rights. The public revelation sparked a fervent movement among tribes to assert their long-denied sovereignty, catalyzing the construction of robust legal and economic frameworks designed to reclaim self-determination.

This long struggle for self-governance gained significant momentum with the enactment of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) in 1988. This landmark federal legislation established a comprehensive regulatory framework for gaming on Indian lands, explicitly recognizing tribal governments’ inherent authority to regulate such activities rather than granting a new right. IGRA emerged directly from pivotal Supreme Court rulings, most notably California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians (1987), which affirmed that states generally lacked the authority to prohibit gaming on tribal lands if that type of gaming was otherwise permitted by the state for any purpose. This decision solidified tribal sovereign immunity and opened the door for tribes to pursue gaming as a vital path to economic development. Consequently, small casinos began to sprout on reservations in states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Southern California, quickly expanding nationwide. These tribal resorts, far more than mere entertainment venues, have since become powerful engines of economic prosperity, directly fueling the ongoing struggle for tribal sovereignty and self-sufficiency across Indian Country.

The profound and multifaceted impact of this burgeoning industry on Indigenous communities has recently been illuminated by a comprehensive study from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Project on Indigenous Governance and Development. This insightful report delves into how tribal gaming has become a crucial mechanism for tribes to acquire both economic and political capital, fundamentally altering their socio-economic landscape. Penned by a distinguished team of Indigenous researchers—Randall Akee (Native Hawaiian), Elijah Moreno (Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation), and Amy Besaw Medford (Brothertown)—the study challenges conventional understandings of the industry’s reach.

"In reality, nearly every tribe is impacted by gaming in some capacity, whether directly or indirectly," the authors assert, highlighting a pervasive influence often underestimated by prior research. They argue that "past studies on American Indian gaming likely understate its impact, as nearly every tribe in the U.S. may be exposed to various aspects of the industry whether they directly operate a casino themselves or not." This broad exposure includes everything from direct revenue generation to employment opportunities, infrastructure development, and the ripple effects on surrounding regional economies, underscoring gaming’s integral role in contemporary Indigenous life.

The sheer scale of tribal gaming underscores its economic significance. Last year alone, tribes reported a staggering $43.9 billion to the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), representing nearly 40% of the nation’s total $115 billion in gaming revenue, according to the American Gaming Association. This