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TRIBAL GAMBLE: THE SERIES

Day One, 12/10/00
Casino boom benefits non-Indians

The $800 million deal for outsiders at Mohegan Sun

Day Two, 12/11/00
Few tribes share in casino windfall

Gaming success helps tribe gain community acceptance

California tribes hit the jackpot with gaming vote

Day Three, 12/12/00
It's a war of genealogies

Lineage questions linger as gaming wealth grows

Tribes scramble to get into the game

Day Four, 12/13/00
Tribes make easy criminal targets

Trump plays both sides in casino bids

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Tribe is in debt $2m to backers

Records also detail fees to officials

By Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff, 6/8/2001

he group of Nipmuc Indians planning to build a world-class casino next to Interstate 84 in central Masschusetts is already $2 million in debt to non-Indian investors who are providing $800 per month for each member of the tribal council, according to interviews and documents.

The generous payments, which add up to $9,600 per year for each council member, have prompted some Nipmucs to question whether the investors have bought control of the council in order to further their own interests at the expense of the 1,650-member tribe.

In all, the investors are providing the 10-member council with $55,000 a month to fund various tribal council operations, including fees for themselves, according to documents furnished to the Globe by a council member who opposes the investors' pivotal role in tribal affairs and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Besides fees for council members, the investors are also covering the cost of an expensive Boston-based lobbyist, several lawyers, and an economic development adviser who gets $10,000 a month, according to the documents.

The money has been advanced to the council by Lakes Gaming Inc., one of the country's largest gaming companies. Lakes Gaming is apparently willing to invest in the Nipmuc project in the expectation of receiving a sizeable percentage of eventual casino profits.

''The Nipmuc people themselves don't have much to say in what's going on,'' said Ron Little Crow Henries, who resigned as council chairman in 1999. ''It's all being run by outsiders who want to capitalize on our status as Native Americans to open a gaming facility for themselves.''

Henries said that none of the councilors were elected; in fact, he said, there has never been an election for tribal council, even when he was a councilor and chairman.

The current board was organized as a committee of volunteers intent on gaining federal recognition as a tribe, he said, and never actively contemplated opening a casino until approached by outsiders, such as Guy Conrad, the former Boston public relations executive who is now acting as economic development adviser.

Because it was not elected, the current council is beyond its authority in making agreements concerning a casino, he said.

Henries, who showed documentation of his Nipmuc ancestry, said several members of the current council have declined to have their genealogies scrutinized. He said they are being ''protected and controlled'' by the investors.

Henries said the decision to become involved in gaming should be put to the Nipmuc people in a referendum. He said he objects to the tribe's fortunes being decided primarily by non-Indians.

''This seems to be a Guy Conrad show,'' said Henries, who continued to attend meetings even after he resigned as chairman over the question of control. ''Guy and his lawyers are calling all the shots, and he's dealing with people on the council who have not been elected.''

Conrad; Edward O'Sullivan, the lobbyist; and the Boston lawyers working for the council declined comment or did not return telephone calls yesterday. Neither did Walter Vickers, the chief of the tribe and a member of the council.

Representatives of Lakes Gaming, based in Minneapolis, also did not return calls.

Lakes Gaming and Nipmuc representatives are currently negotiating to buy about 300 acres of land in Sturbridge and Union, Conn., with the hope of opening a casino there that might rival the mammoth Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in southeastern Connecticut, according to the tribal council member.

The same tribal council member who provided the documents outlining the arrangement with Lakes Gaming said in an interview that details of the deal are not known even to council members.

A deal to build a casino in Sturbridge or just across the state line in Union may be comparable to the one that created Mohegan Sun, the casino run by the Mohegan tribe about 70 miles away in Montville, Conn. Investors who funded early Mohegan tribal operations, including salaries for councilors, will get an estimated $1 billion return on their investment.

The Nipmucs are already at least $2 million in debt, having accepted funding from other gaming interests prior to making the current deal with Lakes Gaming, according to the tribal council member. Whether the council or the tribe is liable for repayment to previous investors was uncertain, the council member said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs granted preliminary recognition to the Nipmucs in January, meaning that they have already cleared the most difficult obstacle in the long regulatory process for opening a casino.

However, Henries and other Nipmucs contend that the recognition was granted to a group controlled by casino investors and has no link in governance to the historical Nipmuc. In fact, the Bureau of Indian Affairs' professional historians and anthropologists agreed there was no such link and recommended against recognition.

But that decision was overturned by Michael J. Anderson, a political appointee, in the last hours of the Clinton administration. Anderson left his government post for a lucrative job as a lobbyist for tribal gaming interests.

Sean P. Murphy can be reached by email at [email protected].

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 6/8/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.