North Carolina Indian Tribe Nabbed for Illegal Gambling?
Native American Indian Tribes officially recognized by the federal government have revolutionized the real money casino gambling industry all across the United States over the past few decades. Legal land-based casinos have helped to revitalize any number of recognized Indian reservations while adding tax revenue to the federal government’s coffers.
A local ABC affiliate in North Carolina , News 15 recently reported a story about a state Indian tribe that decided to skip the process of federal and even state recognition to open their own real money casinos. The Tuscarora Nation has been officially recognized in New York for years, but its designation as a Native American Tribe much further down the East Coast in North Carolina has never taken place.
Why Was The North Carolina Indian Tribe Nabbed for Illegal Gambling?
Sstute Synthesis president Benjamin Byrne was quoted as saying, “They don’t have any sort of reservation land or any tribal courts that they can call upon as recognized tribes are able to do.” This means that without federal recognition the tribe’s land is still under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement.
Byrne went onto add, “The government recognizes the people falling under the jurisdiction of law enforcement, be that local state or federal, and that they have to follow all the rules as you and I.”
These statements were released following a year-long multi-agency investigation in Robeson County, NC. that led to the recent arrest of 26 members of the Tuscarora Nation. They were alleged to be involved in the operation of three illegal casinos that were open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Unlicensed and heavily armed security monitored slot machine and other gambling activities at the three facilities.
In another direct quote by Byrne included in the News 15 report, he noted “They ( the NC Tuscarora tribe) consider the government of the United States and local state governments to be illegitimate. They will create their own law enforcement court system.” He added, “Until they’re recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs or by the North Carolina State Government, they are citizens like anyone else.”
Cherokee Tribe in North Carolina is recognized on both the state and federal level?
Tribes that have been recognized by the federal government do have the right to create their own laws as well as enforce them on sovereign land. The Cherokee Tribe in North Carolina is recognized on both the state and federal level. Byrne added, “Much like the Cherokee in the western part of the state, there’s a tribal court, there’s a tribal law enforcement.”
As far as gambling in general in North Carolina, slot games and other types of video gambling machines are illegal.
The current law states, “It is illegal to operate any slot machine or device where the user may become entitled to receive any money, credit, allowance, or any thing of value. A slot machine is a device where players insert coins, slugs, or tokens and the game of chance may result in winning money or something of value.”
Also deemed illegal by state law is the manufacturing, storing, renting or leasing of slot machines or other devices that could be used for gambling. This law went into effect in July of 2007 according to this news report. The problem with the Tuscarora Nation seems to be that they don’t have any actual land for an Indian reservation. The tribe in this article refers to the Tuscarora Nation Native American Indian Tribe in The Southern United States of America. We want to give you an overview of them as they migrated from the Northern United States and even Ontario Canada.
First of all, Tuscarora means Shirt-Wearing People and hemp gatherers and is pronounced Tuscarora Skarù:ręˀ. This Native American Indian Tribe is the first nation bands government of the Iroquoian-language family. As we said, they are located in South Eastern parts of the United States like South Carolina(where these folks were arrested). However, The Tuscarora Nation Native Amerian Indian Tribe has people in New York and in Ontario. It appears that this tribe coalesced their people around the Great Lakes around the time with the Five Nations Iroquoian-speaking and the historic Iroquois Confederacy rose up.
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