Return of the Buffalo

A small, poverty-stricken California Indian Tribe, the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, successfully fought a long legal battle for the right to operate the business of their choice on their barren reservation—a gambling casino. This is their story, the authorized history of their epic struggle, climaxing with their victory in a 1987 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, the now-famous Cabazon Decision. Their defeated opponents included California's City of Indio and County of Riverside (called one of the most racist in the U.S. by a non-Indian resident) as well as California and 29 other states that joined California's appeal.

This is also the fascinating story of the role played by a white family and its radical, socialist patriarch that helped create one of the world's most capital-intensive industries and triggered today's Indian Gaming Explosion throughout America. Hundreds of hours of taped interviews and years of documents, meeting records, and official correspondence are analyzed to give the reader a clear picture of the impact of this new massive capital on tribal life and the development of a possible future without gambling—as officials in league with Nevada and Atlantic City gambling interests continue their efforts to destroy Indian gaming. The Buffalo, literal and symbolic figure of earlier Indian financial independence, has returned in a new form—cash cow casinos.