This was made crystal clear with the FBI's attempt to raid the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation's Fort McDowell Casino in Phoenix on a spring day in 1992. The Fort McDowell Tribe stood up against federal agents in 1992Įven after the Supreme Court greenlit tribal gaming in 1987 and Congress established the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, opposition by federal agencies remained. The expansive High Court decision, among other things, allowed tribes to operate legal casinos outside the purview of or taxation by federal, state, or local governments. An appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court failed, but the U.S. government should not have regulatory powers over tribes. In a class action suit, their attorneys argued that property on Indian lands should not be taxable and that the U.S. Unable to pay the tax and desperate to avoid foreclosure, the Bryans sued. A handful of public interest attorneys prevailed in the case, regarded by many as the most impactful event on the well-being of tribal members in decades. Itasca County began with a $29.85 tax bill levied on Chippewa couple Helen and Russell Bryan's trailer home on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Supreme Court case established the freedom of tribal governments to operate independently, a unanimous decision that permanently changed the gaming industry in America and the financial fortunes of countless Native Americans. Tribal gaming dates back to a 1970s court caseĪ 1976 U.S.
