Just got back from a weekend stay at the casino, and someone asked if a lot of Native Americans worked there. Surprised, I thought back and had to say, no, I didn’t notice any, AFAIK. (I live near the rez, and I know what the Indians look like.) Why would the casino not hire their own people? I realize there are probably many many factors involved, but I had no answer for the eprson who asked me about it.
One would have to apply for the job. The casino doesn’t likely hire on racial status. As to whether a tribal Nation may or may not hire ONLY Native Americans, the issue is not as clear as one may think at first glance. There is the matter of sovereignty, so imposing federal protections would be similar in some ways to insisting that Germany follow a specific dictate. Typically not an issue though because the Nations don’t hire only Indians, or perhaps even predominantly Indians.
Most tribal enterprises I’m aware of actively try to hire tribal members specifically and natives generally. The tribal casinos I go to seem to hire a lot of Native Americans, and as least some of the dealers I talk to are from the same rez.
Native Tribes and Alaska Native Corporations are specifically exempted from the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964:
In* Preston v. Heckler*, the 9th Circuit found that “Congress [clearly] considers Indian [hiring] preferences to be an important element of federal Indian Policy.”
How much unemployment is on the reservation? If the casino makes disbursements of shares in the profits to tribe members, maybe they have other sources of income.
Last year here, there was a complaint that the Seneca Nation of Indians required Seneca contractors on a golf course that the Nation was building on non-reservation land. The Seneca hiring practices were upheld under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. see article for cite
So it appears that (1) if a native-owned company wanted to hire only Native Americans, that is legal (whether or not it is on native land), and (2) there are some Nations that do want to hire only or at least predominantly Native Americans, at least for some roles.
As for the OP, the linked article mentions that of the 3,500 employees at Seneca Niagara Casino, 200 are Seneca.
My impression, from sources I can’t possibly remember, is that some of the tribes that have casinos have earned so much money from the casinos that basically all of the tribe members are now rich enough that they don’t have to work at the casinos, so they hire non-tribe members to do the work.
I know someone in a Wisconsin one. Many of the Indians quit every time the quarterly disbursements arrive. They show back up when the money is spent. They all get a cut of the profits because of birth. Also when the Indians want to work the non Indians get laid off.
I’ve heard the exactly same thing. I’m pretty sure our local Chumash tribe makes on the order of several hundred thousand annually per tribal member. They are now very influential in the Santa Ynez Valley and are able to substantially influence zoning laws which causes a fair amount of conflict.
I never thought about it until I read this thread, but very few of the Indian casinos in the San Diego region appear to have Indian dealers or others of Indian descent working there.
My guess is that the white/black/Asian folks around the casino are either part Indian, or else they specifically recruited non-Indians so that there wasn’t an “us versus them” feeling in the casino. That is, I presume a black customer or Asian customer would feel less like he was being dealt bad cards or being duped by a member of their own race rather than an Indian, which would lead to more money being spent gambling, in the casino, etc., because it would seem less ‘foreign’.