Indian (Gaming) Country

Land claims news of an entirely different sort. Surely the gaming economy that has developed in California over the course of the last two decades would have been impossible for an earlier generation of activists to envision, though I find it hard to believe that any of them would be surprised to learn that the gaming landscape is just as inhabited by non-Native stakeholders as was the claims-scape of mid-20th century California. The land claims opportunities and cases enabled by the California Indians Jurisdictional (CIJA) and the Indian Claims Commission (ICC) Acts were no less complicated in their historical origins, legislative logic, and political contentiousness than those making headlines today. Perhaps the key difference is that during the mid-20th century, there was no hope for the actual re-claiming of any land.