Hitting the jackpot : the inside story of the richest Indian tribe in history / Brett Duval Fromson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fromson, Brett Duval, 1955-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pequot Indians--Gambling.

Pequot Indians.

Pequot Indians--History.

Pequot Indians--Social conditions.

Gambling on Indian reservations--Connecticut--Ledyard.

Gambling on Indian reservations.

Casinos--Government policy--Connecticut--Ledyard.

Casinos.

Casinos--Government policy.

Social conditions.

History.

Ledyard (Conn.)--Economic conditions.

Ledyard (Conn.).

Connecticut--Ledyard.

Physical Description:

viii, 244 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, [2003]

Summary:

A bracing work of investigative journalism into the lucrative world of Indian casino gaming, the wheelings and dealings behind America's most controversial Indian tribe, and the highest-grossing casino in the world. In 1635, the first Puritans migrated from Massachusetts Bay to the colony of Connecticut. By 1637, Puritan settlers in Connecticut were at war with the Pequot Indian tribe. In retaliation for a Pequot raid, Captain John Mason led an assembled militia of English and Indian allies in a predawn attack on a Pequot fort that left over four hundred Pequots dead. Within two years, the Pequot tribe was all but extinguished, and it would remain that way for the next 350 years. In 1973, the last remaining descendant of the Pequots to live on the tribal reservation, Elizabeth George Plouffe, passed away, but not before imparting advice to her grandson Richard "Skip" Haywood: "Hold on to the land." These words would instigate a thirty-year legal and political drama that would lead Hayward and his relatives to re-create the Pequot tribe and become the richest Indians in history. How it happened is the subject of Brett Duval Fromson's Hitting the Jackpot. The culmination of a three-year investigation, Fromson's book uncovers a labyrinthine tale of legal maneuverings, back-room political dealings, and ethnic reinvention. Fromson details the step-by-step process by which today's Pequots gained tribal recognition, hired top lawyers to claim thousands of acres of land, exploited a state law meant for church yard sales to gain the right to open Foxwoods, now a $1.2 billion-a-year operation, and distilled the barest traces of Pequot lineage into a full-fledged tribe with over six hundred tribalmembers, a yearly powwow that offers the biggest cash prizes in America, and a $250 million museum, one of the costliest in American history. As controversy over Indian casino gambling sweeps across the United States, Hitting the Jackpot reveals the true story of how the Mashantucket Pequots of Connecticut became the richest Indian tribe in history.

Contents:

1 Defeat and Decay 1

2 Reinvention 19

3 Tnt 29

4 Land Claim 37

5 Houses 43

6 Negotiations 49

7 Development 55

8 Settlement 59

9 Bingo! 73

10 The Lawyer and the Builder 77

11 Financing 83

12 Second-Class Pequots 91

13 The Compact 101

14 Weicker 109

15 Las Vegas Nights 115

16 The Malaysians 121

17 Foxwoods 129

18 Annexation 141

19 Dividing the Spoils 149

20 Spending Spree 161

21 Schemitzun 173

22 Museum 177

23 Growing Pains 191

24 Crisis 201

25 Abuse 211

26 The Dream 219.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [227]-242).

ISBN:

0871139049

OCLC:

52216259