Pubdate: Tue, 23 Dec 2014
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
Copyright: 2014 Associated Press
Contact:  http://newsminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764

TRIBES TREAD CAREFULLY INTO MARIJUANA DISCUSSIONS

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - The Navajo Nation had bitter debates when it was 
deciding whether to allow casinos on the reservation and if alcohol 
should be sold in them. The arguments focused on the revenue and jobs 
casinos and liquor could bring to a reservation where half the 
workforce is unemployed and most arrests and pervasive social ills 
are linked to alcohol abuse.

When the federal government announced this month that it would allow 
American Indian tribes to grow and sell marijuana, the same divisive 
discussions resurfaced. The tribal president's office talked of 
expanding crops to include pot for medicinal but not recreational 
use, while a tribal lawmaker quickly declared his opposition.

"Criminal activity is just going to go up more, and drug addiction is 
going to go up more, and everyone is going to be affected," said 
Edmund Yazzie, head of the Navajo Nation Council's Law and Order Committee.

The split reaction among Navajo leaders reflects divisions on 
reservations around the country. While the Navajo and a number of 
other tribes ultimately ventured into the casino business, many say 
they're inclined to avoid marijuana as a potential revenue booster 
amid deep sensitivity over rampant alcoholism, poverty, crime and 
joblessness on tribal lands.

Marijuana isn't tied to tribal culture, like tobacco commonly used in 
religious ceremonies, and any pot growing operation would run counter 
to the message that tribes have preached for decades that drugs and 
alcohol ruin lives, said Carl Artman, former U.S. Bureau of Indian 
Affairs assistant secretary and member of the Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin.

"When you look at what tribes have to offer - from gaming to 
ecotourism to looking out over the Grand Canyon, just bringing people 
out on the reservation for art or culture - this is not one of the 
things they would normally want," Artman said. "It hearkens back to 
something that's archaic and stereotypical as opposed to what the 
modern day Indian is about."

But it has piqued the interest of some of the country's 566 federally 
recognized tribes, including tribes in Washington, the Dakotas, 
Connecticut and Colorado, as well as the Navajo Nation, which 
stretches into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona.

Lance Morgan, a member of the Winnebago Tribe who manages an Indian 
law firm in Nebraska, said he's had about a dozen requests from 
tribes looking for a legal framework for getting into the marijuana 
business. The overall poverty rate for American Indian and Alaska 
Natives in 2010 was 28 percent, according to Census data, but it can 
be much greater in individual tribal communities.

"It's something everyone is talking about," he said.

But he said tribes are treading carefully and believes most of them 
will decide against getting into the marijuana business.

Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux in North 
Dakota and South Dakota, said his tribe might consider cultivating 
marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin, hemp, but the federal government 
would have to allow interstate transport for it to be a profitable 
venture. Hemp is used to make clothing, lotion and other products, 
but growing it is illegal under federal law.

"We've always thought we had the sovereign right" to grow marijuana, 
Archambault said. "But once you try to transport it interstate, 
federal law discourages it."

In Colorado and Washington state, which legalized recreational pot in 
2012, some tribes got a head start on talks about marijuana sales.

The 1,100-member Suquamish Tribe near Seattle began considering the 
potential business opportunities in April. But Washington's liquor 
board, which regulates pot sales, initially said it wouldn't grant 
the tribe a license until federal officials clarified their position 
regarding pot on reservations.

Liquor board spokesman Brian Smith said the state will revisit the 
issue in light of the U.S. Justice Department's new policy.

North of Seattle, the Tulalip Tribe has voted to pursue discussions 
on allowing medical marijuana, tribal spokeswoman Niki Cleary said. 
The tribe's values have been evolving, she said, noting even a vote 
on medical pot would have resulted in an automatic "no" in the past.

The owner of one of the country's largest resort casinos, the Mohegan 
Tribe in Connecticut, didn't rule it out either. Spokesman Chuck 
Bunnell said the tribe is looking at opportunities to expand into new 
markets that would not jeopardize any current investments.

While the Justice Department provided a path for tribes to grow and 
sell marijuana, federal officials cautioned that they won't allow all 
tribal members to start pot businesses. Montana U.S. Attorney Mike 
Cotter, who helped craft the agency's policy, said federal law 
enforcement would respond if a tribal pot industry became linked with 
organized criminal elements, firearms, sales to minors or similar 
abuses - the same federal conditions laid out for states that have 
legalized the drug.

Among the questions tribes still have regarding the industry is 
whether limits would be placed on how much marijuana could be grown 
and sold, whether it can be transported off reservations and if taxes apply.

Yazzie, of the Navajo Nation law enforcement panel, said he would 
push his colleagues to say no to any marijuana sales or growth on the 
vast reservation.

He was among the most vocal lawmakers when the Tribal Council was 
deciding whether to allow alcohol at the tribe's first casino in New 
Mexico. He questioned his colleagues on whether money was more 
important than human life, considering most arrests for major 
incidents on the reservation involve alcohol.

The bill was decided by two votes in 2008 making casinos and a lake 
marina the only exceptions for alcohol sales and consumption on the 
otherwise dry reservation. Navajos twice voted against gambling on 
the reservation before approving it in 2004.

"What is going on?" Yazzie said. "We're having bad issue problems 
with alcohol, and now if we legalize marijuana, it's just another fight."

Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Associated Press writers 
Eugene Johnson in Seattle, Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, North Dakota, 
and Michael Melia in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom