Opinion: Tribes need to expand economies beyond gaming

So Gov. Cuomo is “regularizing” long-stressed relations with the Oneida and Seneca Indian tribes in New York, coming to agreements in particular on state revenues from Indian casinos. Meanwhile, he’s making progress in his drive to end the Indian monopoly on the casino industry in New York; his latest plan calls for four new non-Indian casinos upstate.

Maybe it’s time for the tribal leaders (and non-tribal ones, actually) to start thinking about what real economic development looks like.

It’s true that Cuomo promises to leave a buffer zone around the reservations to minimize competition for the Indians. But that will never solve the long-term questions for Native Americans both here and around the country.

Unemployment, poverty, alcoholism, drug use, child neglect, sexual abuse — all run far higher on reservations than in the rest of the country.