Facebook Twitter Email
THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2002

"When I was a child growing up in central New Mexico, we used to pass Isleta Pueblo on our way to Albuquerque. I had no idea we were passing through tribal land. As a child, the only thing I could tell you about American Indians is that they danced and sang and baked bread. They were a paradox, outsiders in a place they had lived for centuries before we came along, part of the background to which I, to my shame, never paid much attention.

That could not happen today. Isleta's casino lights up the sky south of Albuquerque. The lush green of its golf course stands out in a land where brown dominates. Pojaque is planning its third casino as part of a 400-room hotel resort.

Those neon signs blaring into the night sky send the same message as that sprawling case file here in Denver: We are still here and we're not going anywhere."

Get the Story:
Casino case illustrates Indians' power struggle (The Denver Post 1/23)