In 1985 the Indians in Michigan decided to expand their bingo operations into full-scale casino gambling. The Chippewas began adding blackjack tables on their reservations, and state and federal authorities immediately stepped in to close them down. But to the astonishment of the government authorities, the Indians kept reopening the games. It had been quite a number of years since the feds had been fighting with Indians anywhere, and this was a development that had the authorities in a quagmire.
The Indians were claiming a legal right as sovereign nations, according to various treaties with the U.S. government, to operate casinos on their reservations. What’s more, the citizens of Michigan were supporting the Indians. They wanted to play blackjack. The state and federal cops realized they couldn’t arrest the players for gambling, since they didn’t have this kind of jurisdiction on Indian reservation lands, but they could not believe that the Indians had the right to just start opening casinos out in the Michigan woods! It was preposterous.
