More than 500 people attended the Tribal Governance Symposium: Compacts, Contracts and Agreements which has held in March, 2001 at the University of Oklahoma. The main topic was gaming and speakers from across the states addressed issues ranging from jurisdiction to testimonials from groups involved in gaming in the state of Oklahoma. I would like to share the perspectives of one of the presenters, Kevin Gover. The rest of the relevant American material is covered extensively across the articles from Lessons of Research in this issue.
My purpose in writing this chapter is to reiterate briefly the overall thrust of the commission's work and to comment on the impact the report appears to be having after two years in the pub- lic domain. I would be presumptuous to claim that these few pages could provide a balanced synopsis of the five volumes and 3500 pages of the commission's report. My comments represent a perspective, much of it grounded in the words of the commission itself that is highly selective in emphasis.
Are Native peoples jumping on the gaming bandwagon without really considering the ulti- mate consequences to their communities? What of the rights of other communities that might be directly or indirectly affected by the decisions that we make today? Do we have the right to jeopardize the continued existence of other com- munities? Gaming compacts are complex and very difficult concepts for many people accept.
This article considers the costs and benefits of taxation in the operation of modern First Nation governments through a case study regarding the taxation of tobacco products on reserve.
This paper reviews the purpose, vision, and contents of the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, while exploring its potential impacts, economic and otherwise, on Aborignal peoples.