Bureau of Casino Affairs

If your summer vacation included a spot of gambling, chances are you found yourself in Indian country. Chances also are that you didn't encounter many Indians, which is just one of the embarrassments about U.S. Indian affairs that Congress is finally noticing.

Take the $16 million casino that opened this summer on the Augustine Indian Reservation, 130 miles east of Los Angeles. The Augustine Band of Mission Indians has all of eight members. But its new casino, run by a Las Vegas company, has 349 slot machines and 10 card tables.

The Augustine "tribe," if that's the right word, is only one of many to take advantage of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to cash in on casino riches. That law made it easier for federal authorities to recognize tribes, which now means any group with the right combination of Indian blood and political connections to convince the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Congress is finally figuring out that this process has become a recipe for political abuse, and the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs will hold hearings on tribal recognition this month.

The immediate spur is several controversial BIA decisions this summer. In one case, the bureaucracy upheld a Clinton-era decision granting recognition to the Eastern Pequot and Paucatuck of Connecticut, even though BIA historians had shown they didn't qualify. This no doubt pleases one Paucatuck backer, that noted defender of Native American values Donald Trump, who is waiting to build another gambling palace. Also glowing is GOP lobbyist Ronald Kaufman, who was paid $500,000 to lobby for the Eastern Pequot.

The BIA showed more backbone in a second case, stripping the Chinook and Duwamish Indians in Washington state of "tribal" status they'd been granted in Bill Clinton's final days (the Indian version of Presidential pardons). The Chinook Indians own less than an acre of land today, and only a few hundred people now claim to be Duwamish.

Both the Connecticut and Washington decisions were issued by top Clinton officials who now work as lawyers for firms representing Indian casino interests. Earlier this year the Interior Department's Inspector General called the circumstances surrounding those decisions "highly unusual," which is putting it mildly.

But the problem is much bigger than tribal recognition. Federal handling of Indian affairs has been a disgrace for generations, and casinos have been a perhaps understandable response. A group of Indian leaders recently explained to us that casinos have brought a degree of pride and economic self-sufficiency to some tribes, contributing to the building of roads, schools, museums and health-care clinics.

On the other hand, the benefits aren't all that widespread. The latest Census figures show that most Native Americans remain mired in poverty, and other studies suggest little progress in raising education and health standards. The impact of gambling on the social fabric, including the dangers posed by organized crime, is another concern. Our own reporting has shown the powerful influence of politics and non-Indian developers on tribal recognition and casino deals. These concerns are shared by many Indian leaders, such as those in the Navajo Nation, the largest American Indian tribe, which has resisted the lure of gambling on its lands.

The irony is that the stronger casino interests become politically, spreading their dollars around Congress and statehouses, the more they're able to stop any serious look at these broader Indian issues. Virginia Representative Frank Wolf recently proposed a study on the state of the American Indian in the 21st century, casinos included. His idea was killed by pro-casino Members who feared an anti-gambling motive. But gambling and tribal recognition were only part of a much larger inspection that Mr. Wolf wants undertaken, including health, economic and education standards in Indian country.

Federal policy toward the Indian community has long been a failed exercise in social engineering. Indian casinos don't strike us a miracle solution, except for the gambling interests who'll get rich. Mr. Wolf's proposed survey would provide the basis for an informed national debate.