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AT THE SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON Sioux office in Prior Lake, Minn., the phone hasn't stopped ringing. And almost everyone has the same question: is this a tribe that will have me as a member?
The sudden enthusiasm is no mystery. Business at the Mdewakanton (pronounced bday-WAH-kan-toon) casino, south of Minneapolis, is booming. And, thanks to a recent power struggle on the reservation, local papers have been full of reports about just how much money the tribe is taking in. Last year gamblers wagered $500 million. Since the tiny tribe pays each member an equal share of the profit, every one of the 100 Mdewakantons got $400,000 in 1993 alone.
Not surprisingly, lots of people are claiming to have Indian relatives like that long-lost Mdewakanton aunt or grandfather. But many of these would-be Indians are non-Native Americans. ""We call them "wannabes','' says Rick Hill of the National Indian Gaming Association. ""But you just can't leap over and become an instant Indian.'' Tribe constitutions dictate membership conditions, such as a blood requirement (often 25 percent) or evidence that a member was born on the reservation. The applicants -- some of whom show up with forged documents -- bear the burden of proof.
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Mdewakanton isn't the only reservation fielding such calls, or bracing for a population burst. Tribes across the country are suddenly popular, not just with ersatz members but with pedigreed Native Americans who had left their communities years ago in search of better opportunities.
Now, for the first time, there's a good economic reason to return home to the reservation. Since 1979, 200 of the nation's 544 tribes have introduced gaming of some sort, and about 90 reservations feature the kind of casinos that bring in the big bucks. Reservations grossed about $5 billion in 1993. Only a handful of tribes dole out proceeds directly to members the way the Shakopee do, but even if proceeds are deposited in tribal coffers, members see huge benefits: better health care, subsidized mortgages, scholarships and, of course, jobs.
Despite the bureaucratic headache, certain officials see something positive in the gold rush. ""For so long Indians have been the lowest rung on the economic ladder,'' says Carl Shaw of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and reservations suffered a certain stigma. Now many reservations are alluring places to live -- for the people who belong there, and for quite a few who don't.
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