University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Anthropology ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 7-1-2011 Against the Odds: Indian Gaming, Political Economy, and Identity on the Pala Indian Reservation Shasta Gaughen Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Gaughen, Shasta. "Against the Odds: Indian Gaming, Political Economy, and Identity on the Pala Indian Reservation." (2011). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds/26 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AGAINST THE ODDS: INDIAN GAMING, POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND IDENTITY ON THE PALA INDIAN RESERVATION by SHASTA CHRISTINA GAUGHEN B.A., Anthropology, Humboldt State University, 1996 B.S., Natural Resources Planning and Interpretation, Humboldt State University, 1996 M.A., Anthropology, San Diego State University, 2001 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July 2011 iii © 2011, Shasta Christina Gaughen iv DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated, with all my love, to my grandparents, George and Vivian Matheson. This is what you are getting instead of a great-grandchild! v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS How do you begin to acknowledge all of the people who are instrumental in producing a dissertation? I am afraid any attempt to name them all will accidentally neglect some people who should be included; therefore I will only name a few, and trust that everybody who has helped, listened, contributed, and tolerated this process know who they are and know that they have my gratitude. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the members of the Pala Band of Mission Indians. They have tolerated my presence, indulged my questions, forgiven my ignorance, welcomed me into their homes and lives, trusted me with their stories, and rewarded me with a position of responsibility within the tribal government. I would like to thank Cupa Cultural Center director and Vice Chairman Leroy H. Miranda Jr. for inviting me to Pala to conduct my research and for providing me with a job at the center. I am also grateful to Chairman Robert Smith and the Pala Executive Committee for approving my research. My friends and family have offered unwavering support for the dissertation process. My mother, Marsha Ruiz; father, Terry Gaughen; and sister, Hilary Gaughen have been endlessly patient and understanding. My boyfriend Mike Aguilar has shown remarkable love and support and has weathered the many emotional storms a project like this generates. Finally, my dissertation committee has provided more patience, guidance, and support than I rightfully deserve. Les Field, my advisor and committee chair, has been a rock. He has always been available to steer me in the right direction and share his keen insight. Carole Nagengast, Beverly Singer, and Jane Hill vi have challenged me to think in new ways with their invaluable suggestions. Thank you all. vii AGAINST THE ODDS: INDIAN GAMING, POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND IDENTITY ON THE PALA INDIAN RESERVATION by SHASTA CHRISTINA GAUGHEN B.A., Anthropology, Humboldt State University, 1996 B.S., Natural Resources Planning and Interpretation, Humboldt State University, 1996 M.A., Anthropology, San Diego State University, 2001 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July 2011 viii AGAINST THE ODDS: INDIAN GAMING, POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND IDENTITY ON THE PALA INDIAN RESERVATION by Shasta Christina Gaughen B.A., Anthropology, Humboldt State University, 1996 B.S., Natural Resources Planning and Interpretation, Humboldt State University, 1996 M.A., Anthropology, San Diego State University, 2001 ABSTRACT This dissertation explores how the introduction of Indian gaming has affected identity, culture, and political economy on the Pala Indian Reservation in San Diego County, California. I propose that the economic and political changes that have taken place at Pala since the Pala Casino opened in 2001 can be explored against a theoretical backdrop of how history, politics, and power have constituted and are constituting local categories of identity, belonging, and culture for the Pala Band of Mission Indians. The theoretical understanding of Indian gaming as a consequence of federal policies has contributed to my analysis of how the Pala casino has affected life on the reservation and for Pala’s tribal members. In the decade since the Pala casino opened, the Pala tribe has experienced a tremendous improvement in its ability to care for its people and plan for its future. Even more significantly, the financial opportunities and stability provided by the casino have allowed the tribe access to a level of political capital that is challenging and changing the dominant ideological structures of inequality ix that have been brought to bear against Indian people for centuries. Yet, this has not meant that the Pala band has strayed far from its traditional and cultural roots. The Pala Casino represents the most visible and successful example of the Pala tribe’s long-standing pattern of advocating for its own interests. The tribe’s financial success, far from weakening tribal identity, has instead served to strengthen and support the perpetuation of traditional cultural beliefs and practices, several of which I demonstrate throughout the dissertation. I conclude that if anything at Pala has changed, it is the increased level of scrutiny from outsiders and their attendant questions about tribal and cultural authenticity. The conjuncture of shifting goals for Indian policy, academic and institutional ideologies such as those perpetuated by anthropologists, public expectations, and the lived experience of Indians themselves has created the context within which Pala and other Indian peoples must struggle to assert their self-sufficiency and modernity while simultaneously defending the authenticity of their cultures. x TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. xi LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 Gaming at Pala: What has Changed? ............................................................. 4 California Indian Gaming in Context ................................................................ 7 Research at Pala: Anthropology in Context................................................... 12 Pala in Ethnographic Context ........................................................................ 24 Plan of the Dissertation ................................................................................. 32 Continuity and Change .................................................................................. 33 CHAPTER 2 CREATING “DOMESTIC DEPENDENT NATIONS”: THE HISTORY OF FEDERAL INDIAN POLICY ............................................................................... 36 Ideology, Hegemony, and Solving the Indian Problem .................................. 36 The History of Federal Indian Policy ............................................................. 48 Indian Removal and the Federal Trust Responsibility .............................. 49 Removal and Relocation: The Beginning of the Reservation System ...... 54 Assimilation, Allotment, and Extinction .................................................... 55 Indian Reorganization and Restoration .................................................... 59 Termination .............................................................................................. 62 Self-Determination ................................................................................... 65 Federal Policy and California Indians ............................................................ 66 California and the Reservation System .................................................... 69 The History of the Reservation at Pala .................................................... 72 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER 3 WE ARE THE PEOPLE FROM CUPA: HISTORY AND IDENTITY AT PALA .. 77 Pala History ................................................................................................... 80 Cupeño Origins ........................................................................................ 80 History Since Contact .............................................................................. 82 xi Losing Their Land .................................................................................... 85 Remembering History and Culture ................................................................ 93 New Pala and Old Pala ............................................................................... 103 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 105 CHAPTER 4 INDIAN GAMING AT PALA: DEVELOPMENT, POLITICS, AND POWER ..... 107 Indian