Customer Reviews

Hitting the Jackpot: The Inside Story of the Richest Indian Tribe in History

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I was 80 pages into this book the first time I picked it up. And I don't even like gambling! While seemingly a factual account of the creation of the Foxwoods casino, Fromson's book is also superb America story. It opens with a historic battle -- very interesting -- and Fromson cleverly utilizes the sordid legal trail this is America's relationship with its indigenous people, as a way to trace how Foxwoods came to be. In fact, what is ultimately a story behind the best payoff in history -- nearly vanished Conn.-based Indian tribe cashes in to the tune of billions -- is also a document that testifies to social and cultural issues. While it is a must read for those interested in gambling, it is absolutely a must read for lawyers (due to the superb tracing of Foxwood's legal right to exist) as well those interested in American history and Native Americans. I'd advise college professors to give the book a whirl in the classroom. Given Fromson's financial writing background, this book is best describe as being in the genre of Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker/Moneyball). Factual history made interesting thanks to superb storytelling skills from the author.

"Hitting The Jackpot" is not just a great read but a real eye-opener about the reality of some Indian tribes. I had no idea that tribes like the Pequots existed -- most tribal members with 1/64th to 1/128th Pequot blood at best and no living culture! This book is a real corrective to the sterotypical perception of tribes today. I just read it and urge everyone --Indian and non-Indian -- who cares about gambling and tribes to pick up a copy.

Since I live in Connecticut -- I first heard Fromson on Colin McEnroe's radio show on WTIC -- and subscribe to The Hartford Courant, I read the absurd attack on the book by the head lobbyist from the Indian casino tribes that someone from Oklahoma -- most likely another Indian casino lobbyist -- has posted on this site. Well, here's what the author said in reply in last Saturday's Courant. I thought it explained really well the real agenda behind the casino lobby's attack on this work of investigative journalism.

Here's what the author wrote in reply in The Courant last Saturday:

I am the author of "Hitting The Jackpot: The Inside Story of the Richest Indian Tribe in History," which tells the remarkable story of the reinvention of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the creation of Foxwoods casino.

My book is the first to take readers inside a casino tribe, show the gritty reality of such groups and reveal how they are created.

Based on exclusive interviews with tribal members, confidential documents and interviews with key governmental and tribal advisers and leaders, "Hitting The Jackpot" raises serious questions about the proliferation of casino tribes with massive gambling operations in urban and suburban America.

"Hitting The Jackpot" has received uniformly favorable reviews from the mainstream press, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Courant.

Why, then, is an attack on my book published as an op-ed in this newspaper by Ernest L. Stevens Jr., chairman of the National Indian Gaming Association in Washington and a member of the Oneida Indian tribe [Feb. 15, "Resilient Pequots Should Be Applauded, Not Criticized"]?

Stevens does not question a single fact in my book, yet he calls it "a vicious and racist attack on American Indian identity in the 21st century." Nothing could be further from the truth.

As one Pequot tribal leader wrote me in a letter dated Dec. 5, 2003, "Thanks for your honesty and effort with this book."

A second Pequot, the matriarch of another tribal family, telephoned to say how much she appreciated the book and to thank me for "telling the truth."

In truth, the Indian gambling lobby attack stems from the attention my book has attracted wherever Indian casinos are popping up.

That is unacceptable to lobbyists like Stevens, who are paid to protect these lucrative gambling franchises.

Such people try to pre-empt debate by cynically playing the race card.

They seek to impugn the motives of anyone independently investigating casino tribes, Indian gambling and the social costs imposed on the public.

They do not want to be held accountable. They do not want the citizenry to be better informed about this special interest and how it often works contrary to the public interest.

Brett D. Fromson, Salisbury

Nuff said!

As a local and semi-frequent guest to Foxwoods I had to read this book. I couldn't put it down. Fromson realy makes you feel the emotion that is evoked from this true life account of the rise of the Mashantuckets from their near extinction. You feel excited for Skip when he wins (with great luck I might add) all of the legal battles, and you feel anger at how the "minority majority" handled their new wealth. I can definately say that I have a new outlook on the Mashantuckets...this book draws you in, makes you want to know more. Well written, and a must read for anyone who lives in CT (especially SE CT) or has heard of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

A good book on a fascinating subject. One of the things I got from this case history is that a few committed bureaucrats and lawyers can massage the system in such a way as to turn a couple hundred folks with a very tenuous link to the First Nations into fairly powerful and semi-rich people.

I feel that the First Nations were the victims of a massive injustice and deserve any break they can get. What shocks me is that the Pequots who run Foxwoods are raking it in without really being victims of anything.

Anyway, a fascinating book told in a pedestrian style. But one of the sloppiest editing jobs I've ever seen. Typos and repeated phrases are inexcusable in a pricey hardcover release.

Hitting the Jackpot is an extraordinary tale, expertly pieced together and wonderfully told by Brett Fromson. How is it that one man, a bit of a boozer and adrift in his own life, could seize on his memories of his difficult grandmother - an irascible old woman, one-eighth Pequot Indian - and her possession of and passion for a nearly forgotten piece of land in Connecticut and, over a period of 20 years, lay legal claim to that small reservation, expand it, attract a motley group of distant relatives and friends to it, and in the process create a modern day Indian tribe and enormously successful gambling enterprise - Foxwoods - all out of thin air? Skip Hayward, working with idealistic but also brilliant lawyers, turned his gossamer-thin Pequot legacy into a uniquely American success story.
In effect and thanks to the skill of their lawyers, Hayward and his relatives pulled a fast one. This was an artful manipulation, a slight of hand (made possible in part by 100 years of baked-in guilt over the American Indian experience) visited upon indifferent bureaucrats and contribution-seeking but inattentive politicians. Hayward, singular in his drive, creates a new Pequot tribe as a means to an end - to secure the land and develop a business. The members of this new tribe - many of them raised in the inner city and surprised to learn that they are "Indian," - migrate to the reservation on the promise of free housing and easy money.
Little is known about the original Pequot Indians. There is no inherited culture, no Pequot songs or dances passed down through the generations. One of the most telling moments in the book comes when members of the tribe are visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii and are asked to sing a traditional Pequot song. Fromson writes, "Instead, they sang "You are My Sunshine;" it was the only song everyone knew."
In the end, the Pequot tribal members are simply lottery winners who draw down huge sums of money but live aimless, dependent lives. It is an improbable story, a quintessentially American tale that is notable both for what Hayward and the lawyers accomplished and for the ultimate emptiness of that considerable achievement. As one tribal member says, "This tribe was brought together by money....Money is what this tribe is about. Let's face it. That is the reality. We are here because of the money. I am here because of the money. My family is here because of the money. That is what this tribe is about."
Brett Fromson has written a terrific, compelling story. Hitting the Jackpot is a fascinating read; it is also a sobering reminder to be careful what you wish for. While the fabulously successful enterprise that is Foxwoods - and the riches it has bestowed on this accidental band of Americans - looks an awful lot like the American Dream come true, one gets the sense that in this story we are not far, in fact, from the Trail of Tears.

The rights and the plight of Native Americans have gathered a lot of public interest in the last two decades. But the growing prominence of Native American Indians has turned into a two edged sword in Connecticut.

On the one hand, Indians are getting some long overdue justice. On the other hand, with the help of murky financial backers and questionable politicians, many American Indian tribes have turned to gambling to help them achieve the American dream. The result is not a pretty picture.

Brett Fromson, a former Washington Post journalist with roots in Connecticut, is the latest to tell the story of the Mashantucket Pequots, one of the most successful Indian tribes in North America. Foxwoods, the Mashantucket Pequot casino in southeastern Connecticut has grown into one of the largest gambling establishments in the world.

Alas the story, as Fromson recounts it, is a nightmare. In his book, Hitting the Jackpot--the Inside Story of the Richest Indian Tribe in History (Atlantic Monthly Press), Fromson describes how the Mashantucket Pequots evolved from a single descendant-- Eliza George, a frail old woman who lived alone on the remnants of a tiny reservation in Ledyard, Connecticut--into a sovereign tribe that had the backing of Connecticut politicians and Arab and Malaysian investors.

Fromson's book reads like an indictment. He describes how the pervasive influence of money essentially corrupted an Indian tribe that had questionable historical origins to begin with. He tells how the Mashantucket Pequots and their backers flaunted the regulations under which the federal government is supposed to protect the interests of Native Americans.

And, in an author's talk that he gave at the Kent Memorial Library on February 29, Fromson charged that the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of Interior has evolved from an agency overseeing Indian affairs into a "corrupt" lobbying arm of Native American Indian tribes.

"I think there is a (need) for the BIA to be challenged," Fromson said in his talk at the Library. "I think you have a bunch of hacks who are in the pockets of the tribes. There is no accountability, and where there is no accountability, there is always an opportunity for corruption."

Most Americans believe that Indians got the short end of the stick in the first 300 years of American history. In the tradition of fair play that characterizes the American psyche, a large part of the American public believes the Indians should be given certain advantages to compensate them for the injustices they faced.

But does that mean that remnant tribes or families with sometimes dubious Indian heritage should be elevated to a rarified sovereign status that allows them to live under a separate set of laws from the rest of the American citizens?

Fromson writes that a system that was developed to help the Indians has been corrupted by lawyers, business developers and foreign money. The Mashantucket Pequots initially applied for recognition following federal guidelines, but the lawyers, with the help of Connecticut elected representatives (principally then Sen. Lowell Weicker and Rep. Sam Gejdenson), skirted the BIA guidelines and won federal recognition through an act of Congress. Fromson contends that the lawyers intentionally avoided the BIA process because the Mashantucket Pequots could not have met the BIA guidelines for federal recognition.

So Congress was persuaded by old fashioned political horse trading to give the Mashantucket Pequots federal recognition-- and that political coup started a process under which the Mashantucket Pequots built a gambling empire. First an Arab bank put up $6 million to create an elaborate bingo parlor, and then a wealthy Chinese businessman from Malaysia, Lim Goh Tong, was persuaded to invest $60 million (under very favorable terms, including a percentage of revenue and the profits) to construct a huge casino on the Mashantucket reservation.

The rest was history. Foxwoods came into being, and the Mashantucket Pequots soon became rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Yet for the most part true happiness eludes the Indians. Intra-tribal feuds, some of them with racial overtones, have roiled the tribe. Skip Haywood, the grandson of Eliza George, who spearheaded the rise of the Mashantucket Pequots (with the help from two lawyers from Maine), was voted out as Chairman of the tribe, to be replaced by Kenny Reels, a black "Pequot" from Rhode Island, who himself has since been replaced.

Members of the tribe who lived on the reservation were more concerned with their annual "incentive" awards and their BMW and Mercedes automobiles than with maintaining their culture, according to Fromson; many tribal youths were into drugs; violence broke out on the reservation, and the Connecticut State Police were told to stay off the reservation.

Moreover, the Mashantucket Pequot culture does not really exist, according to Fromson. He describes how a huge $250 million museum was built at Foxwoods to celebrate the Mashantucket Pequot culture, but there is little Pequot culture in the museum. Rather the artifacts and exhibits were drawn from all over the Northeast (and beyond) and, at best, the museum celebrates the public perception of the North American Indian culture.

Indeed, Fromson questions whether the current Mashantucket Pequot "tribe" is, in fact, an American Indian tribe.

"We are the first tribe in American history to be formed around money," says Bruce Kirchner who is a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, as reported in the book.

Writes Fromson:

"There has been considerable public skepticism about the genealogical authenticity of today's Pequots. Writers have alleged that none of them descend from the original Pequots. These questions cannot be answered with complete certainty without an independent genealogical investigation and today's tribe will not allow such an inquiry for both political and privacy reasons." Fromson himself questions whether the Pequots could demonstrate any tribal characteristics: In one of the rare moments of humor in the book, the author describes how, when tribal representatives were asked at a Native American gathering to sing a Pequot song, they sang "You Are My Sunshine" because it was the only song all of them knew.

Fromson's book is not the first about the Mashantucket Pequots. The first book about the development of gambling in southeast Connecticut was Without Reservation, by Jeff Benedict, published in 2000. Revenge of the Pequots--How a Small Native American Tribe Created the World's Most Profitable Casino, by Kim Isaac Eisler, was published in 2001. Now we have Fromson's version of the history. All three books, in their own way, describe the same events, each with their own unique perspective.

All three books also point out how destructive the evolution of Indian gambling casinos has been on the cultural and social structure of Southeast Connecticut. Where once there was a placid, rural environment, there is now a huge tourism industry, complete with huge traffic jams, crime and drug trafficking.

Moreover, with their new found riches, the Indians have tried to buy up land and attach it to their original reservations. Fromson describes one incident where the Mashantucket Pequots were not successful in this regard, but he warns that they will probably be ultimately successful in expanding their reservation.

Fromson's book is an instructive book, especially for the people of Kent and Northwest Connecticut. In this regard, Fromson is the first to make the link between the Schaghticokes in Kent and the other Indian tribes in Connecticut. As Fromson relates it, the Indian movement was sparked in the early 1970's when the head of the Schaghticokes, Irving Harris, tried to organize the Connecticut Indians. Harris was not successful, but he did bring the plight of the Indians to the attention of the United Auto Workers Union, who took up the Indian cause.

In January of this year, the BIA gave recognition to the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation--despite gaps in its political and historical culture. Like the Pequots there are intra-tribal feuds within the Schaghticoke Indians, and like the Pequots, the Schaghticokes have plans to develop a casino--somewhere in western Connecticut, if they can find a community that wants a casino. Bridgeport and Waterbury are considered the most likely candidates for a Schaghticoke casino.

There is an axiom that says the past is prologue. Let's hope that the recent past history of the Mashantucket Pequots is not the prologue to the development of the Schaghticoke Indians here in the Northwest Corner.

Contrary to the assertions of its paid detractors, this book documents the destruction of the original Mashantucket Pequots, and illustrates their replacement with a "tribe" of people who would fail genetic testing to determine whether they had any Indian blood in them whatsoever. After documenting Mashantucket Pequot history, it tells the modern story of Skip Hayward, and how he conspired with a cabal of lawyers and lobbyists to establish Tribal Gaming in on the Mashantucket Pequot reservation in Connecticut. It documents how Hayward illicitly increased the tribal roles (with non-Indians) in order to obtain federal recognition, with the ultimate goal of establishing Tribal Gaming and striking it rich. It also tells the tragic tale of how the very non-Indians whom Hayward invited into the tribe ultimately turned the tables on Hayward and his family, driving them from leadership of the tribal council, and the abuses the new "tribe" engaged in. "Hitting the Jackpot" is a cautionary tale not only to the people of Connecticut and their politicians, but also to American Indians throughout the country who would pursue Tribal Gaming as a way to become rich. This is an excellent read and is highly recommended.

Brett Fromson's book "Running and Fighting" led me to this book, "Hitting The Jackpot". I had picked up "Running and Fighting" at a garage sale. After reading Fromson's style and research, I wanted to know more about his writings. "Hitting the Jackpot" reveals what many of us think about the condition of our government. When one committee or department is unable to collaborate with another, the process becomes useless. Strong personalities can toss major justices aside and the total good to a country is gone.

Readers might like to see published reviews of the book. Here are some of them:


"HITTING THE JACKPOT is fascinating, an extraordinary look into America,
both our troubled past and our equally troubled present, one in which money,
law and identity interact bizarrely. Astonishing reading."
- Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent

"An engaging exploration of the tangled politics surrounding Native American affairs."
- Kirkus Reviews

"[Fromson] spins a concise, straightforward tale of ambition, politics and ancestral pride." - The Washington Post

"Well researched and tightly written...[HITTING THE JACKPOT] offers a useful history lesson on modern Native American gaming and tribal recognition."
- The Hartford Courant

"Fast paced and well written...Let's hope we've learned some lessons from Connecticut's decade-plus experience with Pocahontas-as-croupier, a story told in devastating fashion by Brett Fromson in HITTING THE JACKPOT."
- New York Post

Duval Fromson's latest doesn't just immediately join the canon, it redefines it.

You read Hitting the Jackpot: The Inside Story of the Richest Indian Tribe in History, and suddenly thinking of how you responded to all you have read before is like trying to understand how people felt about dance before Balanchine, about jazz before Satchmo, about cuisine before Escoffier.

The Pequots, the Pequod, peas in a pod, the ontological argument for the existence of God, Cape Cod, codicils, the Dewey Decimal system, Pynchon, hit men, Mennonites, Bud Light, light sabers, Dorothy L. Sayers, prayer knots, sun spots, the Pequots -- Duval Fromson takes a freewheeling look at the webs that enmesh us and somehow makes a tapestry of them.