Without Reservation: The Making of America's Most Powerful Indian Tribe and Foxwoods the World's Largest Casino [Hardcover]

Jeff Benedict (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 2000

In 1973, an old American Indian woman dies with nothing left of her tribe but a trailer and a two-hundred-acre reservation in the sleepy backyard of Ledyard, Connecticut. It seems to signal the end of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe. But it is just the beginning. Over the course of the next three decades, the reservation grows to more than two thousand acres and becomes home to Foxwoods, the largest casino in the world, grossing more than $1 billion per year. The Pequots are reborn, immensely wealthy, and in possession of an enormous amount of political influence.

How did it happen?

In compelling detail, Without Reservation tells the stunning story of the rise of the richest tribe in American history.

It begins with the grand ambitions of two men. One, an unemployed navy brat and outsider, is a failed preacher with the uncanny ability to charm; the other is fresh out of law school and armed with a brilliant legal theory to help impoverished Indian tribes. Together they resurrect the Pequots and battle the local townspeople to aggressively expand their reservation, taking on the state government for the right to gamble on their land. Embracing their cause are misguided and misinformed government officials and a former mob prosecutor who brings Malaysian financiers to the table.

The Pequots must also contend with the price of power. Without Reservation reveals the mysterious roots of today's Pequot tribe, the racial tension that divides them, and the Machiavellian internal Power struggle over who will control the tribe's purse strings.

This is a story of the duality of the American dream, the good and the bad that come with enormous wealth. Author Jeff Benedict shines a light on the dreamers and the deal makers, the backroom politicking and courtroom machinations, the trusts and betrayals, and the world of high-powered attorneys, politicians, tribal leaders, and financiers who made the Pequots what they are today.

As compelling as a novel, Without Reservation is must reading for anyone interested in the way today's world really works.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Mashantucket Pequot tribe of Connecticut were nearly penniless just a couple of decades ago. Today, they are the richest tribe in America and owners of the world's largest gambling casino. And, writes Jeff Benedict, their wealth is based on a fraud. Without Reservation will remind some readers of A Civil Action, by Jonathan Harr, for its novelistic approach to nonfiction as well as its earnestness. Benedict says that Congress was essentially tricked into granting tribal status to the group--a political process that allowed it to skirt the much more stringent recognition standards maintained by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Benedict's reporting is provocative, showing, for instance, that Skip Hayward, the man who headed the tribe for many years, listed his race as "white" on the application for his first marriage license. And Benedict's narrative is character driven almost to a fault, though it makes reading about congressional hearings and backdoor politics enjoyable.

There is convincing evidence on these pages that pols were duped by Hayward, first in Connecticut and then in Washington. The evidence is strong enough, in fact, to warrant formal congressional hearings on the decisions made in the 1980s to confer official status on the tribe, and perhaps even revoke that status or redirect some casino profits to poor Indians. In short, Without Reservation is the kind of book that can kick-start a controversy--or at least amplify an existing one to the point where the need for reform becomes urgent. If the book has a weakness, it's that Benedict didn't get to interview many tribal officials. But then it's easy to see why they might avoid a man with so many hard questions. This book needed to be written, even without their cooperation. --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly

In this chronicle of Foxwoods, the world's largest, richest casino, Benedict salutes the ingenuity and tenacity of several Native American tribes that have weathered regional infighting, political intrigue, legal wrangling and financial challenges to realize their dream of economic prosperity and cultural survival. Benedict tells the story through the lives of three pivotal players: rebellious, unkempt tribal chief Richard "Skip" Haywood, self-sacrificing white attorney Tom Tureen and Maine's worldly commissioner of Indian affairs, John Stevens. Despite the stiff competition between tribes for limited federal funds, this trio set out to convince Washington lawmakers to recognize their petition for compensation in cash and land based on a history of seized property. Linking a chain of brief scenes, Benedict re-creates the first legal battles in Maine and Congress (which resulted in a historic 1980 federal law and an $81.5 million settlement for the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes) and the subsequent brilliant maneuvering by Haywood, Tureen and their team to override President Reagan's veto of a bill granting Haywood's Pequot tribe regulatory control over its reservation. While the book bogs down after these initial victories, it revives with the story of the creation and building of Foxwoods, which opened on February 14, 1992, after a firestorm of controversy and political bloodletting. Although Benedict gives each of his key characters equal consideration in his engrossing study, it's Haywood who ultimately captures the reader's interest with his astounding evolution from drunken wife batterer to thoughtful, skilled visionary. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1St Edition edition (April 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060193670
• ISBN-13: 978-0060193676
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #746,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeff Benedict published his first book - Public Heroes, Private Felons: Athletes and Crimes Against Women - during his first year of law school in 1997. At the time he was interning in the District Attorney's Child Abuse Unit in Boston and planning on becoming a prosecutor. By the time he earned his law degree in 2000, he had published three more books: Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL (Warner Books, 1998); Athletes and Acquaintance Rape (Sage Publications, 1998); and Without Reservation: How a Controversial Indian Tribe Rose to Power and Built the World's Largest Casino (HarperCollins, 2000). By then he'd decided to be a writer instead of a lawyer.

His books on athletes and crime established him as the national expert on the subject. Plus, he was the lead researcher on two groundbreaking studies conducted at Northeastern University - one on student-athletes and violence against women and one on arrest and conviction rates for athletes. In addition to being a regular analyst on network and cable news programs, Benedict served as an expert witness on behalf of rape and domestic violence victims; consulted for law firms representing victims of violence committed by athletes; and frequently appeared as a keynote speaker for women's groups, victim advocacy organizations and law enforcement conferences.

But his revelatory book on the world's largest Indian casino took him in another direction. Without Reservation questioned the legitimacy of the country's most powerful Indian tribe, prompting calls for a Congressional investigation and contributing to the defeat of a 20-year member of Congress that had helped the tribe obtain federal recognition. Benedict's book became the subject of a 60 Minutes segment and the author went on to run for Congress in the district where the tribe and its casino - Foxwoods - are located. His platform was built on reigning in the casino industry. Talk about controversy! Despite earning the support of the Wall Street Journal, Benedict fell short of capturing the Democratic nomination.

But he didn't mind. He just forged ahead and formed the nation's first statewide non-profit corporation dedicated to stopping casino expansion. As president of The Connecticut Alliance Against Casino Expansion, he partnered with Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and led the lobbying effort to pass landmark legislation outlawing new casinos in Connecticut. In 2004 Benedict testified against Donald Trump and other casino moguls before the House Committee on Government Reform as part a congressional investigation into the undue influence of money and lobbyists on the tribal recognition process.

At the same time, Benedict kept writing. In 2005 he conducted a six-month investigation into the negative social and economic impacts of Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods - currently the two largest casinos in the world - and published his findings in a 2-part series in the Hartford Courant: Raw Deal and Losing Hand. He also testified before the Massachusetts legislature and the Philadelphia City Council in opposition to proposals to embrace casino gambling as an economic stimulus. He served as an advisor to municipalities and grassroots organizations throughout the country. The press dubbed him 'Consultant to the Stars' after he was hired to help David Crosby, Bo Derek, Elton John's longtime songwriter Bernie Taupin and others oppose plans to expand the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California. He and Crosby also lobbied the U.S. Senate's Indian Affairs Committee.

Benedict has written five other highly acclaimed books on a wide range of topics. His book No Bone Unturned: The Adventures of a Top Smithsonian Forensic Scientist and the Legal Battle for America's Oldest Skeletons (HarperCollins, 2003) was the basis of a Discovery Channel documentary and was the subject of ABC News 20/20 segment. On the heels of Kobe Bryant's arrest on rape charges in Colorado, Benedict published Out of Bounds: Inside the NBA's Culture of Rape, Violence & Crime (HarperCollins, 2004), which was the basis of a 2-part special on ABC News 20/20 also titled 'Out of Bounds.' During pre-trial proceedings in the Kobe Bryant case, Benedict got access to sealed court documents and medical records that became the basis of three stories he wrote about the case for Sports Illustrated. After Bryant's case was dismissed, Benedict wrote a short series on Bryant for the Los Angeles Times, including an award-winning feature story that revealed why the case against Bryant fell apart.

In 2007 Benedict published The Mormon Way of Doing Business: How Eight Western Boys Reached the Top of Corporate America (Warner Business Books). It was based on interviews with the CEOs at JetBlue, Madison Square Garden, Dell, and Deloitte & Touche, along with the CFO of American Express and the dean of Harvard Business School. Benedict also wrote and co-produced his first television documentary based on the book. It aired on BYU-TV and on the PBS and CBS affiliates in Utah. He filmed commercials with Glenn Beck to promote the short film. After the release of the book and the film, Benedict teamed up with the executive he had profiled for a series of forums at Yale, Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, and Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Business.

The following year Benedict was commissioned to write a book on a company that Warren Buffett purchased for $200 million. A few years later it was worth over $1 billion. How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy: The RC Willey Story (Shadow Mountain) was released in 2009. Buffett wrote the book's foreword. Also in 2009, Benedict released Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage (Grand Central Publishing). He spent three years chronicling the eminent domain battle in Kelo v. New London, considered the most controversial Supreme Court decision since Roe v. Wade. The book received universal praise: "a fascinating narrative" (New York Times Book Review); "an absorbing read" (Wall Street Journal); and "a mind-blowing story" (NPR's Diane Rehm). Following the book's release, Benedict spent a year traveling the country with plaintiff Susette Kelo, talking to Americans about property rights.

Today Benedict is a regular contributor for SI.com and a Distinguished Professor of English at Southern Virginia University, where he teaches a seminar called Writing and Mass Media, along with a course on current affairs. He is a frequent public speaker on athletes and crime, Indian gaming, eminent domain, and leadership and ethics in business. His forthcoming book chronicles the making of the world's #1 foodborne illness lawyer Bill Marler, who rose to prominence while representing children poisoned in America's largest E. coli outbreak. Benedict has begun working on a new book that he's been privately commissioned to write about an Islamic fundamentalist who converts to Christianity and is imprisoned as an infidel.
Jeff Benedict was born in 1966 in New London, Connecticut. He has a Bachelor's in History from Eastern Connecticut State University, a Master's in Political Science from Northeastern University, and a J.D. from the New England School of Law. He previously practiced law in Connecticut, where he has spent most of his life. He currently lives in Virginia on a Civil War-era farm with his wife and best friend Lydia Benedict and their four children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A provoking look at the world's biggest casino, May 6, 2000

By 

Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Without Reservation: The Making of America's Most Powerful Indian Tribe and Foxwoods the World's Largest Casino (Hardcover)

"Without Reservation: The Making of America's Most Powerful Indian Tribe and Foxwoods, the World's Largest Casino" by Jeff Benedict is an absorbing portrait of an extraordinary phenomenon - the emergence from obscurity within the past three decades of the Mashantucket Pequot Indian tribe and their rapid climb to unparalleled wealth through their Foxwoods Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut. I am sure that many people view these events as a particularly gratifying example of a "rags to riches" story, given the justifiable sympathy now widely felt towards Native Americans after centuries of betrayal and injustice. However, as someone who has spent most of his adult life as a resident of southeastern Connecticut and who is personally acquainted with some of the people discussed in Benedict's book, I have been long aware that the story of the Pequots and their casino is more complex and perhaps less inspirational than might appear at first glance.

"Without Reservation" raises serious questions about whether the Mashantucket Pequots are who they claim to be, a legitimate tribe of Native Americans. Simply put, are they instead merely opportunists claiming an Indian identity to fraudulently cash in on laws and programs intended to help genuine Native Americans? Some historic tribes in the East after centuries of intermarriage with persons of European and/or African descent and through acculturation with the white society have ceased to exist. According to Benedict's research, Richard "Skip" Hayward, the leader who formulated and led the supposed resurrection of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe in the 1970's, has no traceable Pequot ancestry at all. Benedict contends that Hayward's entire Indian descent comes solely through his great-great-grandfather, a man who identified himself not as a Pequot, but as a Narragansett (ironically, the Narragansetts were one of the tribes who allied themselves with the English during the 17th Century war which destroyed the power of the original Pequot tribe). Records indicate that Hayward had consistently identified himself as being "white" until the mid-1970's when it suddenly became advantageous to claim he was a Native American to gain possession of the small "Western Pequot" reservation maintained by the State of Connecticut and to pursue a legal claim against neighboring properties. Benedict further asserts that the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, when granted Federal recognition by a special Act of Congress in 19XX, would have been wholly unable to meet the Bureau of Indian Affairs requirements for such Federal recognition. In his view, many people, sincere in their desire to help Native Americans obtain financial and cultural security, were deceived into supporting a fraudulent cause and unintentionally allowed a small group of imposters to gain extraordinary power by operating a gambling casino shielded from taxation and state regulation. The enormous quantity of dollars flowing through Foxwoods Casino has radically altered the economic structure of the region, for good or ill, and has given the Mashantuckets enormous clout through their frequent and heavy contributions to political parties and elected officials.

Hayward as presented in Benedict's book is a fascinating paradox. Is he a charismatic visionary who followed his dream to skillfully lead his people into wealth and independence, or is he a deceptive manipulator who lied and cheated nearly everyone en route to personal riches and influence? The answer supplied by Benedict's book seems to be that Hayward is both. "Without Reservation" does not stop with Skip Hayward's climb to wealth and power, but continues on through his subsequent fall from tribal leadership, overthrown by other Mashantuckets whose claim of Pequot identity is as suspect as that of Hayward himself. The picture which Benedict paints is one of naked greed and arrogance rising to the top.

I am certain that some people will dismiss Benedict's book as being "anti-Indian", but that is not the case. His contention is that the Mashantucket Pequots are simply not an Indian tribe in any genuine sense of the term, and that they have taken advantage of and have perverted situations created for the benefit of actual Native American peoples. I am equally certain that his claims will be vigorously denounced by the Mashantuckets, and I eagerly look forward to seeing what evidence, if any, can be produced to counter Benedict's arguments.

Jeff Benedict has written a book which tells a compelling story, although undoubtedly it will not be the final word on the subject. It is a story skillfully told in a gripping narrative which vividly depicts the actors in the drama: the Mashantuckets, the politicians, the ordinary citizens who woke up to find the world's largest casino springing to life in their rural community, and of course the ever-present lawyers, eager to distort and shade the truth in their roles of advocates (or in their chase of the big bucks).

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Grand Scam, May 19, 2000

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Scott E. Peterman (Oneida, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Without Reservation: The Making of America's Most Powerful Indian Tribe and Foxwoods the World's Largest Casino (Hardcover)

In his well written and well researched book "Without Reservation," author Jeff Benedict traces the history of the formation and rise to tremendous wealth of the "modern day" Western Mashantucket Pequot "Indian" tribe of southeastern Connecticut. It is the incredible story of a fraud perpetrated upon the taxpayers of our nation. It is the story of how state and federal government officials were duped into believing that a handful of ordinary citizens were the remnants of the ancient Pequot Indian tribe. It is a story of opportunism, greed, and abuse of astronomical proportions. A flawed system designed to help poor tribal members of American Indian tribes is cleverly manipulated to serve a handful of opportunistic and undeserving people. After reading the book, two adjectives come immediately to mind: "astonishing" and "outrageous." A more perfect example of the insanity that is today's Federal Indian Policy cannot be imagined.

Attorney Tom Tureen had masterminded Indian land claims against several New England states based on their alleged violations of federal statutes known as the Trade & Intercourse Acts. Among other things, the Acts forbid the purchase of Indian lands without federal approval, but the applicability of the Acts within the 13 original colonies was and is an ongoing unsettled controversy. Under the direction of attorney Tureen, a handful of relatives of the last surviving resident of the 200 acre Pequot reservation, Elizabeth George, decide to form the new tribe in order to join the land claim litigation. To accomplish this "They needed to come together and start acting like a tribe," and "most importantly, the group had to establish residency on the reservation," writes Benedict. Regardless of the fact that tribal membership was completely foreign to them and that they knew little or nothing about the culture or history of the Pequots, the group proceeded with its charade. Elizabeth George however, the one person upon which the tribe was basing its ancestry, had only a faint connection to Indian ancestry, but to the Narragansett Indians and not the Western Pequots asserts Benedict.

The newly manufactured "tribe," with the help of Tureen and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), files a land claim against the state of Connecticut and wins their claim by forcing an out of court settlement. Tureen is quoted in the book as describing these Indian land claims as "something we made up" and were based on "an utterly untested theory." Tureen states, "If the Supreme Court ever tested the issue, it would say that the Nonintercourse Act did not apply to any of these tribes. So settlement was critically important to our strategy in all of these cases." Incredibly, against the protestations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs(BIA), Congress ratifies the Pequot land claim settlement without knowing whether or not the people claiming to be the Western Mashantucket Pequot tribe are indeed the genuine descendants of the historic tribe, since the "tribe" had thus far successfully avoided the BIA's tribal recognition process. The settlement awards the "Pequots" $900,000 and allows them to expand their reservation to some 2,000 acres. The tribe then proceeds down a road leading from high stakes bingo to the riches of their Foxwoods casino - all made possible by the special laws, perks, and privileges created for Indian tribes by federal Indian policy.

Benedict's book is extremely important in that it reveals a controversy regarding an alleged fraud of monumental proportions that demands a just solution. The good news is that Benedict's allegations are readily verifiable. Television news program "60 Minutes" is reportedly in the process of taping a segment on Benedict's book and the municipalities surrounding the Pequot reservation and its Foxwoods casino are calling for a congressional investigation into the allegations brought forward in "Without Reservation." A forthcoming solution may well prove disastrous for the "Western Mashantucket Pequots."

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Complex Issue Simplified ... Finally, May 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Without Reservation: The Making of America's Most Powerful Indian Tribe and Foxwoods the World's Largest Casino (Hardcover)

I was raised in Ledyard, attending school with "members" of the tribe, sitting next to them in classes. I remember Ledyard before the Bingo hall and Mashantucket ownership of Mr. Pizza but I never fully understood the legalities behind it all. Now I do. Some have said this book is too simplified, but thanks to Mr. Benedict, lay-people such as myself can understand how this happened to Ledyard. Finally, someone has given us a clear picture of the complex actions, laws and history behind this turquoise monstrosity in the hills of Connecticut. Incidently, I don't bump into too many people around here who are racist against Indians. What does bother us - and what Mr. Benedict so accurately described - is the sheer recklessness of those who call themselves Mashantuckets. Included in that group, sadly, is their leader who, I would imagine, is an embarassment to the Native American community. Native Americans are a proud and noble people. Benedict documents for those not from 'these parts' how ignoble many of their lifestyles are - including the 'leadership' of the tribe. I for one thought the book was incredibly balanced - Benedict shed much positive light on other tribes, and I actually felt compassion for 'Skip' Hayward and Mickey Brown by the end of the book. That's saying a lot coming from a 'Ledyarder'.