Without Reservation: How a Controversial Indian Tribe Rose to Power and Built the World's Largest Casino (Paperback)

by Jeff Benedict (Author) "THE FIRST THING YOU NEED TO DO IS FILL OUT THIS WORKSHEET," SAID town clerk Sally Sawyer, handing a blank form across the counter..." (more)
Key Phrases: three town leaders, land into trust, annexation petition, Mashantucket Pequot, Interior Department, Elizabeth George (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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

In 1973, an old American Indian woman dies with nothing left of her tribe but a 214-acre tract of abandoned forest. It seems to be the end of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe. But it is just the beginning. Over the next three decades, the reservation grows to nearly 2,000 acres, home to more than 600 people claiming to be tribal members.  It has also become home to Foxwoods, the largest casino in the world, grossing more than $1 billion a year.

Without Reservation reveals the mysterious roots of today's Pequot tribe, the racial tension that divides its members, and the Machiavellian internal power struggle over who will control the tribe's funds. Author Jeff Benedict brings to us the deal makers, the courtroom machinations, the trusts and betrayals.

Now, with remarkable new information, the paperback brings us up-to-date on these revelations, which lead to state and federal investigations and calls for congressional hearings.

About the Author
Jeff Benedict ia a lawyer and the author of four books, including Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL. He has been published in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Perennial Books by Harper Books; 1st edition (July 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060931965
• ISBN-13: 978-0060931964
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #226,294 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Quick Lesson in Political Shenanigans!, August 15, 2002

By	Navyvet "navyvet" (Griswold, Connecticut United States) - See all my reviews

If you live in Eastern Connecticut, as I do, or if you live in the eastern part of the US , chances are good that you've been to the Foxwoods Casino. You might want to read this book in order to better understand to whom the millions of dollars we collectively spend there goes!

I was not able to put down this book since it arrived! It illustrates how complacent politics and leadership guided by tunnel vision literally changed the face of the eastern part of this state. If a small fraction of the injustices done to the people of Ledyard and the surrounding towns is true, then we should ALL be outraged that this travesty has been allowed to occur.

... .

My suggestion is that you read the book and make your own decision. I can say that it has been enlightening to me especially now that Connecticut is planning on allowing even more newly recognized tribes to build still more casinos in eastern Connecticut. Lets hope nobody else loses their land or their home to benefit THAT endeavor.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How the world really works, July 9, 2001

By	SyrJohan "syrjohan" (USA) - See all my reviews

The end of the jacket blurb describes this book: "As compelling as a novel, _Without Reservation is must reading for anyone interested in the way today's world _really_ works."

This is a fair description. It does have the characterization, the pacing and the storytelling of a novel. This is "compelling" at its best but sometimes seems silly and superficial. The most fascinating thing is indeed the insight into how the world works and one does not need a particular interest in gambling or Native Americans to appreciate it. We see how lawyers can revolutionize the world through close reading, discovering new powers in old books while at the same time it becomes clear that elected officials have no time for or interest in reading the legislation that they implement. The book traces the rise of Skip Hayward, founder and chief of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe. Hayward often appears in the worst light, especially in the chapters on his first marriage (he was really awful to his wife). But he is also a man of charisma and vision. He organizes a tribe that was long thought extinct and creates a billion dollar business. The irony is that the get-rich scheme that is finally successful for Hayward is based on the work of three extremely idealistic people: John Stevens, leader of the impoverished Passamaquoddy tribe of Maine; Tom Tureen, a Princeton educated public service lawyer; and Susan MacCulloch, Stevens's wife and an anthropologist who is a leading expert on the Indian tribes of the East. Together they discover how to gain legal recognition and compensation for tribes that were swallowed up in the original 13 colonies. They approach Hayward and make all his future success possible.

I really enjoyed this book and was gripped by the story, but it is badly in need of editing, at least in the hardcover first edition that I read. There are repeated misuses of homophones and the author has a problem with numbers. A person is described as in her twenties in 1970 when the next page gives her birthdate as 1934. At one point he explains that the Supreme Court takes "less than 5 percent" of the cases submitted from lower courts and "[t]he other 95 percent are turned away." On the next page the odds of the court taking the case "were no better than one in ninety-five." Either figure is plausible but they are not the same. However, this is a book about the power of lawyers, and the author took his own lesson: he wrote the book while finishing his law degree.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars chilling ..., May 3, 2002

By	stephen p brady (cape neddick, maine) - See all my reviews

I'd never really thought of Foxwoods until the Maine Indian tribes proposed a similar casino project near my town in southern Maine. This book is chilling and it is heartbreaking to see what has been perpetrated on the citizens of SE Connecticut through complacency and indifference. It is also frightening to learn what can be accomplished when intelligence is married to greed and selfishness. Where were the elected officials to protect the interests of their constituents?!!!! The reviewer who says that this book is full of innuendo and misstatements obviously has ulterior motives and is not disclosing them (or am I just completely jaded after this book?). Anyway, back to the book. I found it impossible to put down, it is a real page turner. Enjoy it, and hope the scourge of casino gambling with all it's false promises never rears it's ugly head in your area.