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

by Jeff Benedict (Author)

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: HarperCollins; 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 (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #572,047 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"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

By	Scott E. Peterman (Oneida, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

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'.