Deliver us from IE

Inland Empire Diary. The IE.

Took a trip to the IE last nite. One has to prepare herself mentally before venturing out into the IE.

The Inland Empire. 60 miles East of Los Angeles between the coastal regions of the Los Angels/Orange County and Palm Springs. The 909. Located in the largest county in the sate--San Bernardino. Over 3 million people live in the IE today. It is one of the major agriculture centers of the sate. The region has grown (in the past decade) faster than the local governments ability to provide general/public services. News coverage of the IE is abysmal. The L.A. Times Inland Empire edition has less than 10 full-time reporters to cover 3 million people! Most of the regions inhabitants are recent transplants (Coastal Equity Refugees) from the Los Angeles area. Another issue of course is the rise in crime/gangs. Not many new gangs, rather cliques from larger L.A. gangs have branched out into the area.

Inland Empire contains over 50 cities, including Riverside, San Bernardino, Ontario and Temecula's Wine Country to the south. The Inland Empire also includes the San Bernardino Mountains to the north including Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead.

1st. stop: Moreno Valley (East on th 60 Fwy past Riverside...past civilization). Took 1hr and a half to arrive. Mormon weddings are quaint affairs. Pretty girls & no booze. What kinda Mexican wedding has no booze? Oh yea, a Mormon Mexican one. Mormon girls are hot. God has strange ways punishing men in Utah. Force them to marry early. Utah coincidentally leads the country in bankruptcies. Reasons for this vary but it may have something to do with the fact that Mormons pay 10% of their gross income to the church. Mormons are encouraged to marry early and have large families. And there is pressure on believers to be financially successful. Weddings in the chapel are earned. Weddings in the Temple are earned even more. It was a mixed marriage--Mexican/gringo. Congrats and good luck!

2nd. stop: 1230am. Morongo Resort & Casino, Cabazon, Ca. Located next door to Hadleys (off hwy stop famous for its date shakes, I'm sure the casino has been good for business). Also, a new outlet mall has been built next to the casino as well. "Owned" by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, who raised $250 million to build the casino. The Morongo's operate one of the largest tribal gaming facilities in America. Wonder how they raised that kind of money--and who were they're lenders...hmm...good old tribal sovereignty. Which is only as sovereign as Congress allows.

On Tribal Sovereignty from a recent FAIR Coalition policy piece:

Congress should be specifically informed that the federal government has long-imposed limitations on tribal powers. According to the respected Indian law treatise by Felix Cohen (Section 4.02, 2005 edition), tribal power must adhere to three basic principles:

• Tribes possess, in the first instance, all the inherent powers of an sovereign state, however;
• Tribes within the United States are subject to Congress and may not exercise external powers of sovereignty such as the power to enter into treaties with foreign nations; and
• Tribal powers can be restricted by treaties and by express federal legislation.

Thus, treaties and statutes have limited tribal sovereignty in areas such as:
• Exercising control over lands ceded to the federal government
• Federal supervision of tribes
• Conveyance of tribal property without federal approval
• Allotment of tribal lands to individual Indians
• Subjecting tribes to varying degrees of state authority
• Federal criminal jurisdiction over Indians
• Subjecting tribal authority to individual civil rights
• Limitations on tribal adjudicative powers
• The power of a tribe to exercise jurisdiction over non-Indians within a tribal reservation

Tribal sovereignty is likewise cabined by the principle that the United States has the exclusive power to extinguish Indian title to land.8 In other words, “Congress may effect an act of eminent domain, taking tribal land.”.

Through rights of way statutes, Congress has authorized rights of way across tribal lands for railroads, telegraph and telephone lines, oil and gas pipelines, and highways.

Basically, what this says is that Congressional decree trumps any claim/right made by the various tribes/nations in the country.

But what about the casino itself you ask? We made it from the parking lot to the casino without getting stabbed, so that's was a plus. Morongo is a casino/hotel on native land which means...very few regulations. Does California even have a gaming regulatory commission? We must right? The California Gambling Control Commission (peculiar name--is it an anti-gaming commission?!), whose mission/vision statement declare:

The California Gambling Control Commission protects the public by fostering the integrity of gaming through setting policies, promulgating regulations, licensing, and monitoring compliance; and by implementing and administering the Gambling Control Act and the Tribal-StateGaming Compacts.

To foster the integrity of gaming in California.

There is no integrity at Morongo casino. The Commission negotiate Compacts with the various tribes--a kind of MOU that attempts to set standards/regulatory controls on gaming operations in the tribal areas. For example, 18 year olds can legally gamble on tribal land. Only thing is, there is no one there that actually cards young people, so you sit next to 15 year olds playing video roulette.

The sights: A Check Cash joint. A mall like food court. A gift shop with all sorts of Chinese made Native gifts/trinkets/artwork/clothing. Thousands of the most vibrant (and by vibrant I mean ghetto/miserable/wretched) people under one roof. Get down tonight. I kid. The gaming area is massive. Every single slot machine and card table is occupied. Absolutely mind blowing. People waiting in line for a computer slot machine. Vegas on New Years doesn't even get this busy. There is even a line for the bar! Two dance clubs. Ladies get in free of course. Ironically, the table minimum limits are not low! And these people don't look like the high roller types to these judgmental eyes. Does anyone actually win here? This would have been my 3rd visit....last time it was the bizarre video roulette machine that took nearly my entire humble library paycheck...Costs 4.00 service charge for withdraw cash from the casino ATM. I did, but some cosmic force wouldn't allow me to gamble any of it.

Among the missing: Actual native people! I looked. Couldn't find a single dealer named Lucky Spirit! Very few White people. Where were all the natives I thought.

Left the place after a slice of cheesecake from the cafe. Amazing.

3rd stop: 230am: Pomona (Getting back towards civilization!). Spent about an hour near my old alma mater...good times.

4th stop: Home.