On Indian Land, It's Tribal Law

It just shouldn't be news to anyone that going to one of our Indian casinos is "like" visiting a foreign land.

Here, casinos are another country. Despite what the cranks say, there's no argument, unless Congress decides to change more than 100 years of accepted Indian law.

Crash the minivan in the parking garage at Mohegan Sun or slip and fall on the Foxwoods gambling floor and your fate lies within the tribal court, not our Superior Courts. The tribal courts have judges and lawyers who can represent you. Good luck.

Federally recognized Indian tribes have "sovereign immunity" - you can't sue them. This isn't some modern doctrine: It evolved from a long legal history based on the fact that Indian nations predate our own.

Then along comes the flawed case of Bradley Beecher, a former state cop and investigator for the Mohegan Tribe, to unsettle me.

Beecher has gone over the top in his bitter feud with the Mohegans, a tribe, in my experience, that generally deals fairly and openly. In a dispute, Beecher threatened to disclose confidential information about Mohegan Sun's casino business. The Mohegans went to Superior Court to stop him, and Beecher eventually signed an agreement preventing him from releasing anything.

Still, I just can't get over the question lurking behind Beecher's subsequent attempt to countersue the Mohegans because he said the tribe was trying to intimidate him.

If an Indian tribe sues you - off the reservation and in Superior Court - why can't you, in the American legal tradition, sue them back?

The answer is you can't unless the tribe has agreed to waive its immunity. Tribes do agree to this sometimes, usually when they sign deals with banks or casino investors.

So when the Mohegans went to court to stop Beecher from disclosing sensitive, privileged information last year, the former state police lieutenant was unable to sue them back.

The case came before the state Supreme Court earlier this week.

"We have the right to seek redress," argued John Williams, Beecher's lawyer, pointing out that the tribe had already gone into state Superior Court to fight him. Because of this, he argued, the tribe had in effect "waived" its right to immunity.

Williams said that little tribes with massive casinos are "highly evolved" from the time when sovereign immunity was recognized as a protection for Indian nations abused by the United States.

It was an interesting debate, particularly in a state where our two Indian tribes now wield dramatic economic clout in their $3 billion gambling business. It's hard not to wonder just how far sovereignty extends in 2006, when the casinos employ thousands and attract millions of visitors.

But the fact that the Indian casinos are, in effect, a government-protected business with a monopoly over Las Vegas-style gambling in Connecticut isn't a factor in this legal argument.

Rather, this "is a matter of federal Indian tribal law," Mohegan lawyer Andrew Houlding told the justices. "It's not a matter for the state courts. It is something for Congress to change, not the courts to change."

Beecher "seems to argue that somehow or other it's unfair," Houlding said.

In my world, it is unfair when you can't sue an employer or business that wrongs you. But this is Indian Country and the laws, and the courts, are different.

So go to work in a tribal casino. Gamble, see a show or go out to one of those cool restaurants.

But remember, it isn't your country. And don't try to sue.

Rick Green's column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at rgreen@courant.com