With the election of President Ronald Reagan in
1980, Indians faced a new challenge. Once in office,
Reagan almost immediately attempted to slash the
funds available to Indian groups. Although some of
the most dramatic cuts were blocked, by the mid-
1980s, the federal budget for crucial programs to
better Indian health and education had been greatly
diminished.
The drop in government funds created an
increased urgency to find new sources of tribal in-
come. Tribal governments, often against the wishes
of their people, considered housing nuclear waste
on reservations and allowing mineral companies
to strip-mine their lands. Equally controversial
was the growing number of gambling parlors es-
tablished by tribes. Especially after the passage of
the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which
legalized some forms of gambling on reservations,
many Indians groups began to operate casinos,
both to increase tribal revenues and to bring jobs
to their communities. Although the establishments
have met opposition by both Indians and non-
Indians, they have helped to revitalize several
tribes. Perhaps the most dramatic example is the
small Mashantucket Pequot tribe of Connecticut,
which uses its annual casino revenues of more than
$1 billion to aid poorer Indian groups and to oper-
ate the impressive Mashantucket Pequot museum
and research center.
Despite these new sources of revenue, accord-
ing to the 1990 census Indians continued to be the
most impoverished minority in the United States.
The census, however, also revealed an encouraging
trend: The American Indian population was grow-
ing, and growing quickly. In 1990, more than two
million Americans identified themselves as Indians,
up 40 percent from only a decade earlier.
The figure certainly revealed that Indians were
far from being the “vanishing race” they were said
to be at the century’s beginning. But demographic
scholars noted that the number probably also re-
flected a change in attitudes toward “Indianness.”
People who in the past may have hidden their Indian
ancestry for fear of discrimination were now proud
to announce their heritage. In some non-Indian
circles, fabricating Indian roots had even become
fashionable, and in some cases lucrative. Actual In-
dians naturally grew resentful of Indian impostors,
particularly those who made and sold “Indian” art.
Responding to Indians’ complaints, Congress in