This passage wasn't a huge surprise to me. Growing up, I always seemed to associate the Indian culture with casinos. Why? I don't know, that's just the way I was raised. As the White people began to take more and more land from the Pequot Tribe, the tribe had to come up with some way to survive. An easy way to do this is commercialize the tribe, and let the rest of the world be a part of what they are.
The design of the casino was carefully planned out. When people come to a casino they are just looking to have a good time. By making the gaming rooms very dimly lit, with no windows or clocks is the perfect way to make a ton of money off of people. By taking someone out of the real world and placing them in a casino, you can make a lot of money off of one person.
By decorating the hallways to look like old store fronts, it is a way for the Pequot Tribe to teach you a little bit about their history while not forcing it upon you. Like the book says, it does create a "Disney like display of their history", but who would want to go to a casino and learn about an Indian tribe. If you wanted to learn about them you would go to a museum, or do some research.
I do think that it is wrong for the Whites to take all but 213 acres of the tribes land, but it almost seems like they were allowing the Whites to take it.
Questions:
1) Was it the Tribes decision, or were they told that they would be commercialized in the casino design?
2) How much of the Tribe's culture was left out of the design of the casino?
I think a ton of the culture was probably left out of the design. The tribe obviously did something very important as now they are able to use the revenue from the casino to help tribe members. However, I do not think that the casino is necessarily and homage to the Pequot people.
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