Without Reservation: How a Controversial Indian Tribe Rose to Power and Built the World's Largest Casino

by Jeff Benedict

With compelling detail, Without Reservation tells the stunning story of the rise of the richest Indian tribe in history. In 1973, an old American Indian woman dies with nothing left of her tribe but a 214-acre tract of abandoned forest. It seems to be the end of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe. But it is just the beginning. Over the next three decades, the reservation grows to nearly 2,000 acres, home to more than 600 people claiming to be tribal members.  It has also become home to Foxwoods, the largest casino in the world, grossing more than $1 billion a year. Without Reservation reveals the mysterious roots of today's Pequot tribe, the racial tension that divides its members, and the Machiavellian internal power struggle over who will control the tribe's funds. Author Jeff Benedict brings to us the deal makers, the courtroom machinations, the trusts and betrayals. Now, with remarkable new information, the paperback brings us up-to-date on these revelations, which lead to state and federal investigations and calls for congressional hearings.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Native American

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Jeff Benedict conducted the first national study on sexual assault and athletes. He has published three books on athletes and crime, including a blistering exposé on the NFL, Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL, and Public Heroes, Private Felons: Athletes and Crimes Against Women. He is a lawyer and an investigative journalist who has written five books.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book back about 2006 gave me insight into predatory gambling and corruption. It begins in Maine, where Indian "gaming" was launched by someone who at first seems to have been more concerned with helping an Indian tribe mired in poverty than turning Indian gambling into a machine to make a lot of money for a few Indians and their financial backers. The genie got out of the bottle.

Indian gambling is not the only form of predatory gambling in the US: together, lottery and commercial casinos loom larger. The latter two enjoy government sponsorship or sanction because they are required to send some of their hold to state coffers. Indian casinos, in contrast, can't be required to, though most do after negotiations.

Foxwoods being an "Indian" casino, this non-fiction book about its startup and growth is more about Indian gambling (getting tribal recognition, acquiring land) than commercial or state-sponsored casino gambling.

We owe to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun and the financial backers of these two casino complexes the slot-mechanization of American state government. Most states now find themselves dependent on gambling revenues to help close budget gaps, not understanding that society at large pays three dollars in hidden costs of legalized gambling for every dollar government collects from a casino or state lottery or state-sponsored slot parlor. see Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits

Benedict's book tells how it all began.

[Nancy Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is little more than a propaganda piece designed to disenfranchise a group of people by providing inaccurate and false information. Shortly after the book came out the book's author announced that he is running for Congress. His district, if elected, would cover the "victim towns" in his book, which is more evidence that he only wrote it to promote himself.

Most of the "sources" for this book either don't remember talking to the author or have publicly announced that their statements were changed in the book to reflect what the author wanted. A few of the "sources" have even gone to work for the Mashantuckets in an effort to clear their names from the inaccuracies in this book.

My biggest problem with this book is that on page 372-373 the author lists the birth, marriage and death certificates for people most of whom were still living at the time of publication. I am assuming that he did this without their permission. As a certified genealogist in the state of CT, I know that the publication of this information is illegal as the vital records of living people are not available to the public. As a politician, he should have known that the people he was "outing" as bad and evil were also constituents and capable of voting in Federal elections. Those who did not live on the reservation were also capable of voting in town and state elections.

In other words, he published the personal information of his own potential constituents and then expected those same people to vote for him.

If you want a real book on the Mashantuckets than try another book.

[Derek Slater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sigh. Where there is money, trouble follows.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given this book by my dad & his wife Melanie. It is a fascinating read about the evolution of the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut. The author appeared to do lots of research. however, when I looked at Wikipedia, many "facts" were different. I don't know (we really never know) what really happened. But Foxwoods exists and it's big. This book makes me disappointed in government and the legal system since the book highlighted the loopholes that allowed this casino to be born. The author writes as if he was there audio recording in all the situations, with dialogue. It's hard to believe that those words were spoken since they would have been based on the memories of the interviewees and I doubt they all remembered these situations word-for-word. There should be a disclaimer.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars for the content, 3 stars for some writing choices. This is a fascinating look into the power of the extralegal process, where one family took over a little pocket of Connecticut and formed a business worth billions. Plenty of room for one’s own judgment on how they did it.

I also would have loved more info on the Malaysian funding but I imagine those sources were harder to crack.

There are a lot of novelistic touches in the book that I just found distracting. I guess it might come off dry otherwise, but I don’t think it fit. Also very bizarre to censor curse words but leave in full epithets.

Worth a read but could‘ve been better.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pequots of Connecticut had help and a loophole and some shady dealings when they built their casino, Foxwoods. This book tells it all. 361 small type pages and more than a year to read about questionable Indians being given land and money to develop and buy more land and building the largest casino in the world. Though some parts were slow to read through, most of the book was interesting.

[Maranojae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having grown up in Ledyard, I graduated with Skip’s brother and left town for college and life beyond. I recognized many characters but had little idea of the path taken. I have very mixed feelings. Well researched and written.

[Steven Rowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Origins of Foxwoods Casino in my hometown of Ledyard CT. A story about the complete transformation of my old neighborhood featuring alot of people I knew gowing up.

[Jane Ferketic]

Recommended by a Navajo Indian in Nevada

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting read for someone like me who is not originally from the area. Good information, but the writing style exhausted me.

[Jc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catty and biased, but a fascinating account of how the Connecticut Mashantuckets won tribal status and went on to build one of the world's largest resort casinos. The author stridently beleives that those who brought the tribe forward and claimed reservation land were frauds and liars. This may or may not be true, but his account is so one-sided, and dependent on hearsay, that he loses credibility. He seems to have a personal grudge against Skip Hayward, tribal chief for 23 years, and goes out of his way to malign Hayward and anyone who helped him. While I am not a fan of abusing the system, this modern day "Robin Hood" saga has a good dollop of poetic justice. Hearing how a ragtag band of activists -- with dreams of bringing back a lost tribe and making it prosper -- managed to snooker that system, was almost hilarious. A less slanted account of the saga should be taught in political science classes everywhere, as a demonstration of how politicians carelessly wheel and deal with little respect for truth, justice or law. Since Foxwood pours billions of dollars into Connecticut coffers every year and has revitalized the economic and cultural life of the area, most state residents bear Hayward and Foxwoods no ill will. Benedict obviously does, and uses his poison pen to let us know it.

[Ben Carlsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had a great opportunity to discuss this book in a class with Benedict himself. It was very interesting not only to read the story but to hear about it from him. Hearing him talk about all the research and interviews he did cemented in my mind that the information is accurate and factual. Benedict has presented the sad facts of this phony Native American tribe and those that helped them to become what they are, which is much less than they claim to be.

It is true that the writing could be better, but I think it does what it needs to do. I was angered as well as amazed at what happened. You really have to hand it to them, they certainly did something extraordinary. Benedict does a good job of exposing how everything happened, and who was involved, and who was responsible.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It's a great story, well told, well researched, and a one-of-a-kind book.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book came HIGHLY recomended to me by a friend. However, it just didn't work for me. Although the core story was fascinating, about the Pequot Tribe in CT and their casino business, the writing really drained the energy out of the story. I feel like Benedict could've used an editor, especially when it came to adjectives.

This is a nice introduction to late 20th C Native American history but it is very, very heavy on the legal history-- lots of lawyers waiving briefcases at each other. Benedict sometimes gets lost int he details of the legal procedings at the expense of a broader narrative. I ended up skimming a lot of those paragraphs.

Finally, the story is interesting and I'm glad that Benedict decided to tell it. The moral seems to be: "good people can try to do good but end up doing things that are very, very detrimental."

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is not a book's length of material here, and much of it could have been carved off. Too much "Look what I found" on the author's part -- for example, if someone hired an ex-con, it is enough to say he was a convicted felon, or armed robbery if you like. Please do not spend 5 paragraphs recapping his robbery in a "it was a dark and stormy night" sidebar. I'm *reading* here.

Still, I give it 4 stars because I must have been liking it enough to see it through to the end. The legal wrangling that took place to create Foxwoods is fascinating, and there are no Good Guys. Native Sovreignty is apparently situational. And opportunistic, for natives and non-natives alike. Get yourself come.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one started out great. It was fast paced and extremely interesting to learn about some of the inner workings of the BIA and how legal issues surrounding Native Americans and land issues are dealt with. But, toward the end it started to feel a little convoluted and I couldn't keep all of the new characters that are a part of the story straight. I liked that the author gave little bios on the different politicians/lawyers/business men as he introduced them as it helped me keep them straight in my head, but there were just so many involved it started to get confusing.

Worth a read I think. Especially if you are interested in Native Americans at all.

[Jeff Russo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh... a few issues here. One, there's things about the author's style that just didn't work for me though I'm having a tough time saying what. Two, I'd say the book is a bit plump, some tangential stuff got stretched out for too long. Three, and I blame myself for this, I think this would have been a better read for me 15 years ago, it's a little hard to get interested in a subject this narrow, and in which I have no personal investment, 15-20 years after the fact. I blame myself for that, I bought the book. So, for that, I apologize. I thought the fact that it was about a casino would be enough to give me laser focus.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are at all familiar with the area around Ledyard, Connecticut, this book is a must read. Two of the largest casinos in the world, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, pop out of the rural landscape with no real rhyme or reason for why they are there. Benedict looks into the (mostly unethical) ways in which these casinos came to be. Very interesting, but even more interesting if you have ever lived or been in the area.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Benedict's primary theme certainly comes across in this book: people who know how the world works can get anything done even if it is not strictly right. He does a good job of keeping his rage at the issue in check, but it is always simmering just below the surface. Still, the fact that book jacket explains that he is going to law school, I cannot help but to think that he would like to be part of the powerful insiders (though I don't doubt he thinks he can do so without self-corruption).

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked the elements of the book that involved the re-colonization of the tribe and the legal wranglings around their sovereignty. Got lost a bit in the latter stages when the book focused on the increasing of the land around the reservation. Overall a good legal and historical view to the development of the Foxwoods casino and the Pequots.

[Ryan Eggensperger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agree with a lot of the negative comments on here- whats said in WR could've been said in a feature-length article. Not to mention how frustrating it is that the author insists on quoting his main characters' thoughts ad nauseum. Just not journalism. Sensationalist pap. But yes, the story is rather compelling without all of the garbage its dressed in.

[Lrichesin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had anybody digged deep enough into the geneology, this 'tribe' would never have been federally recognized and their true motives - to bring gambling to CT - would have been exposed. The politicians involved were all asleep at the wheel!

[Andrew Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

that fox woods is bullshit...

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gerry highly recommended this book but I'm struggling, some parts more interesting than others, but I like the author's style.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compulsively readable. The author's perspective came across very slanted to me but the story itself pulled me right in.

[Rick Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff has given us a carefully researched book, and tells the story well. It's an account that should give us pause when we look at the growth of the casino gambling resort industry in this country.

[Suzanne Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is clunky at times but the story is fascinating.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Origins of the Mashantucket Pequot casino.