Not everyone supported gaming, but we had a general meeting and a vote on whether to pursue a casino or not and the tribe voted yes, and as a tribal representative to the state legislature, I had to represent that decision.

The Penobscot took an initial poll of people in the state to determine if there was support for opening a casino, and the poll came back very favorable. As we moved forward, a commercial was aired that said if the tribe opened a casino the law would allow kids to gamble and had an image of a kid pulling a slot machine. Here it was our idea and we got massacred, and someone else ended up with what we wanted; it's sort of like history repeating itself.

Not everyone supported gaming, but we had a general meeting and a vote on whether to pursue a casino or not and the tribe voted yes, and as a tribal representative to the state legislature, I had to represent that decision.

I never thought of serving as a conflict of interest, that would have been a luxury! I just needed something to survive. Initial needs have to be met first, and then later things like patriotism come in.