Greenwich Time’s editorial page columns by William A. Collins are usually well wide of the mark, but his recent polemic on Indian casinos is so wobbly as to require a response.

First, he claims that Connecticut is trying to “disenfranchise” the Schaghticoke tribe. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, which gave preliminary recognition to that tribe, is widely acknowledged to be a thoroughly broken and dysfunctional agency, fraught with conflicts of interest and subject to political influence. But don’t take my word for it: A nonpartisan Congressional Accounting Office report says exactly that.

Second, he claims that members of Congress have so far been unwilling to reform the BIA because they have “pangs of conscience” for past Indian mistreatment. A more likely factor is the vast political contributions to members of both parties by casino tribes and their billionaire backers who like things just as they are.

Third, Collins claims that the Schaghticoke chief told him that a casino would be welcome in Fairfield County and that “eight towns [unnamed] have approached him already as potential locations.” Question for Mr. Collins: Did the chief say he has a bridge (also unnamed) he would like to sell you?

William H. Nickerson
Greenwich