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

FROM OUR EDITORS

For thousands of years the Mashantucket Pequot lived in southeastern Connecticut between the Thames and the Pawcatuck rivers. Then in 1636, their fortunes began to plummet. The anti-Pequot war that began that year was only one of the causes of the nation's eventual near-extinction: Poverty, disaster, and real estate plunder forced the tribe to recede into a remote 214-acre vestige of a reservation. In the 1970s, just as the Mashantucket Pequot seemed to be dissolving into irrecoverable history, their fortunes changed as quickly as the spin of a roulette wheel. Without Reservation chronicles how a dwindling group of Indians became the proprietors of Foxwoods, the world's largest gambling arena.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.