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

by Jeff Benedict (Author)

"The book seems at times like a legal thriller, a psychological drama, a morality tale, and a scandal sheet." -- Richard Tambling, Hartford Journal Inquirer

Jeff Benedict, the author of No Bone Unturned, tracks the transformation of the Mashantucket Pequots from a population of one on 214 miserable acres in the early 1970s to today's largest landowner in Connecticut. Led by a former laborer, Tribal Chairman Richard "Skip" Hayward, the Pequots have become the wealthiest, most politically influential Indian tribe in the United States. In Without Reservation, Benedict exposes startling revelations about the tribe and their casino, Foxwoods.

Back Jacket

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.