The American Indian. So proud. So brave. So subsidized.
The noble warriors who once stood so gallantly on the American landscape have turned to casinos as a source of income. But hey, it’s the 90s, anything to make a buck.
The legal sovereignty granted to American Indian tribes means that they can build and manage casinos, even in states where such activity would normally be illegal. Not only can they run casinos, but the income derived from such activity is tax-free.
Gambling in Indian territory is big business, with 184 tribes running 281 gambling facilities. The gambling business has made many of the tribes quite rich.
Of course, being rich is no excuse not to dip your hands into the federal treasury. Even if the tribes don’t pick your pocket at the roulette table, they’ve already gouged you when you pay your taxes. Federal Aid to Indian Tribes this year is estimated at
$759 million.
The tribes that have been enriched by gambling revenues are doing their best to make sure that they still get their share of your tax dollars. Using the kind of logic only found at the federal trough, Bernida Churchill told a Senate Indian Affairs Committee that “because one area has more than another does not mean that it deserves less.” Churchill is an official with Minnesota’s Mille Lacs band of Chippewa, owners of two prosperous casinos.
The Pequots tribe, owner of Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, donates hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to the Democratic and Republican parties. The largest tribe in the US, the Navajo, does not engage in gambling, but still finds it necessary to maintain a full time staff of seven lobbyists in Washington.
The lobbying efforts of the Indian tribes follow a curious, Orwellian logic. They insist that they are sovereign and independent nations, outside Washington’s control to tax or regulate. Yet they also insist that they are entitled to a never ending stream of federal aid.
Let’s review this situation. To vastly oversimplify: Many generations ago white settlers and American Indians did battle to see who would control territory claimed by the Indians. The Indians, who believed in the potency of warfare, lost. Sometimes they lost simply due to making bad deals, and occasionally to fraud on the part of the white man. In any event, they lost the war.
Yet the terms of their defeat must be the most generous in the history of warfare. Not only do they get to keep millions of acres of land, they also maintain their sovereignty and tax-free status. Within the borders of the US they are able to do things which would otherwise be illegal. And, scores of years after the battles have been fought, they continue to get hundreds of millions of dollars in “aid”; each and every year, forever.
Wait a minute, did we say the Indians lost the war?
(Source: Trib.com.)
Funny how both sides of an issue can be wrong.
If the Indians (or, native Americans, I’m sorry) are making
money, tax free I might add, from casinos and getting paid
by the federal government, why are they so damn poor?
I’ve seen the living conditions in the reservations, they
seem more like some third world country than any place in
the US, where is all this money going to? I always thought
the indians were a communal race, have they given up their
communal stance and accepted the American way of a
couple rich folks and thousands of poor? And really, who
gives a damn about what happened in the past, remember
the past and learn from it, but for chrissake lets not have
all you kiddies out there slinging insults or carrying grudges
because your great grandpa killed/cheated my great grandpa.
I guess I’m outraged at the uninformed, slanderous reactions
everyone has to this whole affair.
*sigh*
-Bojon
Time: 3/24/98 (11:54:32)
Time: 3/22/98 (17:17:26)
What has always amazed me is how I can be called “greedy” for not wanting to hand money to some group who believes I “owe” them something. I get up every day and go to work. The government takes half my income in tax. I get no handouts. In fact, I’m paying the most of any American tax bracket. I’m tired of the guilt trip on how the white man lied and broke treaties. I wasn’t there, okay? I have no problem with Indian people wanting to hang on to their heritage, but I don’t wish to fund it. Jewish people came to this country and by percentage did quite well, through education and hard work. Asian people came to this country and did quite well, through education and hard work. Irish, English, Dutch… the list goes on. The point is: become a member of society. Become an American. Earn money, pay taxes, teach your children to survive on their own. Break the chain of welfare by improving yourself. Fixing your situation is not my responsibility. I’m responsible for my family and myself. Anything above that is charity. I’m surviving by hard work. I suggest you do the same.
I don’t think our government has the right to give out money to anyone except to pay their expenses of operation and for defense spending. It is not right that the government take 40 cents to every dollar earned from a poor person to give to a stinky native american or to a foreign government, welfare or “charity” should be left to the church or any other private organization not a government, its time for us oppressed by our own government individuals to rise up and take back our country before its to late
LOL! I need to get off my ass and figure out how to
get government money to start my own subsidized
business.
The American Indians are still getting screwed every which way, so i say to them “Take everything you can and more, it is rightfully yours.”
Let the pale faces pay up.
Don’t hate the Indians for doing what Americans do best. Only by their grace did the whites survive here in early colonial days. Europeans would have written North America off if the (peasefull tribes) had not aided them. If the Europeans had been met at the shore by modern lawyers, North America would still be aboriginal. Blame yourself for allowing your politicians and your children to lack moral fiber and personal responsibility. Current White America owes the first Americans. Why don’t you write about the governments subsities to Blacks or Jews and to keep your hate machine churning. As for me and my tribal friends, we think that articles like this one, are spurned from ignorance. If you want to write articles concerning Government subsities to the undeserving write about Exxon and Dupont, not the victums of a crime. reelect no-one!!
now if you guys where native amercanyou wouldn’t be saying (talking all this stuff . that’s not right at all. Because as a young native american i’am perade to say that are you guy’s puttung down my culture ,just made me REALLY mad !!!!!!!!!!! now as ahint i wouldn’t be puttting your e-mail address up at all because you WHITE PEOPLE are ticking off all of us .
thanks allof you native americcan s fo rsaying what you did . THANKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I’m Irish.Igrew up hearing stories of the black and tans and the family stories of who we were before the English came.I spoke Irish and my Dad was into traditional music.My language identified me as Irish and not English and as the old song says, thank God were surrounded be water.The Indian on his reservation is surrounded by the white world and why shouldnt he keep his language and identity seperate.The world would be a very boring place if we were all Americans.I can understand the importance of not being assimillated and I do thinkthe Federal government should keep its agreements.I believe that the descendents of the Europeans who came to America with the attitude that they had a God given right to the land already occupied by the first Americans, should make reperation to the children of that terrible outrage.Until when?Until those Indians are living healthy happy fulfilled first class Indian lives and not second class white mans lives.I want to be Irish and recognized as Irish with allthose treasures my ancestors passed on to me and all that music and all those stories and that lilting language the English nearly killed off.Its my inheritance and no one should tell me to join any melting pot.Why should it be any diffirent for all those diverse American Indian people.I love my Indian relatives and I can identify with their struggle.The American way surely allows for the recovery of the people who lost so much.A little compassion please and less crying over tax.No one wonders about the tax going into arms and politicians private planes and limos.If america were invaded by a race from another planet who believed themselves superior and had very advanced technology and began moving people out of their homes and off of their farms and sending them to live inplaces they didnt want to go to wouldnt Americans fight back and feel outraged?Now you have it.Yes in ancient times there were movements of people but they usually just moved in with the people already there they didnt do what the English invaders did or the Romans for that matter.I think the English learned their warring trade from their masters the Romans.Look again and look with the compassion that Jesus had.
THE SO CALLED PEQUOTSE NOT EVEN INDIANS BUT MOSTLY BLACKS PLAYING INDIAN . LOOK AT THEIR PICTURES, IF THEY ARE INDIANS I AM THE POPE. BUT AS LONG AS THEY GREASE THE PALMS OF LIEBERMAN AND DODD THEYbecome INDIANS. GET A COPY OF THE FOXWOOD PEQUOTS AND YOU TELL ME THEY ARE INDIANS. MOST PEQUOTS THAT SURVIED THE PEQUOT WAR WERE ABSORBED INTO ENGLISH FAMILIES LONG BEFORE ELLIS ISLAND WAS OPEN. I AM PART CONN INDIAN HAVE BEEN WITH THE NATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS SINCE 1960 AND NOT TO SOME PHONIES PL;AYING INDIAN. I BELIEVE THE CASINOS SHOULD PAY SOME TAXES AND WITH GREEDY ELLIS ISLAND TYPES GO BACK TO EUROPE WHERE YOU GOT KICKED OUT OF IN MOST CASES. SAGAMORE
have you people lost your minds??? youre talking about indians right? the people that we permanently screwed for generations by destroying their way of life? those people? this place is an outhouse
The war, children, is NOT over yet. Haven’t you noticed? It’s most noticeable expression was physical–the violent bloodshed that went both ways in the early years. The removal of people from Earth, the breakup and forced aculturization of the families. But remember the FOUNDATIONS of early Native American culture (which are still thriving in some today). When the whites came into North America, the spiritual purpose of the racial exchange was supposed to be the gaining of spiritual understanding on the part of the whites and the gaining of authority on the part of the natives. The exchange is happening still, and has not YET come to resolution. The whites do not seek the true knowledge of the natives, and, sadly, yes, many of the natives have learned to misuse the authority they have gained. Whites should be studying the spiritual heritage of the natives, as they are the keepers of true knowledge in thei area, and natives should be using their authority to TEACH. The “battles” continue, but they are in our hearts now. Listen to your hearts!!
Onawa XO
paper
I think that before anyone auquires the motivation to speak for any cause, whether it is out of intrest in the subject or just outrage, one should do atleast enough reading on the subject to perpose a moderate argument. If you are prepaired to argue, you should also be prepaired to lose. Cause if you guys out there havent noticed, NO ONE is ever going to be right, one group just lucks out and the other is left to lic his wounds.
legal contracts should not force the gov. to attribute any finacial aid to native tribes and organizations in attempt to prezerve their culture. human dignity should. (a quality which past and present administrations lack)
it is unfortunate that this is even an issue.
make it wrong for the rights we commited
OH my god, my ancestors were murdered and knocked out of power in germany about a thousand years ago, SOMEONE owes me money!!!!
OH my god, my ancestors were murdered and knocked out of power in germany about a thousand years ago, SOMEONE owes me money!!!!
Never have I witnessed such garbage from such ignorant idiots. The INDIANS owned everything, you fools.
The whites took it from them, destroyed their civilization, religion, tried to supress their language, everything!
I hope they take every last nickle from you greedy gambling idiots. They deserve it!!
Have a nice day, idiots.