Government still stealing from Native Americans

[Judi Lynn]

Government still stealing from Native Americans
Casino scandal just one on a long list


By PAUL VANDEVELDER
For the Los Angeles Times
January 22. 2005 8:00AM


On long winter nights beside the Knife and Little Big Horn rivers in Montana, tribal elders sit around story fires and tell their grandchildren legends to help them make sense of the world. It's a time-worn custom, as old as silence.

A black man, a white man and an Indian arrived at the Pearly Gates, begins one of their favorite tales. After welcoming them to heaven, St. Peter invites each man to choose the afterlife of his dreams. The black man asks for great music and lots of friends. St. Peter grants his wish and sends him on his way. Up steps the Indian, who asks for beautiful mountain streams, deep forests and plenty of food. "Say no more, chief," says St. Peter, sending him off. Last, he turns to the white man and asks, "What do you want heaven to look like?" And the white man says, "Where did that Indian go?"

Ever since Columbus waded ashore, say the elders beside the Knife and the Little Big Horn, white men in funny hats have been asking, "Where did that Indian go?" In this context, the latest scandal -involving Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, the Republican operatives who allegedly fleeced six casino tribes out of $80 million by promising them, well, a little slice of heaven in Washington, D.C., is an old story come full circle.

Sure, editorial boards at The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others, are right to call for their heads. The practice of mocking tribal leaders as "morons"and "monkeys" while allegedly stealing them blind gives off a foul odor, even in the nation's capital.
(snip/...)

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050122/REPOSITORY/501220305/1028/OPINION02

[Enquiringkitty]

1. I agree! They show no shame either.

If anyone in this country has the right to carry a grudge, it would be the American Indian but most of them I have worked with or just met are really nice people trying very hard to hold on to who they are and to preserve the history of a people who fit within their natural environment so perfectly until the un-natural ways of the white man came and took their world away and put them on reservations. They all had hope when oil was found on some of their lands but regulations and government controls dashed that hope. Then gambling money looked like it would give them the Independence and self respect they needed .... Ya! RIGHT!