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.)
