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Friday, September 5, 2003 |
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don't be surprised if they learn their lesson."
- - Will Rogers (Cherokee)
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - SEPTEMBER 5th
1882 -- Oglala Lakota (Sioux) warrior, Crazy Horse, assassinated while in custody at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, bayoneted by a U.S. soldier after allegedly resisting confinement in a jail cell.
http://www.indians.org/welker/crazyhor.htm
(There's a picture at this site - but the tale is told that Crazy Horse never let his photo be taken)
1970 -- Salvador Allende wins a democratic election for the Presidency of Chile. The US government, CIA, corporate business & labor unions have him assassinated & install the ruthless dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet who is friendly to "US interests".
http://www.geocities.com/educhile_1970s/index.html
RHINO HERE:
One more blog's worth of the California Recall Election. But this time, from the American Indian perspective. (Don't you mean "Native American", Rhino? The Horned One sez, "Native American? American Indian? If you wanna be politically correct, just give the land back.")
All articles today are from the weekly "Indian Country Today".
http://www.indiancountry.com
Let's begin by getting out of the way, the fact that there's an Indian running for Governor. His name is David Laughing Horse Robinson & he's the chairman of the "unrecognized" Kawaiisu Tribe since 1997. He's taken some reasonable positions but obviously has no chance of winning.
For more on "Horse" as he likes to be called, check out:
California Recall Roster Includes Kawaiisu Candidate
by: James May, Indian Country Today, 8/23/03
http://www.indiancountry.com/?1061567641
The biggest latest news regarding Indians & the recall is that the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians just gave Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante 2 million bucks. Now there's a lot of people upset about The California casino tribes shoving their financial weight around; everyone from Independent, Arianna Huffington & Green, Peter Camejo all the way to Conan the Hummer & Rush Limpbutt.
Rhino sez, "the Repub's wouldn't be saying squat if the Indian money was falling on them & as long as the independently wealthy & those sleeping in beds stuffed with corporate dollars have their ad budgets, why shouldn't the Indians support a man who's been their friend since before they had money?
For more on this check out:
Viejas Gives Bustamante Campaign Record Donation
by: James May, Indian Country Today, 9/4/03
http://www.indiancountry.com/?1062701444
The issue is more complicated than, "if they make money in this state, then they should pay state tax on it" or "if the privilege of not being taxed was restricted to African-Americans or Hispanics, there'd be a huge outcry."
The issue deserves more lessons in history & law than the Rhino can offer in a blog, but that said, bear in mind that Indians are different than other minorities in that the "recognized" tribes signed treaties with the US Government - Nation to Nation - and the States should have no jurisdiction over Indian land or what happens there. The States abided by that legal understanding all those decades & centuries when Indian people were living just down the road in the most impoverished conditions. That is until the States smelled the odor of white people's money wafting away onto Indian land.
One learns in law school that, "treaties are the law of the land." In making agreements with the Tribes which did not demand a cut of the casino action, the State of California honored the treaties, thereby honoring the essential sovereignty of the Indian Nations. (Way more to say on the topic of sovereignty & its implications, but not here now) But times are changing & money's tight. Now comes the newest gambling compact with money going to the State. Check out:
Torres Martinez Enters Into Gaming Compact With State Of California
by: James May / Indian Country Today, 8/15/03
http://www.indiancountry.com/?1060986087
The Rhino is wading into notoriously controversial waters, even argued heartily between Indian people. Even if I have way more info than your average white folk, it's still me having too much of just not enough knowledge on the subject. So, I direct your attention to the editors of the largest circulated Indian periodical, "Indian Country Today" (ICT). Owned by a casino business success & politically controversial Indian Government, The Oneida Nation, none-the-less, the editorial staff are some of the most seasoned & independent Indian thinkers around. Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE are 2 recent editorials on the subject at hand. If you want to know more, I urge you to at least click into the ICT web site editorials on a regular basis.
8:05:23 AM 
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Right-wing Hysteria Debases The Public Discourse
Indian Country Today Editorial, August 29, 2003
Indian country is showing some financial and political clout, and look who's all bent out of shape about it. The likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill "Shut-up" O'Reilly and now even Rich Lowry, the young editor of the provocative magazine of the far right, The National Review.
Lowry recently put out a piece of pure diatribe, stimulated no doubt by the fact that well-positioned and pugnacious California Indian tribes now have some financial ability to support their preferred politicians and these are not at this time politicians of the right-wing Republican persuasion. The tribal donations and political support that dismays the Republicans this time has been for kindred candidates and they appear to have been strategically on target, judging by the growing bigoted rhetoric of these ideological talking-heads.
Lowry's piece, entitled, "Indian Scam: Harrah's and dirty politics," (Aug. 25, 2003) deserved to be answered, for its sheer banality. Lowry starts by assuring his reader that Indians are not, after all, "noble people at one with a pristine North American continent..." This is noble savage bit. It's the oldest argument about Indians, akin to "some of my best friends are blacks." Or Chicanos, etc. First, hey, they really are not "noble savages." Then: "They are mostly just savages." Lowry would thus "upgrade the image" for us. "Forget buffalo, eagle feathers, and tribal dances," he tells us. "Think slots, Harrah's and dirty politics."
...Lowry complains, as if this was in itself bad, that "California tribes make some $5 billion a year in gambling revenue, and have poured more than $120 million into state political campaigns since 1998. But, why is this bad? Is this not what financially capable sectors do across America, support politics toward their basic objectives? Of course Indian involvement in the political process hardly matches the Administration's recent tax cut to America's wealthiest of the wealthy, those least in need within society, and the very same who are gratuitously returning the favor in the form of political donations...
GO ON! IT'S AT:
http://www.indiancountry.com/?1062164964
Bustamante And Tribes Should Team-up For California
Indian Country Today Editorial, , August 29, 2003
...Now comes more crazy nastiness from California, with Cruz Bustamante, the Latino lieutenant governor, emerging as front-runner. As Chris Mathews called it, Bustamante is Danny DeVito to Arnold in this movie. Which means, Bustamante is cool. If Davis is gray and Arnold is all blue, Bustamante is red. While Arnold's announcement had great bombast, the Bustamante campaign had immediate substance and vigor.
What good fortune, then, that Bustamante is a genuine friend of Indians. He was born a poor Latino (Chicano), worked in agriculture, cut his teeth on the social movements of the 1970s and climbed the political tree to the second highest post in California. Consistently, Bustamante has supported the California tribes and the tribes support him. While some tribes contribute to Republican candidates, and all tribes know the need to engage all political powers, tribal hearts (and wallets) in California belong largely to Bustamante, who has received some $500,000 so far from tribes.
It is entirely proper and a welcome moment that a Latino with roots in the indigenous vein of the old Californios, a friend to Indian tribes at a crucial moment in their development, would be the one to scramble the plans of the right-wing ideologues. Bustamante, the grandson of Mexican immigrants to the Central Valley, would be California's first Latino governor since 1875. His candidacy has the Latino community riveted. Latino grass-roots organizations are mounting energetic voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives for election day. Combine the Latino energy with the emerging Native American financial clout, and a great political partnership appears in the offing...
I DARE YA - READ IT ALL AT:
http://www.indiancountry.com/?1062164051
"RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. ( rhino@kifaru.com )
Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged.
"RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com)
Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged.
SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT:
http://www.rhinosblog.info
RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES:
http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG)
http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES)
Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
All copyrights belong to original publisher.
7:00:23 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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