by Elaine Willman, CERA Chairperson
The strong winds of change are blowing. A large and effective community group has formed in Rohnert Park, CA to protest an Indian casino coming to town. Just what California needs! Rohnert Park folks are recalling their City Council members, conducting a major protest parade, and networking with groups across the region and country. And the same goes for Florence, Oregon that has a new community education group, PACT (Citizens Against A Casino Town). It’s becoming increasingly necessary to oppose bad government decisions, whether they are federal, state, local or tribal. Government decisions are separate matters from respect for all cultures.
A reporter from Bangor, Maine called me here in Washington State today, for information on the economic impact of Indian casinos and Senate Bill 578. A woman called today to report domestic violence activities and the abuse of her 16-year-old daughter by tribal leaders on the Western coast of Washington. Local law enforcement is unavailable to her, and tribal law enforcement is harassing her entire family while she tries to rescue a young daughter and two grandchildren. In Connecticut, a statewide organization that successfully limited Indian casinos to the two that currently exist, is now launching serious efforts to ensure limited, if any, expansion of the already enormous Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos.
Thurston County Nebraska officials successfully demanded the removal of a sudden flurry of “You’re Entering Oneida Reservation” signs along highways not near Indian lands. “They're gearing up for the passage of Senate Bill 578,” commented a local elected official. And are you watching the California Governor's Recall with its number one Hot Topic being, – flagrant and boastful 7-figure contributions from Indian tribes to CA's Lt. Governor, Cruz Bustamante, and to candidates that cannot win, but can take votes away from Arnold? No other entity in America can write a check for $2,000,000 to a candidate, and be held entirely unaccountable. The political muscle of Indian tribes in California should be chilling to every state across the country.
A small team of representatives will be in Washington D.C. in September to meet with reporters from New York and Baltimore, to tape a conservative radio talk show, and to meet with every possible senator and congressman that we can, along with scheduled meetings at Department of Interior, the White House, Department of Justice and EPA. The topics: Senate Bill 578, the outrageous “Indian loophole” in Campaign Finance Reform, and the support of Congress and federal agencies that is assisting tribes to expand their rightfully limited sovereignty, and to overturn and silence the voice of the U.S. Supreme Court so that tribal governments may govern beyond their members and properties.
Why all the fuss? Follow the money. Follow it right into the pockets of federal and state elected officials, follow it right into the pockets of “outside handlers” who are facilitating an explosion of Indian casinos across the country. Follow it right into the gluttonous Indian legal industry dining insatiably from unlimited tribal treasury and casino dollars. And follow the federal money placed into tribal treasuries to acquire major energy distribution systems that are being converted from public utilities to private tribal utilities. Follow it into a consortium of the “top ten + seven more” major universities about to revise and further fictionalize American Indian history in all of our major higher education institutions.
Federal dollars married to casino dollars is moving into every single arena in America: energy, entertainment, environment, education, “tribal homeland security,” technology work in Iraq–it’s everywhere you go and everywhere you are. Considering that only 1 out of 4 American Indians even belong to federally recognized tribes, the MONEY has had enormously disproportionate impact.
The reaction? No one begrudges economic stability and quality of life for tribal families. No one. The problem? The money isn't improving these two areas. The money is buying politicians, buying land and buying the elimination of our Supreme Court’s voice, and buying jurisdictional authority that removes the government of hundreds of thousands of other Americans, and millions of more Americans who might find themselves traveling through or inadvertently doing business with a tribe.
Yes, the winds of change are blowing a gale of “special interest” across the country. We must not allow these strong winds of anger to blow out the light of reason. CERA and citizens across the country are moving forward with informed research, reason and endurance, to quell the storms kicking up from Indian special interests that create almost no benefits for tribal members or their families, and steal the liberties, resources, benefits and local community economies of other citizens.
With your help, protecting your Constitutional rights and the well being of your communities, the winds will pass. No one can out-money the tribes. But every single one of us can vote and vote out elected officials who would line their pockets and spit on their Oath of Office, while cold-shouldering the rest of America. Across the country, we are standing shoulder-to-shoulder against the winds of special interests.