I couldn't get the full link and this may be off topic, but this administration is the first I have seen that has folks like Abramoff running scams to get in on the Indian gambling dollars. Is this new or has this gone on forever, whitey looking to capitalize on Indian gaming rights?
Not forever. Just since 1492.
More recently, though, the misappropriation of funds held in trust for tribes by the Department of Interior amounts to approximately two hundred billion dollars. Yeah, that's billion, not million.
There is no dispute about this figure, which is basically revenue from resource extraction royalties on Indian lands, subsequently stolen by the US government, which forced the suit in federal court known popularly as "Cobell".
This and other crimes and treaty violations that resulted in the destruction of indigenous economies based on such things as healthy fish runs, forced some tribes into gaming. Most Indian gaming enterprises are marginally profitable; you only read about the high-rollers that attract outside criminals like Abramoff who play an intermediary roll between tribes and federal agencies that regulate the industry.
Indian gaming "privileges" were only allowed by Congress due to the utter failure of US Indian policies designed to terminate and assimilate the first nations and perhaps guilt over earlier attempts at genocide. Something that is repeatedly overlooked is that this consolation is in lieu of honoring the treaties that functioned as liens on the US portion of the continent of North America, the relinquishing of specific property rights in exchange for payments in perpetuity.
Indian health and education funding are only a small part of the overall obligations agreed to by the US. Two centuries of neglecting these responsibilities is why much Indian reservation poverty is comparable to the third world.
[I fixed the link--thanks.]
I forget where I read the article, punched a link somewhere, but some studies are now giving racism as genetic (self preservation etc). As in it's something that comes naturally but you can educate yourself on it and overcome. I don't believe it and think it's a copout. I'll have to locat that article.
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