Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
|
February 16, 1994
[unpublished]
The
October-November, 1993 issue of International Gaming
& Wagering Business had a front-page article by Matt Connor,
“Corruption on
the reservation: Cause for concern?” In
this article, White Earth enrollee Erma Vizenor is described as
“infuriated at
her tribal administrator,” because $12 million dollars worth of funds
for
developing the Shooting Star Casino came from the White Earth Land
Settlement
Act. She says that this money
rightfully belongs to the White Earth people, and is quoted, “It is
almost
impossible to get [accountability] because the tribe is insulated by
sovereign
immunity.”
The
same article discusses casino security, referring to
Potawatomi security director Roger Miller talking about sending
confidential
information back and forth from tribe to tribe, “Our attorneys told us
that as
sovereign peoples we could transfer that type of information without
being
liable for the types of penalties other organizations might be. For our own protection, we’re allowed to do
that.” Just who are the “sovereign
peoples” Miller is talking about?
Matt
Connor writes, in the same article, about the gaming
contracts, “And once the contract is approved, it’s extremely difficult
to
remove a management team who’s signed on the dotted line.
Connor quotes “Chip” Wadena as saying, “My
word is my bond.” Why are some White
Earth people complaining about the casino?
Chip gave you his word! Matt
Connor also quotes Mystic Lake Vice President of Planning and
Development,
Allene Ross, “Once the contract’s approved and whatnot, tribes have no
legal
remedies.” Now, get this, folks, once
the Bureau of Indian Affairs approves the contracts, as trustee for
their
legally incompetent Indian wards, there are only illusions of Indian
sovereignty, and the “sovereignty” that makes it impossible to get
information,
belongs to the Secretary of the Interior.
Ever
since the Treaties, White intermediaries have been
taking the lion’s share: they take part of it as brokers, and then they
take
the rest under trusteeship. At the
Treaties, the Indian Traders were collecting big bucks on what they
called
“depredations.” Now, the White media
are molding public opinion, in a diversionary tactic that “organized
crime”
might be involved with Indian Gaming.
Don’t worry about the Mafia moving onto the
Reservations—organized crime
has been involved since the European Whites and Indians invaded Ahnishinahbæótjibway land.
The
treaties are analogous to a giant garage sale, giving away land and
resources
that never belonged to either one of them.
The concerned public doesn’t need to get overly optimistic, and
look for
a different set of criminals or a change in their behavior.
GETTING THE
FACTS:
Instead
of complaining, there are a number of ways that
anybody can find out what’s happening with the Indian Casinos:
In
the business section of the February 15, 1994 Minneapolis Star
Tribune, under Consolidated Stock Listings, Grand Casinos (GrdCasn
s)
was listed under the G’s as a National Over-the-Counter stock with a
price-to-earnings ratio of 34, 3064 shares traded, and a closing price
of
$26.50 per share—stock prices are listed Tuesday through Saturday in
the
Business Section. On January 26, the
price was listed as 27 5/8, which means twenty-seven dollars and 62 and
a half
cents, according to a wise old sage I asked.
This elderly gentleman, who understands the wheeling and dealing
of the
stock and bond markets, told me that the 5/8 comes from the Spaniard’s
plunder
of Aboriginal Indigenous peoples’ gold.
The Spanish used a gold coin called the Real, and to make
change, they
cut it up into eight pieces. This is
where “two bits” comes from, and this old European plunder currency is
still
quoted in the stock market every day.
I
was also told that stocks are usually sold in blocks of
100. This the message he gave me for
you White Earth people: Legally incorporate a stock-buying
co-operative, and
keep accurate records. If a hundred
people get together, for about $30. each (stock price plus
stockbroker’s
“points”), you will be part owner on both sides, and the Casino will
send you
quarterly or annual reports, probably on expensive glossy paper with
four-color
printing. Stockholders also can attend
stockholder’s meetings (according to the old sage, often held in
Delaware,
Texas or Nevada, since these states have bigger loopholes in their
business
laws and tax shelters), and vote on the people who are running the
company. If a hundred Indians show up,
with one share of stock each, at the next stockholder’s meeting, Chip
Wadena
will be very surprised to find out he has a new boss.
Don’t blame me, I’m not a rabble rouser.
Anybody
who can get to the library can also find information
on any company, including Grand Casinos and Gaming World International,
in such
reference books as Standard and Poor’s, Dun and Bradstreet, and many
others to
which a friendly librarian can direct you.
Companies
which sell stock to the public must register with
the Securities Exchange Commission—and some of the information they
file is
public information. All companies are
incorporated, and their articles of incorporation, and owners of
record, are
public information.
The
Bureau of Indian Affairs has copies of all of the
contracts with Gambling Management Companies—and if the B.I.A. is doing
its
job, they also have a file of the information they found when they
investigated
the company before approving the contract.
This is public information, and the Bureau is legally obliged to
answer
Freedom of Information Act letters.
I
gave you all the good news. Now, the bad
news is that Indians are under trusteeship, and are
wards of the Government governed by Chief Jim Crow and his squaw
A-par-theid. Indians don’t have any
legal rights, and I suppose that the U.S. Government can take away any
stocks
an Indian buys, under trusteeship, and if an Indian acts too uppity,
remember
that the U.S. Government can take away your Indian identity, with one
stroke of
the pen.
TRIBAL
ELECTIONS:
Momentum
is gathering for the elections which will be held in
May at Red Lake. Some of the candidates
are starting to politick, and the loggers are busy making stumps, so
everybody
will have a choice of stumps of their very own, when the time comes for
stump
speeches.
After
every election, since the Indian Reorganization Act
brought Democracy onto Red Lake, there has been a petition circulated,
contesting the election. (What these
petitions really do, is authenticate the crooked political system that
the
Bureau put in here.) There has been one
dissident, and a few malcontents, who have spent thirty years trying to
get
Chairman-for-Life Roger Jourdain out of office with petitions. Now, this dissident and his malcontents have
good jobs inside the system. The
Florscheim’s on the other foot, and the former “outsiders” are the ones
trying
to keep the Chairman-for-Life from getting his job back.
During his tenure, Roger Jourdain made it
tough for other candidates to run against him—but some of the laws that
he
passed are boomeranging back on him, close enough to the ground that
they might
hit him where it hurts. One of Roger’s
own laws, that he now has to live under, is that a candidate for Tribal
Office
has to live on the Reservation for a year.
Roger has a trailer in Redby, but the New Chairman, Butch Brun,
won’t
hook up his water or his electricity.
The
dissidents and the malcontents could get ahead of the
game, and start circulating their petitions now. The
Bureau of Indian Affairs has already had a closed-door
election, and using proxy votes under trusteeship, the B.I.A. has
already
decided who won the election—the new Tribal Directories are probably at
the
printer’s now, so they can be passed out the day after the elections.
SELL-OUTS:
In
the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, words we used to hear
quite often were “sell-out” and “apple.”
Now, we don’t hear these seemingly obsolete words anymore,
because the
people who were hollering “sell-out” the loudest, now have well-paying
jobs as
professional apples. Years ago, you
weren’t a militant until you could use the word “sell-out” as a part of
your
vocabulary. A Real Militant Indian wore
sunglasses, cowboy boots, braids, and walked kind of bowlegged down the
street,
practicing how to say “sell-out” with a condescending sneer. Hmmm, how times change.
My telephone number
is (218) 679-2382 and my mailing address is P.O. Box 484, Bemidji, MN
56601.
Wub-e-ke-niew
|
|
|