Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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VICTIMS OF
CONGRESS:
According to Friday’s
Minneapolis Star
Tribune, Congress finally passed its flood relief legislation—which
the
President is expected to veto. The
disaster which was sandbagged in the Red River Valley, is now being
stonewalled
in the Halls of Congress. Law makers
are in the back rooms cutting deals to get more Pork for their
Districts, and
they are using promises to flood victims to get re-elected. Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow foot the
bill: paying for Congressional boondoggles out of one pocket, and
inflation has
got its hands in all of their pockets.
While the people of Grand Forks and other towns in the flood
plain are
digging the mud out of their basements, the politicians are rubbing
their hands
in glee, thinking about the money that will go through their good
buddies into their
district.
The
people who are living on the flood plain choose to live
there, and should not be called flood “victims.” If
you bought a used car from Honest Bob, and it broke down
before you got it home, would the Federal Government reimburse you for
your
good judgement? Honest Bob also sells
real estate on the Red River Flood Plain.
If you bought any property in that area—which has flooded for
millennia,
and is supposed to flood—should the Federal Government bail you out, or
should
Honest Bob reimburse you? It should be
obvious to any schoolchild that the reason a “flood plain” is called a
flood
plain is because, plain and simple, it is supposed to flood there. It has always flooded there.
That’s how all that nice rich black dirt got
there—from floods. Or, didn’t anybody
ever tell you that?
There
is a song about the Red River Valley, which starts,
“From this valley, they say you are leaving.”
That’s kind of a prophecy for you folks who got caught up in the
Army
Corps of Engineers’ grandiose delusions that they could change the
course of
Mother Nature and the Red River of the North.
The U.S. Army Corps is fighting a loosing battle, building dams
to move
the floods out of the floodplain and onto the top of the watershed. Did they ever hear of Isaac Newton, or
gravity? Water is heavy, and the weight
of all that water (upstream) is another disaster, just waiting to
happen. The Army Corps of Engineers should
have
opened their floodgates and let the excess water out last fall, but the
arrogant dummies didn’t do it. Now, Red
Lake—and probably other reservoirs—are filled beyond capacity.
As
one old timer says, “the more water you put in a hog
waller, the harder it is to get them out.”
Instead of letting the politicians play games with you, buying
your
votes with your own money, and selling you pork in a poke in the form
of
more—and very expensive—dikes, why not take your flood insurance and
get out of
the flood plain? Or, better yet, why
not reverse the swindle and sell the land back to the “Indians” who
supposedly
sold it to you—for the original purchase price of four cents an acre? (Who were the victims, then?)
You don’t have to be a “victim” unless you
choose to be—or unless you’re caught up in cultural S & M.
ANOTHER SOB STORY: The
National Congress of American Indians has a half page ad in the Sunday Star
and Tribune. This $lick piece of
propaganda shows an old Indian woman, looking into the camera sadly. With all of the money that is supposedly
going to Indian people with the “New Buffalo” of Indian gaming, why
doesn’t
this old lady have a new hairdo, eyeglasses, a new sweater ... why
doesn’t she
have teeth? The NCAI’s ads remind me of
fund-raising drives that the National Council of Churches used to have
years
ago, with portraits of starving children
who would never get any of the money given to the churches to
help them.
John
Collier said, about the new Indians he intended to
empower with the Indian Reorganization Act, that these Indians have a
“white-plus psychology.” In plain
English, this translates to Collier’s Indians exploiting their own
people even
more than the white man did, if that’s possible. The
National Indian Gaming Association paid for the NCAI’s ad
exploiting the old lady. The next time
you NCAI lackeys and you white Federally Recognized Tribal henchmen run
this
ad, why don’t you give the old lady you’ve been portraying some nice
gold
earrings, new clothes, a new house in the background, a new car with a
chauffeur—and some good teeth, with gold in them.
The
point of the NCAI’s ad, was to protest proposals to tax
the IRA “tribal” governments established by the United States Congress. This proposal to tax these “tribal
governments,” who are political pawns created and controlled by the
white man,
doesn’t make a lot of sense. What this
new tax proposal amounts to, is the US Government taxing itself—Newt
should
save some paperwork and send the Indians’ proposed tax bill to himself. If he’s really serious about Indian
taxation, he should also charge himself sales tax and surtaxes on all
of the
land that the Indians are supposed to have sold.
SPEARFISHING: The annual
spring rite of Indian spearfishing controversy and promoting white
tourism has
begun again. The flurry of news
articles generated every year, blame the Indian spearfishers for
declining
walleye populations, but never write about preserving the ecosystem.
The
Indians make a big deal about “ceremonial fish,” which
reeks of New Age Indian mystique. But
then again, maybe these fish are “ceremonial” because nobody in their
right
mind would eat fish contaminated with mercury and PCB’s.
The white resort-owners are going after
tourist dollars by promoting “catch and release,” so they don’t have to
put
warning labels about mercury poisoning on each fish.
That’s a job that the DNR needs to start doing: labelling every
fish in the lakes: “This fish is contaminated with mercury and other
pollutants, and eating it is harmful to your health.”
But
then again, reviving the old treaties is just another con
job: a remarkable example of cooperation between the Indians and the
Whites. They are like two peas in a
pod, and so wonderfully crooked it has become a science.
Just remember: Jesus loves you, but I
don’t. Have a good day.
My
mailing address is P.O. Box 484, Bemidji, MN 56619, and my
telephone number is (218) 679-3984.
Wub-e-ke-niew
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