By Kathy Cleary Los Olivos, Calif. War, war and more war Editor:
As presidential candidates and candidates/ husbands proclaim their allegiance to “Indian Country," one can only hope that the media now realizes that the collusion of Indian gaming and our representative government is not a benign tumor affecting small, rural towns.
It is an aggressive cancer and killer of democracy. Evidence of the aggressiveness of this killer cancer was re-exposed just recently.
In meetings with community groups, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Carl Artman said he fully supports tribal interests and doesn’t care if Indian casino hosting communities are “annihilated.”
This is not the first time that Mr. Artman had made his agenda known.
In 2002 as tribal attorney for the Oneida Indians he told citizens of Hobart, Wisc., to get ready to be “extinguished.”
Note that Mr. Artman is using his position of authority and federal power to support tribal interests and not impoverished Indian tribes.
Tribal interests were brilliant in using small communities to quietly feed the Indian gaming cancer into a $27 billion industry that has no accountability to the public.
The media paid little attention thinking Indian gaming affected only small, rural towns.
Now the Indian gaming industry is the most powerful lobbying group, surpassing the teacher’s union and trial lawyers as the largest political contributor.
Ironically, only 11 percent or less of impoverished Indians are benefiting from the $27 billion Indian gaming windfall.
Hundreds of Indian gaming communities stagger under the weight of crime and corruption of tribal gambling and land expansion.
They watch, horrified as the un-taxed gambling entity buys up their community.
Local and state politicians and local and state government agencies tell communities there is nothing they can do because of sovereignty or because tribal issues are controlled by the feds.
The state tells them negotiations for more slot machines is none of their business.
The feds tell them they have no standing to oppose tribal land expansion.
This cancer is spreading. It is time to investigate the Department of the Interior and all other agencies and politicians who support tribal interests and Indian gaming.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 20, 2008. Read the original PDF.