Writerfella here -- Intriguing responses. But the posts miss a couple of salient points. 1. Federal funding and programs for Native tribes derive from treaties and subsequent Federal social legislation. 2. Not all Native tribes are gaming tribes and it likely is that all tribes never will be. Now, such treaties ordinarilly cannot be abrogated unilaterally, Russell Means or no Russell Means. But social legislation and social programs can, have been, and will be underfunded into ineffectiveness or starved out entirely. The Bush administration, with the aid of a Republican majority in Congress, in 2001 immediately set about targeting both Medicare and Social Security for reductions and possible outright starvation. But then GW decided he wanted to be a 'War President'... Whew! Missed it by THAT much! James Simon certainly would have read the original news article, closed his eyes and his mind, and lifted both arms in the air while shouting 'Hosannas' and taking it as gospel... All Best Russ Bates 'writerfella'
Writerfella here --
ReplyDeleteIntriguing responses. But the posts miss a couple of salient points. 1. Federal funding and programs for Native tribes derive from treaties and subsequent Federal social legislation. 2. Not all Native tribes are gaming tribes and it likely is that all tribes never will be.
Now, such treaties ordinarilly cannot be abrogated unilaterally, Russell Means or no Russell Means. But social legislation and social programs can, have been, and will be underfunded into ineffectiveness or starved out entirely. The Bush administration, with the aid of a Republican majority in Congress, in 2001 immediately set about targeting both Medicare and Social Security for reductions and possible outright starvation. But then GW decided he wanted to be a 'War President'... Whew! Missed it by THAT much!
James Simon certainly would have read the original news article, closed his eyes and his mind, and lifted both arms in the air while shouting 'Hosannas' and taking it as gospel...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'