The last Indian war
At one time, the Shoshone-Bannock Indian reservation in southeastern Idaho comprised nearly the entire corner of the state. It was a massive tract of some 1.8 million acres on a high desert plateau — like many reservations, mostly godforsaken scrublands that most people thought of as undesirable.
Over the years, though, the federal government — at the behest of various white business interests — gradually gnawed away at the Sho-Ban tribes’ holdings, until all that remained was about 520,000 acres along the Snake River.
Probably the largest single chunk was the 418,000 acres taken in 1902 in the Pocatello Land Run. On June 17 that year, some six thousand whites lined up along the reservation borders and, sanctioned by the federal government, which has earlier taken the essentially unilateral step of ceding the lands from the tribes, staked out claims to properties they all hoped would produce the next great gold mine of the Golden West.
It turned out that none of these hopes had much basis. The mining claims quickly turned up dry, and the only people who got rich were the ones processing the land claims. After a few years, the former tribal lands mostly became attractive farming properties. My great-granddad, a Jack Mormon named David Aslett, picked up one of these parcels around 1912 and farmed it for many years before losing it in the Depression.
The lust for Indian lands has never really gone away. Indeed, it’s become quantifiably worse in recent years, especially as many of these lands have increased exponentially in their actual value. The casino phenomenon, however, and the resulting backlash has moved the situation onto a significantly higher plane.
One of the main friction points originates with leased tribal lands, or “fee simple lands,” as they’re called. While Indian reservations constitute essentially small nations within the nation, most of them, in fact, are largely populated by whites who pay fees for the rights to live there — but who are subject to the authority of the tribes, particularly regarding land-use policy.
I’ve worked as a reporter on three separate reservations (Shoshone-Bannock in southeastern Idaho, Nez Perce in Lapwai, Idaho, and Salish/Flathead in Ronan, Montana), and I’ve had extensive dealings with the Makah tribe’s whaling controversy. In all of those places, the contention over the rights of fee-land property owners has given impetus to local campaigns by whites to whittle away at tribal sovereignty.
Now the campaign appears to be going national, thanks to the merger of two of the most potent anti-Indian organizations — One Nation United of Oklahoma and United Property Owners of Redmond, Washington. They’ve created a nationwide organization with chapters in all 50 states, according to a recent report by the editors of Indian Country:
High on the reading list of the Web site of One Nation, the anti-Indian organization, is the article titled, ‘’Schwarzenegger, tribes on collision,'’ by Alan Murray of CNBC. The main thrust of the article is to cheer on the terminator governor from California as he shakes down the tribes for all they are worth.
That’s the opportunistic focus on one coast. Elsewhere in the country United Property Owners of Redmond, Wash., has announced that they will be merging with One Nation of Oklahoma to form a new non-partisan anti-Indian organization called One Nation United. The new organization states it will have approximately 300,000 members in all 50 states. New York will be represented on the One Nation United Advisory Board by David Vickers, president of anti-Indian organization Upstate Citizens for Equality.
The news is a reminder of the steady stirring by anti-Indian groups nationally. One Nation is the Oklahoma-based portion of the nationally fast-growing coalition of organizations intent on the destruction of tribal freedom throughout the United States. Wrapping themselves in the American flag, these groups seek to gain both a national profile and national influence. At this time in history, given the trend toward majority excesses and the tenuous support for Indian positions in federal courts, this is a movement that is poised to become seriously dangerous to Indian governments. Indian country leadership dismisses it at its own peril.
What’s especially noteworthy as well is the continuing theme of “thieving” tribes “ripping off” whites. This is a motif that also has been with us a long time. Serious students of Western history are well aware, for instance, that “thievery” was a common justification for wanton slaughter of Indians by white settlers for many years.
The story goes on to note that the “anti-Indian movement is shopping for a national voice and face,” and seems to conclude that the leading candidate so far is Schwarzenegger.
The Governator’s role in the newest anti-Indian campaign, in fact, is becoming clearer all the time. The right-wing American Enterprise Magazine recently made this explicit.
It also laid out the longer-term agenda at work here. These people are not merely seeking to make the “thieving” tribes “pay their fair share” — they’re interested in wiping out the concept of tribal sovereignty altogether:
Opponents of Indian gambling fall into two philosophical camps. Some seek incremental mitigation of negative impacts. Others seek an end to tribal sovereignty, which they say is an un-American concept. Cheryl Schmit believes Congress may eventually be forced to redefine “sovereignty” or do away with it altogether. “I think it will happen,” she says, “but it will take a Constitutional amendment, and that could be a 20-year process. During that time, I’m not willing to give up all the other issues we can address through local agreements.”
Who better to fight the last Indian war than a famous action hero?
November 22nd, 2004 at 8:58 am
Look, they’ve been here 50,000 years and we’ve been here 500 or so. What’s a couple of zeroes?
November 22nd, 2004 at 9:27 am
Mine, mine, all mine. How dare those people who were here thousands of years ago, and who were victims of our lust for land, expect us to honor those “quaint” treaties. Hmmm…i’m sensing a theme here.
November 22nd, 2004 at 9:35 am
The Indian tribes in Minnesota are being shaken down by Gov. Pawlenty for a share of their profits - if they don’t pony up something like 23%, the governor is threatening to bring in Vegas casino operators to build a casino downtown.
The excuse our idiotarian governor is giving for this is that to fix our giant budget shortfall without raising taxes, he needs an alternate source of revenue. Apparently, he feels that resting the shoulders of our budget on discretionary entertainment is a good idea…and that Indians don’t count as people when you promise not to raise taxes on Minnesotans.
The thing that blows me away is the apparent lack of shame at stepping right in and breaking treaties, violating sovereignity, and all-round acting with naked thuggery that characterizes these anti-Indian movements. It’s like people feel that once you cross the boundary of the reservation, you get to put on a cowboy hat and start living the days of government-sponsored genocide and theft all over again.
November 22nd, 2004 at 11:17 am
Your righteous indignation is on the right side of the coin, but it neglects recent history.
Native American land claims being heard in US Court are, at least in New York, and where else I have read about it, are going in favor of the plaintiffs (Native Americans).
Similarly, the mafia has taken advantage of the tribal right to own-and-operate a Casino, and now many of these descendents of a near-exterminated people are working with the racketeers, and the corrupt politicos, to get rich.
What’s actual happens, by the way, when the Native Americans prove that they, by treaty, own a 200 acre island in New York is not that they get the Island, and move the hundreds of home-owners off, but they get cash settlements.
Gambling is run, for the most part, by murderous crooks. The particular Native Americans they hook up with, for the Casino Gaming, are the ones who are willing to take the money and look the other way, if not use their sovereign(well, semi-sovereign) lands to help organized crime (something I just made up, but it would certainly help a criminal organization to have lands like that around).
Since it is mostly the GOP that is taking the money from the mob here, I don’t see why this isn’t a great story.
Oh well.
November 22nd, 2004 at 11:56 am
Thank you. This is our Truth and Reconciliation challenge. When my renowned Lakota artist friend Paul Owns-the-Saber unveiled his 30 foot mural titled “apartheid” at a KQED TV Native American awards ceremony a few years back, the four scenes depicted were Northern Ireland, South Africa, Palestine, and an American Indian reservation.
Some psychohistorians,like Robert Jay Lifton and Gabriel Kolko, view US-perpetrated atrocities Hiroshima and Vietnam as the basis of our present dramatic violence and theatrical militarism–waged in denial of past evil and in support of the illusion of American benevolence–but clearly these roots go much deeper.
November 22nd, 2004 at 12:52 pm
Hit me!
November 22nd, 2004 at 1:08 pm
While formally doing away with tribal sovereignity might be a twenty year process, what about informal undermining and abusing of the system. This administration never met a treaty it didn’t want to repudiate and the soon to be Attorney General is the main appologist for their repudiations. Remember, Gonzales thinks the Geneva conventions are quaint and outdated and that the individual states are not bound by treaties signed by the federal government. This issue could take an ugly turn very soon.
November 22nd, 2004 at 1:30 pm
Why sit back and let it happen? Surely there are more than 300,000 people in the US who believe that taking away the remaining treaty rights of Indians is an abomination. Let’s start an organization to fight these “One Nation United” scum. Ideas for a name? Anybody here experienced with lobbying?
November 22nd, 2004 at 3:01 pm
Remember, the democrats were constatnly cited in courts for many of these same issues. By all means, we should oppose these appropiations (I have recently heard of plans to further encroach everywhere from Four Corners to Wounded Knee/Badlands). But remember, there are no politicians, of either party, and the side of the First Americans.
November 22nd, 2004 at 8:32 pm
Josh: I assume since you admit to making up the allegation of Indian tribes knowingly helping organized crime, that you quite possibly haven’t bothered to investigate the issue beyond listening to some loudmouth on talk radio or reading some bigoted editorial. If you had, and I hope you do, you would find that only a small percentage of tribes have casinos, most are not wildly profitable, and that the reason tribes have had to turn to gameing is due to default on federal obligations and embezzlement of funds collected by the feds that rightly belong to the Indian peoples. There’s quite a lot of documentation of fraud within the Interior department that has gone on since the US government made the treaties that promised health and education services as well as environmental liens (in perpetuity) in exchange for relinquishing the right to occupy specific territories. None of these contracts have been honored by the US, not one, and so I guess in a legal sense the Indian nations have a right to “foreclose” on America. That being rather impractical at this point in time, it’s difficult to see how not interfering in their gameing operations could be construed as doing the Indians a favor. At any rate,lay off the incendiary talk about get rich, mafia-loving, murder-sanctioning, privileged Indians. It doesn’t help to resolve anything.
November 23rd, 2004 at 4:44 am
The Midnight Oil
I’ve got two midterms on Wednesday, so posting is going to be light until then. But still, I’ve been reading a bit, and all these open windows on my desktop have just got to go. Support the troops? Good. How…
November 24th, 2004 at 1:44 pm
Native lands
David Neiwert is worth reading no matter what he’s writing about. His regular blog, Orcinus, is the best site on the web for keeping in touch with home-grown American hate groups and various groundswells of racism and terror in the…
November 26th, 2004 at 2:33 pm
When is enough enough for these people?
November 28th, 2004 at 7:18 pm
I agree on the post regarding proliferation of hate groups but you need to identify who the real propagaters of hate are. Tribal leader citing over and over crimes that happened in some cases, over 300 years ago in order to show how horrible those nasty Europeans were is useless in 2005. The majority of current American not only had nothing to do with those crimes, they are also losing patience with those who refuse to deal with present day issues. American citizens defending their homes and hard earned businesses from greedy investors who exploit Native American issues to gain access to business monopoly opportunities is an area that I’d like to see more Native American leaders and those who feel they wish to get involved, actually discuss. Anyone who has spent any time lately actually researching this issue cannot deny that this is ocurring over and over again. Hate campaigns against those “nasty europeans” work well to quell opposition and they are HATE campaigns. One cannot blame the citizens for these campaigns when they come from tribal people, not if you wish not to appear hypocritical. Accusations of racism are another clever strategy used liberally by wily investors and consulting firms that are experts in how to go in, take over a community and quell any opposition of the innocent victims, who grew up in this country believing that they actually had a right to voice their opinion and oppose things that would hurt them personally or harm their community. This is causing a lot of resentment that could be assuaged by tribal leaders calling this location shopping and exploitation for what it is, yet many remain silent, preferring only to attack citizens groups, non-existant Europeans, those bad “white people” (talk about open racism) and more. Meanwhile on reservations, horrendous living conditions continue to exist. What is now occurring is that not only are the problems not solved but we have a NEW set of victims. Do Native Americans actually believe that others will continue to feel sympathy when these victimizations are reaching such frequency and proportions that yes, people are starting to form different opinions about those “poor Indians”. Yet, tribal leaders say nothing? Right is right and wrong is wrong. When are people going to quit talking about crimes of the past and start talking about what to do about now. The real enemy in 2005 is greed, power and people’s inability to see the real crooks which come in skins of all colors. Change must come from within but will never occur as long as people put blinders on over the actions of their own. Tribal sovereignty also may end but if it does, tribal people need to look at who is really responsible. Certainly not a bunch of citizen’s groups who are just asking for equal rights and NO RACISM. Ironic, isn’t it?
November 28th, 2004 at 8:36 pm
Don’t believe everything you read in the newspapers.
http://www.upstate-citizens.org
Working toward equality under the law.
Tribal governments, organized crime, and politics are all one and the same here in New York.
November 29th, 2004 at 11:59 am
The writer Mr. Neiwert is ignorant of basic Indian Law. The Nez Perce Reservation was diminished when the tribe “sold, ceded and conveyed all claim, right, title and interest” in all unallotted lands in 1895 for a substantial sum of money.
Tribal governments are not sovereign - only “dependent” sovereigns. They are dependent on US gov’t for funding.
The Indian Reservation system is a failed system and should be abolished. The living conditions of the Indians on the reservations speak for themselves, i.e. crime, unemployment, education etc., while the non-Indians living on the same former reservations are on par with the rest of the country.
Further,Indian governments exist for the benefit of the Indian government bureaucrats, with no accountability to the tribal members themselves. Per capita payments are foregone in favor of bigger casinos.
For more information contact the North Central Idaho Jurisdictional Alliance, a supporter of One Nation.