Opinion
ICT: Shame on tribes who lobby against other tribes


"The shame of anti-Indian lobbying - by Indians. It sure is hard to have much respect for tribes that actually lobby to hurt other tribes' financial opportunities. In the Abramoff affair, among the sins of the tribes involved, the most egregious is the greed that sees them go out of their way to monkey wrench other Indian tribal efforts at opening and sustaining their own gaming enterprises.

We know how two of Abramoff's clients - the Louisiana Coushattas and the Mississippi Choctaws - paid a lot of money to have Abramoff fight Texas gaming, which he did via the services of Christian conservative icon Ralph Reed.

As Dallas-Fort Worth's WFAA-TV reported May 5, ''Abramoff used money from two Indian tribes to mobilize the religious right to oppose gambling from other tribes.'' The report indicated that this season, as ''the legislature convened in Austin this year, lobbying expert [Andrew] Wheat was surprised to see that the Chickasaw tribe of Oklahoma had three lobbyists at the capital. ... State records show the Chickasaws are spending $120,000'' to oppose Indian gaming in Texas.

Planners and lawyers can justify ''market share'' wars among tribal casinos, but it begins to be a deadly disease when considering the nature of American Indian tribal interests in North America. It's bad enough when hugely successful tribes show no creativity in helping out the more needy reservations. But when successful tribal entities actually try to destroy the opportunities of others, it makes you wonder what kind of values makes them at all distinct from the worst of corporate rapaciousness? Don't tribes have enough enemies without trying to damage other Indians?"

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Editorial: Shame on casino market wars (Indian Country Today 5/12)
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