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Opinion
Monteau: Connecticut's genocide of Native people


"Connecticut's elected officials have gone far beyond hypocrisy and have ventured into waters that no civilized society should countenance. They want several Indian tribes in the state declared ''extinct'' even though these tribes have been recognized by the colonial and state governments right up to the day that the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs recognized them as Indian tribes under federal law. Now we come to find out that the state, in urging this policy of extinction on the federal government, used its political influence behind closed doors in the Department of Interior and the White House while the tribes honored the federally imposed ban on ex parte contact.

History repeats itself. The Indians honor the law, the state does not; the state wins, and two Connecticut Indian tribes are wiped off the books. What a civics lesson for our children and grandchildren. It's too bad they can't blame this one on Jack Abramoff, because the state obviously used his playbook or at least that of the ''K Street Project.'' What irony - Connecticut public officials of the Democratic Party seeking, and paying for with public funds, the influence of Republican operatives to prove that two of its Indian tribes don't exist and don't warrant federal recognition. Maybe Rep. Henry Waxman and his committee should look into this matter when the new Congress meets. I'll bet you dollars to frybread that they don't.

We now apparently have (thanks to Connecticut) a federal policy that allows state governments and their local units of government to expend huge public resources to get rid of Indian tribes by advocating a federal policy of ''de-recognition'' of tribes that have been recognized for centuries; a policy that allows the states to prove, in essence, that they had successfully wiped out their Indian nations.

It is apparent that Connecticut, its elected officials, including a Jewish senator who would send our Indian men and women to war to defeat yet another tyrant who wants to wipe the Jewish people from the Earth, believes it is morally and politically appropriate to wipe Indian nations from the face of the Earth. Whether it is done by the pen or the sword, the net effect is the eventual disappearance of the Indian nations effectuated by policies like those of the state of Connecticut. This cannot and should not be acceptable behavior to the rest of the Jewish people. "

Get the Story:
Harold Monteau: Final solution for Connecticut tribes violates international law (Indian Country Today 12/15)

Only on Indianz.Com:
Federal Recognition Database V2.0 (May 2005)

Relevant Links:
Schaghticoke Tribal Nation - http://www.schaghticoke.com
Interior Board of Indian Appeals Decisions - http://www.ibiadecisions.com

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