"Don�t get the wrong idea about the quaint-sounding Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. They do a whole lot more than nostalgically recite the legend of the Cahuilla Maiden while giving guided tours of two picturesque canyons on their vast tribal lands in the Coachella Valley.

When the tribal leadership draws criticism for its hardball, bare-knuckled politics, its council chair, Richard Milanovich, doesn�t hesitate to play the oppression card: Hey, we�re just oppressed and sovereign Indians trying to make a go of it in the white man�s world.

What a scam. For notions of oppression apparently end abruptly at the cashier�s cage or, more precisely, at the time clock. Milanovich�s band has hired two union-busting firms to make sure, by any means necessary, his own workers don�t overcome their oppression."

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Dissonance Bury My Heart at Agua Caliente (LA Weekly 4/30)