"Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent rant about Native people reminds us once again of the abhorrent power of stereotypes.

Bloomberg’s vision of Native Americans is that of an uncivilized race stuck in a mythological Old West alongside Indian fighters, where disputes are settled at the end of a gun barrel.

On Aug. 13, Bloomberg told the New York Daily News: “I’ve said this to David Paterson, I said, ‘You know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun. ... If there’s ever a great video, it’s you standing in the middle of the New York State Thruway saying, you know, ‘Read my lips – the law of the land is this, and we’re going to enforce the law.’”

The newspaper sarcastically wrote that the mayor, “channeling his inner Wyatt Earp, shot himself in the foot.”

Worse than hurting his own reputation, Bloomberg’s words struck a blow to the efforts of countless Native and non-Native leaders seeking to mend generations of repression and violence against Indians.

In the same vein as Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and Gen. Phil Sheridan before him, Bloomberg has proven himself an Indian fighter who ascribes to an antiquated vision of tribes as an obstacle to progress, civilization, and in this case, “lost” tax revenue."

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Editorial: Bloomberg: Acknowledge ignorance, and then apologize (Indian Country Today 8/27)