[charles62]

It is the nature of all people to set up the best circumstances they can for themselves, their families and their community. The compensations derived from the near extinction of Native Americans by ‘settlers’ of various invading nations were agreed to by the government of the United States as a means to set things right. Those ‘compensations’ originated as land grants (until the land was wanted by settlers moving west) that were frequently disputed or not acknowledged. Unfortunately, these original compensations never had the chance to compensate because of the continual ‘changing’ of them by the government. It was only after compensation was created out of ‘non-material goods’ (the granting of tax-free status, casino licensing, etc.) that the compensations remained stable. Essentially, casinos, tax deferments, etc., were compensations to the existing Native American nations, not individuals per se. And as a ‘nation,’ Native Americans should certainly defend in perpetuity whatever compensations were granted them. Imagine if you will, that once the ‘settlers’ moved in and annihilated 98 percent of the native population, the settlers then offered the remaining population a proportionately small piece of land to act as a ‘reservation.’ This is essentially what happened. But now imagine that the reservation happened to be sitting on deposits of oil worth a vast fortune. Wouldn’t those responsible be remiss if they did not use those resources to benefit the members of that reservation? And wouldn’t they be remiss not to defend the present and future ownership of those resources? Think of the casinos, etc., as ‘resources’ that have been granted and validated by our own U.S. government and the ‘resource/compensation’ as something that is owned and henceforth, generationally shared.

User Detail :  

Name : charles62, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Native American/Caucasian, Religion : Unitarian, Age : 43, City : Louisville, State : KY, Country : United States, Occupation : Teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Author]

Posts