because your governments have never stopped ripping us off and trying to rid themselves of their "indian problem" (meaning we are still alive and they aren't happy about that.)
casinos. people love talking about them. native owned casinos make up only 5% of all gambling in the usa. not every tribe has one, most do not. and out of all those who do, only a handful make enough profits to distribute to tribal members. no, the government did not give casinos to us. the nations that have them use rich backers, all non native, to build them and then profits go to the backers to repay. Many tribal casinos are merely corporate casinos like in las vegas that have foud a loophole to establish gaming in states wth laws against it. They get the bulk of the casino profits. anything left, usuallu 5-15%, is used for tribally funded programs for schools or elderly care.
and states that have casinos get a lot of money from them. more than other corporations. tribes with casinos must make a pact with the state for approval. for instance, in Connecticut the tribal casinos there must pay the state 2% of all profits, or $100 million a year, whichever is MORE. so CT gets a minimum of 100 million dollars a year from each of the tribally owned casinos in the state. this is why they want them. you will not find another business that pays the state as much.
those who think we are making money "hand over fist" seem to not know any natives. and neither do i see people complaining about the casino owners in nevada, atlantic city, or the thousands of other non native owned casinos across the country. and there is no sense using the "gambling is bad" argument because its plain hypocrisy given how many states have lotteries.
native people are vilified still in this country and in canada. we are either portrayed as greedy rich lazy drunk casino owners or simply lazy drunk and poor. sometimes both at the same time. is it a collective guilt that makes people see us this way? its certainly not personal experience as the vast majority of americans have never in their lives met a real native person. after all we are less than 2 million people in a country of 300 million plus. so why?
why do u.s. and canadian citizens in general not seem to care or in some cases not even know what is being done in their name TODAY. not the past but now, on your watch. do you know that my generation was just the last of several to be taken away from our families by force and sent to institutions that were called schools but more resembled concentration labor camps? are you aware that canada has in 2008, apologised for the death of over 50,000 indigenous children in these schools and the sexual and physical abuse of millions more who survived? usa has yet to even admit to the atrocities, but we who survived remember and will not let others forget.
do you know that last summer, the usa and canada teamed up to isolate my people on an island that straddles the new york/canada border and used force to stop a peaceful demonstration?
Barack Obama Speaks Out against the violence to protestors in Iran, June 15, 2009
"Whenever I see violence perpetrated on people who are peacefully dissenting, and whenever the American people see that, I think they are rightfully troubled. I think it would be wrong for me to be silent about what we've seen over the last few days."
but when it comes to native people...silence is all we get.
did you ever think that today, you would see fully armed police literally "herding" native people back on to their reserve?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQfwLcW6Xmo part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRCTlcyu36g part 2
did you know that reservations are the dumping ground of choice for nuclear and other industrial waste, courtesy of the governments of canada and usa?
Dramatic decline of male births in indigenous communities tied to industrial pollution
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/living/87141237.html
how about this?
white militias formed to attack mohawk people protesting theft of lands for housing developments
http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=6148&blz=1
native people and children in USA freezing to death because their heat is turned off by electric company that charges them a third more than people off the reservation. this hydro plant was built on land taken from the same tribe:
http://issueswire.com/releases/CAN-DO/CROWCREEK/prweb3310674.htm
95% of native reserve stolen. First nation protesters attacked by opp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdqw5pGLdKs&feature=related
RCMP try to sniper shoot an unarmed man. The "eye in the sky" video shows that they totally lied about it in court and tried to cover up their attempted murder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yblZMMGqV48&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxk0pDjouFA&feature=related
everything native people try to do to support ourselves, the government steps in and finds a way to shut it down, from selling tobacco to wind farms out west.
tell me again how good we have it? tell me how privileged we are. there is not enough space here to list everything being done to oppress native people today. there is no saying "get over the past" because we are way too busy trying to survive the present. the BIGGEST oppression is keeping you from seeing the truth...keeping you from knowing the truth and instead feeding you the line that we are all much more privileged than you are. it is a lie and people who live the good mind can see through it.