2. I wrote back to Michael, cc'ing Jim Craven, "Hi, Michael. I'm sure that Jim could add to this, but on the question of gaming I've heard 2 things. One, from Jim in an interview with Doug, that outsiders skim off a lot of the money from the casinos--accountants, lawyers, etc. Ward Churchill added something to this. He said that the problem with the casinos is that they compromise sovereignty because they make the rez subject to state and federal laws."
3. Jim Craven's response:
Louis,
That is exactly correct--on the sovereignty implications. Plus, revenues from gambling are highly cyclic and volatile--vulnerable to vicissitudes in the business cycle--so that long-run planning, investment, infrastructual development or budgeting--requiring sound cost/revenue forecasting--are difficult.
The best studies I have seen--alluded to in Russell Means' "Where White Men Fear to Tread"-- is that out of each dollar of net profit, about 52 cents goes to the major investors--Harrahs etc--then of the remaining 48 cents, about 31-33 cents goes for consultants, lawyers, licensing fees etc, leaving 15-17 cents of each profit dollar to Tribal Accounts (maintained by BIA etc); then the powers that be inside the Tribes-nepotism, cronyism and other forms of corruption--skim off close to 10 to 12 cents leaving 3-5 cents for programs coming anywhere near the average Indian.
Then there are issues such as the loss of culture, the Hollywoodization of Indian Culture and traditions, the desecrations, the demeaning dancing for the white man, the maintenance and reinforcement of ugly and damaging caricatures and stereotypes etc associated with the gaming. Plus, look at the personnel at the typical Casinos: Indians are found as greeters, a few dealers, janitors, some waitresses and putting on shows, but the management jobs and the highest paid jobs are in the hands of non-Indians.
Finally, Louis, please pass this to Alexander Cockburn. When you say to Indians "Get Over It" (With reference to genocide, stolen lands, horrible forms of torture, smallpox-infected blankets, residential schools, big developer rip-offs, BIA waste/fraud/theft, desecrated and destroyed cultures etc) you imply--or openly state--that "IT" is over to be gotten over. "IT"--genocide--is far from over, it is going on in living color daily.
So Mr. Cockburn, even though I find your ignorance of, arrogance about and contempt for real-world Indian struggles and conditions appalling, especially for someone of your stature and background and contributions, it is out of respect for your past contributions and background that I make this offer: Give me your telephone number and I will arrange for and pay for a ticket for you to accompany me to Blackfoot Country and unless you are totally jaded and unable to see what is right in front of you, you will see that "IT" is far from over--to be gotten over; "IT"--genocide--is alive and well all over the world.
The reference to parallels between the nazi holocaust and the American holocaust is not to one-up the Jews, Gypsies, Gays, Communists, Slavs, POWs, Progressives who were slaughtered by the nazis; it is only to try to overcome the arrogance, ignorance and cover-ups of those who would summarily trivialize and dismiss the holocaust that Indians have suffered and are suffering by denying any parallels with the nazi holocaust-- in the same fashion that those who focus only on the Jewish victims of the nazi holocaust trivialize and desecrate the memories of the non-Jewish victims of the nazi holocaust and therefore deny and trivialize the totality of that holocaust and others.
So Mr. Cockburn, let me know when you are ready and I'll give you a guided tour of Blackfoot Country you could never get as a white outsider coming in on your own.
Jim Craven Professor, Economics Member, Blackfoot Confederacy
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)