Indian tribes buy back thousands of acres of land

hosted ^ | Dec 27 | TIMBERLY ROSS

[JoeProBono]

OMAHA, Neb.- Native American tribes tired of waiting for the U.S. government to honor centuries-old treaties are buying back land where their ancestors lived and putting it in federal trust.

Native Americans say the purchases will help protect their culture and way of life by preserving burial grounds and areas where sacred rituals are held. They also provide land for farming, timber and other efforts to make the tribes self-sustaining.....

[BenLurkin]

The U.S. needs to put an end to this special status once and for all.

The “Indian Nation” charade has gone on far too long.

It is time for them to be ordinary citizens — just like the rest of us.

[Eska]

Thanks (Eye). I figure some of these guys think it's all bull; far from it though.

All ya gotta do is spend a year in a village and you'll realize pretty quick what's killing them off as good as govt sponsered genocide.

[WestwardHo]

In the end, they might buy back the entire continental U.S. and where will we go?

They’ll put us on reservations where we can live tax free, have free healthcare, housing, all the bennies, and we can do funny dances in memory of the sacred lands taken away by the brownman...wash, rinse, repeat....

[JoeProBono]

[WestwardHo]

Self portrait?

[fish hawk]

You got a deal. Of course Calif. paid the Indians for taking the state lands away from them. They paid them 25cents an acre. I’ll buy all the land you want to sell for the same price. Deal?

[fish hawk]

If you are a “we” as in “like we do” why do you use an Indian name. Are you a mascot?

[fish hawk]

Is not running a Casino on a Reservation “self sustaining”? By developing Casinos or any other enterprise on a Rez is exactly why they were put on them to start with. That, and for military protection against greedy white men who loved to shoot them for sport.

[tubebender]

How many acres do you want? I have 100s of thousands of acres available asap. It may be a few million years before it rises above the Pacific Ocean...

[jessduntno]

“Is not running a Casino on a Reservation “self sustaining”?”

I don’t think that was the point I was making, but let me check...nope, it wasn’t....I was saying that if there are no property taxes paid and the tax burden is NOT the same as, say, Las Vegas is...than it is being subsidized...which is not “self sustaining” by any stretch...

[fish hawk]

In that case Al Gore says you are in big doo doo.

[tubebender]

Every working day some government agency takes land by one means or another for a reserve, park street or whatever and tell me how much property taxes are paid on the land?

[jessduntno]

“Every working day some government agency takes land by one means or another for a reserve, park street or whatever and tell me how much property taxes are paid on the land?”

I don’t know...why, is it taking revenue from people in the Park business who have built elaborate places of business and pay taxes on them?

[fish hawk]

Look at the good side. Many of the Casino tribes are now building their own roads , hospitals, schools and etc. If not for the Casino that you white people hate, yet donate freely too, you would be picking up the tab for ALL the above. I never understand how people like you are still bitching about the Indians paying taxes while your own government is screwing you and making you buy the Vaseline. Time to move on to the important things in life. They came onto our reservation and built logging roads, then charge logging companies to come in a log it off. Then they tapped into our rivers and is sending that water down to the WHITE PEOPLE in the south of the state. They let gold miners come in and sluice our land off into the rivers and killed the salmon. And how many years of free tax exemptions would that be worth? Forever as far as I'm concerned.

[OrangeHoof]

“federal trust”

Isn’t that a contradiction of terms?

[Inyo-Mono]

...why do you use an Indian name. Are you a mascot?

He must be. Haven't that much slanderous stereotyping here in a long time.

[jessduntno]

“Look at the good side.”

I do...I always think that history is full of injustice and bad laws and shitty deals...none of which excuses today’s injustice and bad laws and shitty deals...or tomorrow’s...

[JoeProBono]

[fish hawk]

I think it’s a she. Sacajawea is was the female that helped Lewis and Clark get through the mountains to the west coast.

[marktwain]

“Look at the good side. Many of the Casino tribes are now building their own roads , hospitals, schools and etc. If not for the Casino that you white people hate, yet donate freely too, you would be picking up the tab for ALL the above. I never understand how people like you are still bitching about the Indians paying taxes while your own government is screwing you and making you buy the Vaseline. Time to move on to the important things in life. They came onto our reservation and built logging roads, then charge logging companies to come in a log it off. Then they tapped into our rivers and is sending that water down to the WHITE PEOPLE in the south of the state. They let gold miners come in and sluice our land off into the rivers and killed the salmon. And how many years of free tax exemptions would that be worth? Forever as far as I'm concerned.”

It is a good thing that Casinos make tribes more independent. I hope that the tribes learn to be better managers of the casinos. Most of what I hear about them are tales of nepotism, corruption, and backroom distribution of wealth to those who are on the "inside". Of course, the "WHITE PEOPLE" are no more monolithic than the "BROWN PEOPLE" are. The pre-columbian settlers were fortunate enough that after Columbus, it was a Christian civilization that let most of them live and own a chunk of land. In pre-Columbian times the land changed hands many times, and the people that lived on it were simply slaughtered, enslaved, or driven off. Such was the way of life and war before civilization. No land on earth (with the exception of Antarctica), has not been stolen (many, many, times) from another people who owned it before them.

Most of the pre-columbian people died of disease that came from Europe and Asia; most of the remainder were conquered in large part because they were constantly at war with one another.

I have no problem with tribes having casinos. I think treaties should be honored, just as I think the Constitution should be honored. But that doesn't mean that we should look at the past through rose colored glasses.