Posted on 02/22/2012 11:48:42 PM PST by neverdem
ONEIDA, N.Y. The trucks lumber past cornfields and dilapidated farm houses, pull up to a onetime bingo hall and unload their cargo: boxes of tobacco imported from the Carolinas.
Inside, employees of the Oneida Indian Nation dump the shredded tobacco leaves into rolling machines and fashion them into cigarettes to be sold at a dozen tribal convenience stores midway between Syracuse and Utica.
The cigarettes, branded with names like Niagaras and Bishop, sell for as little as $39.95 for a 10-pack carton much cheaper than those at non-Indian retailers and bring in millions of dollars a year to the tribe, which also has a resort casino, five golf courses and a multimedia production house.
We tried poverty for 200 years, the Oneidas leader, Ray Halbritter, said in an interview. We decided to try something different.
The Oneidas cigarette manufacturing business is part of a new strategy that is quickly being embraced among New Yorks eight federally recognized Indian tribes. After years of fighting a losing battle against the state over the taxation of name-brand cigarettes sold on reservations, many are now manufacturing their own cigarettes...
--snip--
But the practice is now spreading rapidly. Though the tribes do not release sales figures for their brands, industry experts believe there are now at least a dozen Indian cigarette manufacturers operating across upstate New York, more than in the other 49 states put together...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“boxes of tobacco imported from the Carolinas.” as in imported from one nation to another. Love it!
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
The American free enterprise system at work for the people who brought you tobacco in the first place. ;-)
This will drive the Despot...oh excuse me “Mayor” of New York city, Mike Bloomberg nuts. Illegal Mayor BTW being that he is doing a 3rd term against the term limit law, but of course the law doesn’t apply to leftist Despots does it? Yes that “Real New Yorker” Mike Bloomberg only that he’s from Assachussets. Meanwhile the leftists couldn’t wait to get New York city born and bred Rudy Guliani out of office because of Rudy offending such lovely individuals such as Arafat, Al Sharpton and Susan Sarandon which is why they instituted term limits in the first place.
They’re just whining because they’re losing the tax revenue.
Too bad for NYS.
More power to the Natives. I’ve watched enough good people get screwed by NY taxes. I’m glad someone can give it to the government and the government can’t touch them.
What serverly cut into their I-sales is the little known prohibition enacted into law by th Demo-Coms of shipping cartons through USPS
...BTW What was the first of the many prohibitions and regulations including the killing of defective mentals the NAZI’s enacted once in total control ?....Ans ...Smoking
Congress has power to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes. I suppose treaties override that power.
They are busy buying it back.
People like Bloomberg are public enemies and should be banned from New York.
Wish we had a tribe here in Maryland that could do the same thing.
Thanks for the ping!
Excellent. And what free enterprise used to be in the United States.
The Marxists will find a way to shut it down, of course.
Too bad.
Naturally, the Indians will once more get scr*wed by the White man.
Bet the farm on it.
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