[ellery]

It does make sense -- and I wholeheartedly agree with you that American Indians deserve equal rights.

The whole situation seems confusing and ambiguous. On one hand, the feds should at the very least live up to the agreement that reservations are sovereign (after all the historical promises they've broken). On the other hand, of course the land's early citizens are US citizens! Yet tribes don't seem to be treated quite as one or the other. They're certainly not treated like other US states -- they have more freedom than other US states, but none of the recognition/respect. What if reservations were formally declared sovereign states, along with the attendant names, maps, stars, electoral votes, National Governor's Assn. invites, etc.? It seems to me that that would be a much fairer and clearer situation ('though given the state of the 10th amendment these days, the tribes may be better off as-is). I don't think the current limbo situation is doing anyone any good.

What are your thoughts?

[Chad Fairbanks]

I am very much against the reservation system in general.

For example, any money paid to the tribes by corporations for the right to drill, mine, forest, etccc on trust land is actually paid to the feds who allegedly hold it in trust (and, in the case of the Clinton Administration, millios upon millions of trust money disappears and the tribes never see their own money...)

I think it would be interesting to have the reservations become actual states - then maybe the indians could make something of themselves, without the various states and feds stealing all their money, and then demanding even more when they implement gambling to make up for it...

And yes, it's confusing and ambiguous, and there are so many falsehoods out there that people believe, such as "indians don't pay taxes" etc...

Maybe statehood WOULD be a good idea....