We don't make cancer. We make it cancerier.
Posted on 04/02/2005 5:59:33 AM PST by billorites
SEATTLE (Reuters) - A Native American tribe in Washington state is preparing to make and sell its own brand of cigarettes at a fraction of the cost of mainstream brands in an effort to diversify its income for tribal members.
The Squaxin tribe, located on a small patch of land 50 miles southwest of Seattle, will begin selling its "Complete" brand of cigarettes made by its Skookum Creek Tobacco company for $16 for a carton of 10 packs.
That's about the price of two packs of premium-brand cigarettes in New York City, and well below the $35 to $70 per carton normally charged in the United States. Premium brand and generic cigarettes can be bought on other Indian reservations for as low as $22 per carton.
The tribe's cigarettes can be sold cheaply because the tribe is not subject to most taxes paid by tobacco companies, said Kelly Corman, the tribe's legal counsel and spokeswoman.
The only tax that will apply is a state tax, although even those proceeds will be used by the tribe instead of going to Washington state.
The Squaxin are one of the few tribes to have won regulatory approval to make its own cigarettes, something the 850-member tribe has been working on since 1999.
Oklahoma's Senaca-Cayuga tribe has been selling its "Skydancer" cigarettes since 2000. Another tribe in Nebraska was making cigarettes until 2002, when it closed operations over a dispute over monies to be paid into the landmark 1998 tobacco industry settlement.
"This is an opportunity for the tribe to capture revenue for essential government services," said Corman.
Indian casinos have grown rapidly across the United States over the last few decades as Native American tribes used their sovereign status to earn income and pull their members out of poverty.
Recognizing the risks of becoming too dependent on a single industry, many tribes are now trying to diversify. The Squaxin also operate a hotel, a gas station and a seafood company.
"We believe in diversifying Indian business into something that's going to be standing years after the casinos are gone," said Pete Homer, president of the Washington-based National Indian Business Association.
Washington state approved the tribe's tobacco business and agreed to the tax arrangement after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms issued a permit to produce cigarettes.
The cigarettes will be made in a brand-new 25,000 square-foot (2,250 square-meter) factory with tobacco leaves harvested from the southwestern United States. The factory, located just a few steps away from the tribe's local casino, will employ about 20 people, Corman said.
We don't make cancer. We make it cancerier.
Will they be selling Ward Churchill cigarettes? The cigarette that tells everyone it`s an Indian cigarette but is really an English one?
Little Eichmans, cough, cough, hack.
Not a cough in a cattle carload.
I assumed it would be ironically called "White Man"...
They better pick a PC name or the ACLU will be after them.
Incidentally, I've always said that the Indians have long since gotten their revenge. They gave us tobacco and syphillis. Heaven only knows which was worse.
Maybe "White-eyes Lites" would attract women smokers.
Maybe "White-eyes Lites" would attract women smokers.
I thought the white man gave them syphillis?????
No, I think that was measles. Hardly an even trade.
Ward Churchill's claims of being a "native American" were debunked as untrue.
You're comparing tobacco use to syphillis?
I don't think so!
But ya know, I'm kinda glad to see them benefit from govt taxation in a way. Shoe is on the other foot so to speak for once.
I have friends that have 5 cartons arrive every month; $9.95/carton for native ciggs.
You made do some researching........there seems to be a little bit of debate that there may have been syphillis in the old world, but general concensus is tht is not very likely.
Yes, they did get measles from us - along with small pox and a number of other horrendous diseases....apparently the number and devastation of the diseases brought from the old world was far less than the same from the syphillis.
That would be elsewhere in the world like South Pacific for instance.
Don't most cigarettes come 20 to a pack? If they only have half as many in a pack, that might explain why they only charge half as much.
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