I don't agree that they are a 'hate group', however, that comment about, "They may out-money us, but they don't out-gun us" was, IMHO, the wrong thing to say.
Well, we agree on a couple of things - the treatment of the Indians by the State has been shameful in many cases. And B.L.L. and I discussed the impact of the reservations a while back and didn't find much to agree on, I think.
But this "saying the wrong thing", though - there's a long history of that on both sides here. I remember a few years ago the Senecas shutting down the Western end of the Thruway with burning tires. I remember the Mohawks before that, blocking roads and manning them with some testosterone-charged, trigger-happy 20-somethings armed with AK-47's, scaring the living sh!t out of their neighbors. There's been a lot of bad blood, more than enough to go around an both sides.
Oh, I know.... like I said, I can see both sides of the issue, and it's unfortunate that the non-indians of the area have gotten caught in the middle in the battle between the state and the indians - I suppose you can only push a people so far before they react in a way that might not be right... and that's fair to say for both sides of the issue...
Of course, looking at some of the truely ignorant comments on this thread ("...Where's Custer when you need him...", "...Give them the AFghanistan treatment..." etc...)... well, it makes me pretty ill...