Posted on 12/08/2009 11:12:09 AM PST by NativeNewYorker
***The dispute stems from an 1887 agreement that divided up much of the Indian tribal lands into small parcels that were individually owned and held in “trust” by the US government.
Native Americans claim the mismanagement of those trust accounts robbed them of billions of dollars in revenue that the government collected from leasing the parcels of land. ****
THIS IS NONSENSE! When did the Government EVER mismanage anything!
Ok, Sarc/off!
Do the Indians realize they have just lost one of their best hammers to beat the modern white man into a guilt trip?
Now when Indians start whining we can point to this ruling and say...”So, sue me! We are NOT going away!”(And the buffalo ain’t coming back!)
Phase II - Reparations for anyone with a drop of black blood in them.
There are no Native Americans - just an argument over which group got here first.
Of course the true first folks didn’t stay here, they moved on.
Enough is enough! They keep coming back to the trough time and time again! it’s time to no longer recognize reservations, stop funding the Indian Health Care and education schemes. It is time to cut the “native” Americans off at the knees because the tribes have enough money to cover their the needs of their people if they use it wisely.
Hardly the same thing. As a for instance, the Civilized Tribes that were forcibly removed by Jackson from their lands along the Mississippi and eastward made legally binding treaties entitling them to purchase and lease payments as well as mineral and access royalties. The government, being what it is, lost all track and no doubt embezzled billions. Whether the people being screwed have dark skins or white (and many of the ‘Indian’ land owners were in fact, of mixed race and were well to do land owners, makes no difference. We aren’t talking reparations for ‘wrongs’ committed, we are talking about honoring contracts. The US government couldn’t begin to make reparations for the wrongs committed against most tribes, even those committed in the last century, forget about the ‘ancient’ past.
ObaMao is desperate for votes...he just took your tax dollars to buy those votes. Nice tidy round sum $1.4 BILLION...done in a back room deal.
Some other back room deal creating some BS formula will do them out of it.
How much is that in beaver pelts?
Aint that the truth!
Have you ever walked a rez?
There are a few tribes that hit it big with the casinos but most people on the reservations live in poverty like nobody else in this country knows.
This best thing my grandfather ever did was walk off the rez and make sure his children were never on the rolls. Our family has done well, my cousins are living like Bangladesh on the reservation. The feds put them on welfare using rifles and cannons then left them to starve like animals.
These lawsuits are based on legal contracts that the Feds did not fulfill in an ethical manor.
The government will pay them in the form of tax deductions on the billions they are making at the casinos.
There are a few tribes that hit it big with the casinos but most people on the reservations live in poverty like nobody else in this country knows.
This best thing my grandfather ever did was walk off the rez and make sure his children were never on the rolls. Our family has done well, my cousins are living like Bangladesh on the reservation. The feds put them on welfare using rifles and cannons then left them to starve like animals.
These lawsuits are based on legal contracts that the Feds did not fulfill in an ethical manor.”
So what's holding them on the reservation? Are they not allowed to leave? Are they not allowed to get an education or get a job or start their own business?
I'm not trying to be rude but I think this says more about the people that choose to stay there and live in poverty than the government that established the reservations in the first place. If they are living in poverty, it's there own doing not anyone Else's. Kudos to your grandfather and your family to take charge of their lives and reap the benefits of freedom in this country.
Not in this case, the federal government has been playing fast and lose with this for years.
I vow to never step foot in foot in one of their casinos ... EVER.
No I think they were claiming and the court agree something in the 20+ billion range during bush one.
How is it a shakedown when the feds control access and mineral rights, get money for the oil pumped up, then fail at the simplist bookkeeping task and fail to keep track of what land earned what, or fail to pay the land holders that they forced to accept federal trust status? This whole case started because a woman wanted to get paid the oil royalties she was due and the feds said what money?
“Wow, 3.4 billion will buy a LOT of fire water...”
Sterotyping, but maybe not too far off. I doubt that much of it will go into 401(k)s.
Your family has "done well" because your g/father found the only cure for poverty - get as far away from government dependency as possible.
I've seen the reservations in the north/north west and west, haven't seen any of the more eastern ones but they are probably the same, just as you described,"Bangladesh on the reservation."
It's the same fate liberals had/have in mind for black people - keep them government dependent and poor and ignorant and they will vote for liberals who promise more hand outs.
I've never been to Puerto Rico but hear that it is the same way there.
Thank your g/father if he's still living, for your freedom.
Living the tradional life is not my thing, but there are those that feel strongly that it is their obligation to keep the culture alive.
I think that there is a very good argument that the true culture died out with our great-great granfathers. But that being said, your message would be taken with same attitude as a group of Christians being told to give up their religion because the time for religion has passed.
There are many things holding people to the reservations. There is a sense that leaving is an insult to the ancestors. There is a feeling among the poorest people in the nation that if they leave the rez, they will leave the only thing they actually own. And it is hard to leave every body and everything you know for a culture that doesn’t particularly like or trust you.
Think about Obama taking your house to build windmills, he offers you a smaller replacement house but offers a stipend to make up the difference. Then after taking your house, he puts you in Detroit and doesn’t pay the money.
I am an enrolled member of a tribe that has been involved in this litigation for 13 years, so I’d to correct a lot of disinformation out there.
1. Each “Account” will receive a cash settlement of $1,000.
2. An account is a plot of land, which was given to each family over 100 years ago. There are about 9-10 members of my family who are all owners of the same plot or “account” so that means we get to all split the $1,000.
This settlement is outrageous since we’ve calculated that the federal government has shorted us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past 100 years in oil and mineral rights and land lease payments that we should have received on a monthly basis but never did due to the crooked bureaucrats in Washington.
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