Posted on 12/17/2010 12:01:39 AM PST by Islander7
It isn’t quite the Akaka Bill sneak attack that many have warned of in recent days, but on page 809-810 of the 2011 Omnibus Appropriations Act, Senator Dan Inouye has slipped in a mandate to the US Department of the Interior:
SEC. 125. The Secretary of the Interior shall, with funds appropriated for fiscal year 2011, and in coordination with the State of Hawaii and those offices designated under the Hawaii State Constitution as representative of the Native Hawaiian community, including the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and the Attorney General of the United States, examine and make recommendations to Congress no later than September 30, 2011, on developing a mechanism for the reorganization of a Native Hawaiian governing entity and recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Articles I and II of the Constitution.
The US House has passed versions of the Akaka Bill several times but it has never passed the US Senate. If this language remains within the Appropriations Act and the bill is passed into law, it would mark the first time the US Senate has set the goal of “…developing a mechanism for the reorganization of a Native Hawaiian governing entity and recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity as an Indian tribe….” Moreover the language would put the US Senate on record as stating that such a tribe can be organized “within the meaning of Articles I and II of the Constitution.”
(Excerpt) Read more at hawaiifreepress.com ...
There is a push for casinos in Hawaii. Just what we need. A place for wards of the state to blow their welfare dollars.
Oh yes, and in post number [#3] same thread.
Akaka thought he was real clever this time around.
“…developing a mechanism for the reorganization of a Native Hawaiian governing entity and recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity as an Indian tribe….”
I smell CASINO! Several years ago there were some people who bought a few acres of land in Hot Springs Arkansas (horse racing area) then tried to get it recognized by the US government as an Indian reservation for a “lost tribe of Cherokees”. They were really wanting to put a CASINO there. They failed.
The is nothing wrong with your olfactory senses.
The Choctaw tribe did the same thing in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. They bought 10 acres swamp and declared it ‘reservation land’ simply becasue it was owned by the tribe. That would mean they did not have to abide by the west lands restrictions, etc. They planned a huge casino in an area no one wanted. The locals threw a huge hissy fit!
Result: No casino!
I thought the Omnibus is dead. Isn’t this moot now?
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