Anytime this question of Native American sovereignty comes up, I always ask this . . . Do these "independent" Native Americans use ANY state-supplied services? Medical? Welfare? Educational? Etc.
If so, do you think it's fair that American taxpayers are expected to subsidize an independent and sovereign nation's people?
Some say that's the price we have to pay for the way the Native Americans have been treated in history-past. Okay, fine, so you're in favor of slave reparations then, right?
I'm sorry, I just don't like the thought of carving up our country and saying ANY group has rights that aren't shared by all. Yes, Native Americans have been treated horribly, even criminally, in our past. But when does the statute of limitations expire? Will my great-great-great-grandchildren still be paying for 1800-ish wrongs in the year 2150?
So . . . should the Irish band together and ask that Boston be given to them? Or Hispanic-Americans . . . should they expect to receive 1/3 of Texas as their own little fiefdom? Or all of California? Okay, okay, LOL, I know some say they're welcome to California . . . but my point is this -- When ANY law pits one race against another for an indeterminate amount of time . . . it's wrong.
Also, one of the basic tenements of conservative is to provide a hand up not a hand out to those less fortunate than us. Are we not, in fact, doing nothing but creating generation after generation of Native American "victims" by allowing them to play by rules far different from those imposed on society in general?
How long must society at large pay for the sins of our fathers?
I agree wholeheartedly. It does the Indians no good at all to maintain the fantasy that somehow they're independent of the United States, or that they ever again will enjoy the kind of lives they led before being displaced. The trouble with those old treaties is that they were made between the U.S. government and tribal entities that essentially didn't exist then, and certainly don't exist now. They should be formally scrapped, and the Indians fully assimilated (not that they aren't already fully assimilated, but as we can see, they use their "dual nationality" status to get some perks apart from those they enjoy as Americans).
Duh! The Irish, of course, "own" Boston at present unless something happened during the hurricane that I hadn't heard about.
Now, how long do the children pay for prior foolishness? Check with your lawyer. Ask him how far back he runs his title searches when you buy or sell land. My lawyer takes it to 1756. When I lived in Indiana they only ran them to 1804. Since it's all "one country", I think Virginia should quit at 1804, don't you?