How can American Indians have sovereign nations and have the protection of the United States when it serves thier needs.
Around here they sell cigarettes without tax stamps, gas without road tax(on US,state and county highways), make their own car tags,etc. Some tags are nothing more than cardboard with crayon numbers.
I know they got a raw deal years ago, but a lot of ethnic groups had a bad time of it. Get over it and show people what you can do now.
Alot of people are wanting ethnic diversity and yet they are allowing things like this to keep people seperated.
Doesn' t make much sense to me.
aunsaber, I couldn' t agree more!
I have six children. Three of them I gave birth to. The other three I was blessed with when I married my husband. At that time they were 3, 4, and 5. Their biological mother is 1/4 indian. When the youngest was just 18 months old, she decided she no longer wanted to be a wife or mother and she took off. Over the years she made contact when the urge hit her. There were times when we didn' t hear from her for up to six years! In the state of Oregon, had she not been indian, I would have been able to adopt the kids when they were very small. All it takes is for the absent parent to deny financial and emotional support for a period of one year or to be incarcerated for three years. She is an alcoholic and crank freak. She has been convicted of multiple felonies. And she is now almost $50,000 behind in child support. But according to The Indian Child Welfare Act, I couldn' t adopt the kids without her signature---no matter what! We spent thousands of dollars and countless tears, but I couldn' t adopt them because they are 1/8 indian! The other 7/8 didn' t count for squat! I am sure that at the time the Act was written, there were probably some very good reasons for it. But that time has passed. In our situation, it never allowed our children to be able to heal and move on. Things need to change!
__________________
I thought all writers drank to excess and beat their wives. You know one time I secretly wanted to be a writer.---C.K. Dexter Haven
Where I come from, the Indians want to be a sovern nation........... Until Payday. They did get a raw deal but not from any of us alive today. How long do we have to pay? I belive they should have thier gambling on thier lands if they want. Or even be a sovern nation if they want. But BOTH WAYS. NO!!!!
" WE" is too many, I can barely trace much of my heritage on this continent back to the late 19th centrury, maybe even after that. I dont consider myself to have much blood tie to slave owners, British, colonists, civil war, or the founding fathers. Now, it you want to discuss Ellis Island...
The indians killed as many indians as the settlers did, probably more. I think their culture should be preserved but they need to make a living like the rest of us, well, most of us anyway. There are other groups worse than the indians.
[:@][:@]Where were you people a year ago? I have fought this debate on this board almost alone several times. This is a hot topic for me. I get so P.O.' d everytime I think about this crap....I am going to try to get some sleep and post my complaints later.. @#$^%$@@ INDIANS!!!!!
Everytime I see something like this I don' t concern myself with what was taken or what is owed. My family has been here since before the 1600' s. I have ancestors that range from German to Native American. It is simply put that other cultures have lost. Lost a war and a freedom to their original ways. There is always a winner and a loser in any war. The winner takes and the loser complains. The winner still wins.
If you go back far enough in world history, this fits everybody...I know they got a raw deal years ago,
The Poles stole my ancestors land, the Vandals destoryed the Roman empire and sacked their cities, the Irish traveled the know seas of the time and made everybody their slaves. The list goes on and on if you just pick a group and look back far enough.
The problem is in this country we are just not honest enough to say, " too bad, thats life, get over it and join the rest of society" . My goodness that would be Politically Incorrect and someone might thing bad of us.
That being the case, we' re stuck with this crap until there is some type of major change in this country.
Just give this a thought, What would happen to the Indians if somehow the Muslims won this Holy war of terrorism we are in now? How about dust in the wind.
Now I think we are above their type of thinking but we are so far out in left field we can not see the plate anymore when it comes to issues such as this.
__________________
Now you have to picture a combination of PeeWEE Herman and Wally Cox but with less muscle tone, trying to be intimidating None of this is funny! Message edited by Cougar Mag -- 1/7/2005 1:16:42 AM >/b]
Indian sovereignty???
