Having suffered for centuries with the loss of their land as well as the battering of their image, Native Americans have endured and survived while increasing their numbers once again. They began to fight for their rights and compensation for the loss of land and the ecological imbalance created by the deforestation at the hands of the new Americans. Treaties were signed but not honored by the government that wrote them. Later, these same tribes had to prove they actually existed in order to receive the compensation they deserved and that is still the case today.
I am curious about something. Whose bright idea was it for Indian tribes to focus on casinos and gambling as their main source of income upon federal acknowledgement? Which tribe was the first to build a casino and, at which point during the recognition process did the big money casino investors pop into the picture? What about the old adage that ‘if it seems too good to be true, it probably is’?
Was it greed or stupidity that led tribal leaders down another path of self-destruction when they sold out to casino investors? Rather than building communities with long-term respectable employment, many tribes took the fast track to big-bucks instead. Take the Sault Tribe for instance; imagine if they had built only one casino and expanded the area to shops, restaurants, a water park, but also industry that provided long-term stable employment. Instead, they relied on casinos to be their cash cow that would produce benefits forever.
Like many other tribes, the Sault Tribe promoted gambling as well as the crime and addiction that came with it. Imagine having a compulsive gambler in your family. Some of you may not have to imagine it but have many sad stories to tell of the destruction caused by the family gambling addict. Life savings, retirement funds, possessions, homes and even the grocery money lost to support the addiction of the family gambler/s. Then there are the lies to cover the losses, the manipulation of family and friends to obtain more money to gamble, and the resulting destruction of those relationships due to the actions of the gambling addict. For many addicts, there are no limits to the lies they will tell or the means they use to acquire the funds to gamble. Some gamblers have reached such lows that their families and friends no longer see them as the person they were, but as a parasite that eats away at the family structure until nothing is left but a trashy trail of lies, deception and mass destruction.
Today, with the crashing economy, families are more protective of what they have and little will be left to spend on extras like gambling. Too bad tribes, like the Sault Tribe, didn’t invest more of their compensation of federal money into the many profitable opportunities that make up the business market. If you win several million dollars would you place all of it in stock with one company? Instead of casinos being the Saving Grace for which they were intended, they could just as easily put some tribes back on the reservations and just as poor as they were before.
On the bright side, empty casinos would make awesome homeless shelters for all the out-of-work casino employees and the families they support.
I am curious about something. Whose bright idea was it for Indian tribes to focus on casinos and gambling as their main source of income upon federal acknowledgement? Which tribe was the first to build a casino and, at which point during the recognition process did the big money casino investors pop into the picture? What about the old adage that ‘if it seems too good to be true, it probably is’?
Was it greed or stupidity that led tribal leaders down another path of self-destruction when they sold out to casino investors? Rather than building communities with long-term respectable employment, many tribes took the fast track to big-bucks instead. Take the Sault Tribe for instance; imagine if they had built only one casino and expanded the area to shops, restaurants, a water park, but also industry that provided long-term stable employment. Instead, they relied on casinos to be their cash cow that would produce benefits forever.
Like many other tribes, the Sault Tribe promoted gambling as well as the crime and addiction that came with it. Imagine having a compulsive gambler in your family. Some of you may not have to imagine it but have many sad stories to tell of the destruction caused by the family gambling addict. Life savings, retirement funds, possessions, homes and even the grocery money lost to support the addiction of the family gambler/s. Then there are the lies to cover the losses, the manipulation of family and friends to obtain more money to gamble, and the resulting destruction of those relationships due to the actions of the gambling addict. For many addicts, there are no limits to the lies they will tell or the means they use to acquire the funds to gamble. Some gamblers have reached such lows that their families and friends no longer see them as the person they were, but as a parasite that eats away at the family structure until nothing is left but a trashy trail of lies, deception and mass destruction.
Today, with the crashing economy, families are more protective of what they have and little will be left to spend on extras like gambling. Too bad tribes, like the Sault Tribe, didn’t invest more of their compensation of federal money into the many profitable opportunities that make up the business market. If you win several million dollars would you place all of it in stock with one company? Instead of casinos being the Saving Grace for which they were intended, they could just as easily put some tribes back on the reservations and just as poor as they were before.
On the bright side, empty casinos would make awesome homeless shelters for all the out-of-work casino employees and the families they support.
