A national writer named Carl Horowitz had a recent article wanting to terminate the Bureau of Indian Affairs and threw in his opinions about other topics related to Indian people. It wasn’t good reading. Anti-Indian material coming from the poison pen of people like Horowitz is nothing new. In addition hearing this kind of talk is an affront to treaty rights, and is so contrary to established settled law. Yet, it never ceases to amaze me to hear some of this crazy talk resurrected again, but I guess he has an audience somewhere or he likes to hear himself rant.
He said the bureau budget of $2.7 billion needs some serious down-sizing and the agency combines “patronage and ethnic separatism into a single package, wasting sizable tax dollars in the process.”
Horowitz gives us a history lesson, like we really needed it: there are 564 federally-recognized Indian (including Alaskan) tribes in this land of ours, representing nearly two million persons. Crucially, a tribe operates under a federal grant of sovereign status. Taken as a whole, Indian tribes are a loose confederacy of mini-nations, each with its own elected tribal government overseeing courts, schools, job training, health care, infrastructure development, and on due occasion, casinos.
He goes on to say how tribal leaders enjoy enormous power and listed a whole bunch of corrupt examples. He makes it sound like these things happen only with Indians, but Horowitz needs to get real and open up the daily paper and see what his neighbors have done lately. He also criticized the Indian Health Service for losing $15.8 million of medical equipment during a three year span and continues to lose property. He needs to go back to the Jack Anderson archives and read about all the military and non-military financial abuses over the years. Those financial abuses have never been corrected. The whole system needs to be looked at, but D.C. politicians won’t allow that because they need to protect the trough.
Then he turned his focus to class-action lawsuits (“far bigger piles of loot, however, can be made legally), and how wrong it was for American Indian farmers and ranchers to win discrimination suits and getting some money in the process. Another case he cited was the Cobell decision and called it a shake-down. Discrimination and cheating Indians out of their rightful royalties is evidently fine by this guy. Oh, also did he forget this is the most litigious society in a long time and maybe it is the only way to get a wrong corrected.
Horowitz then attacked the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and said they created a monopoly for tribes and that there were immune from state regulation and federal taxation. Of course, he didn’t read the law very carefully, since most tribe were required to enter a tribal-state compact and Indian casinos are the most regulated industry in America, but that is conveniently left out. And the IRS gets their due no matter what color skin you have.
Horowitz doesn’t’ stop there, he said “the federal government can’t bottle up their sense of moral entitlement. But it doesn’t have to subsidize it either.” His answer: “Ending the network of incestuous relationships and accompanying corruption requires that Congress do the unthinkable: Abolish the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service and all other federal agencies that serve Native American interests. These agencies have outlived whatever usefulness they had. Lawmakers also ought to end the practice of formal tribal recognition" which to him is costly and hurts national identity. Horowitz said "in the late 1940s, Congress set up a commission and one of its recommendations was that the assimilation of Indians into the mainstream of American society must be a top priority. Dismantling the Indian bureaucracy would be a major step in that direction.”
Indians have had to put up with this kind of termination rubbish for years. The Horowitz tirade is a good example of why tribes need to get out and tell their own stories and what they’ve done with the casino cash. It isn't by accident that the neighborhood got fixed up, jobs were created and lives were improved because of the American Indian bailout –The National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. It is important to tell people or educate them on the losses both in land and people that Indians have suffered -remind them of the treaties Indians signed that gave land to this country to make it great.
It is also important for the people in Indian tribes to come to the realization that it does little good to fight among themselves, when there is a bigger enemy over the horizon.
Friday, February 11, 2011
The weather, the MIddle East and prison life!
Somebody just told me we have only 31 more days until spring, so I guess that little fat rat in Pennsylvania might be telling the truth especially since it will get to 62 degrees next Wednesday and 66 on the following day. I don’t reckon the snow will melt enough to make my 2011 golf debut, plus our course won’t be open yet.
Any bets that we will send troops to the Egypt soon? I took a history class at the local U about the Middle East and I never did grasp what they were always fighting about over there. I suppose politics is the same everywhere, somebody has got to be knocked off to give the next one a chance to get it right. But what happens if it never gets right?
My grandson Pat ko shuk was sick last night so I stayed home and watched him. I hate it when the kids are sick, I would much prefer it be me instead of them. Well, anyway the rest of the gang went and watched a presentation at Royal Valley. This guy who gave the presentation had a fairly rough life. He was an ex-marine, ex-dope dealer and an ex-con who now goes around to different school systems and tells the young people about making the right choices in life or they could end up like him. He didn’t hold any punches back and told how prison life was –gang rapes, constant fighting and a terrible life in general. My brothers and I were bad boys in our day, but I say we were lucky we didn’t have to serve time. Sometimes I get really angry over the circumstances of my life but being in jail wasn’t one of them and I’m thankful for that. I hope and pray our young people don’t have to go through what this man experienced in his life. It’s too bad our reservation programs don’t get speakers like this guy to talk to our youth. I think it is so true that if a presentation like this can save one person then they got it right! I personally don’t think we have to preach to people, but give them alternatives and let them make their own choices.
Now I’m going to sit back and wait for KU to play again and to watch the snow melt!
Any bets that we will send troops to the Egypt soon? I took a history class at the local U about the Middle East and I never did grasp what they were always fighting about over there. I suppose politics is the same everywhere, somebody has got to be knocked off to give the next one a chance to get it right. But what happens if it never gets right?
My grandson Pat ko shuk was sick last night so I stayed home and watched him. I hate it when the kids are sick, I would much prefer it be me instead of them. Well, anyway the rest of the gang went and watched a presentation at Royal Valley. This guy who gave the presentation had a fairly rough life. He was an ex-marine, ex-dope dealer and an ex-con who now goes around to different school systems and tells the young people about making the right choices in life or they could end up like him. He didn’t hold any punches back and told how prison life was –gang rapes, constant fighting and a terrible life in general. My brothers and I were bad boys in our day, but I say we were lucky we didn’t have to serve time. Sometimes I get really angry over the circumstances of my life but being in jail wasn’t one of them and I’m thankful for that. I hope and pray our young people don’t have to go through what this man experienced in his life. It’s too bad our reservation programs don’t get speakers like this guy to talk to our youth. I think it is so true that if a presentation like this can save one person then they got it right! I personally don’t think we have to preach to people, but give them alternatives and let them make their own choices.
Now I’m going to sit back and wait for KU to play again and to watch the snow melt!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Old men, weather and KU (again).
KU is back on track to win the national championship. They look awful tough in the last few outings and will be a handful for anybody in the future. They are playing without Josh Selby and if they are doing that great without him, did they really need him or will they only get better with him? Only time will let us know that. Snow is also right around the corner, but heck what can you expect -its winter time.
If I can make it a few more hours, I will have turned 60 years old. I will take the day off and sit around and wonder how many more of these birthdays I have left. I’ve seen my share of good and bad times. I’ve known some great people and also have met some who weren’t worth a damn. But it all makes for an interesting life. I don’t suppose I would change anything, of course, I don’t have that option anyway. I suppose everything happened for a reason and was an opportunity to learn a lesson from it.
My mail comes around one or two and I will be like Forrest Gump and sit by my mailbox waiting. In his case, he waited for his son to return on the bus, but for me I will wait all those gifts and cards from my family and the few friends I have left.
Jokes aside, I don’t need any material goods. Hell I’ve been working on spring cleaning for years now so I don’t need more. I do appreciate everything people have done for me this past year and just want everyone to have a great 2011. I hope your pockets fill with gambling winnings in this new year either through per caps, robbin banks or hitting those 777's. May you always have food on your table! May you find happiness in some form or another. I can't go beyond those three wishes for you -money, food and happiness is about the top three choices for most people. Oh, yeah, may the person responsible for us being here smile upon your lives in 2011 and forever.
Now I’m inching closer and closer to the day I will retire, but I don’t really want to break my current routine and I haven’t seen everything or every place in this great land so I need to stay a little longer. But when that day comes, I want to go and play on the cheapest courses and hit balls I find along the way. Maybe I will sneak onto our course and hit a few holes before it gets dark. Can you imagine that, an old guy sneaking into such a great course? Don't tell the leadership I'm thinking of doing that. Other days, I will sit on my back porch and watch the sun go down and give thanks that I lived that long, plus I want to watch my grandchildren grow up. Hopefully they won't have to go into tribal politics.
I am going to close for now and go wait by the mailbox (even if it is cold).
If I can make it a few more hours, I will have turned 60 years old. I will take the day off and sit around and wonder how many more of these birthdays I have left. I’ve seen my share of good and bad times. I’ve known some great people and also have met some who weren’t worth a damn. But it all makes for an interesting life. I don’t suppose I would change anything, of course, I don’t have that option anyway. I suppose everything happened for a reason and was an opportunity to learn a lesson from it.
My mail comes around one or two and I will be like Forrest Gump and sit by my mailbox waiting. In his case, he waited for his son to return on the bus, but for me I will wait all those gifts and cards from my family and the few friends I have left.
Jokes aside, I don’t need any material goods. Hell I’ve been working on spring cleaning for years now so I don’t need more. I do appreciate everything people have done for me this past year and just want everyone to have a great 2011. I hope your pockets fill with gambling winnings in this new year either through per caps, robbin banks or hitting those 777's. May you always have food on your table! May you find happiness in some form or another. I can't go beyond those three wishes for you -money, food and happiness is about the top three choices for most people. Oh, yeah, may the person responsible for us being here smile upon your lives in 2011 and forever.
Now I’m inching closer and closer to the day I will retire, but I don’t really want to break my current routine and I haven’t seen everything or every place in this great land so I need to stay a little longer. But when that day comes, I want to go and play on the cheapest courses and hit balls I find along the way. Maybe I will sneak onto our course and hit a few holes before it gets dark. Can you imagine that, an old guy sneaking into such a great course? Don't tell the leadership I'm thinking of doing that. Other days, I will sit on my back porch and watch the sun go down and give thanks that I lived that long, plus I want to watch my grandchildren grow up. Hopefully they won't have to go into tribal politics.
I am going to close for now and go wait by the mailbox (even if it is cold).
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Snow Time on the Potawatomi Reservation!
We’ve been freezing our popsicles off here in Kansas, but the great blizzard of 2011 decided to skirt our reservation and we sure appreciated that move. We still got 8” of snow or better and over 20” so far this winter. This pales in comparison to the two foot of snow further north and east. For most of us, we still remember the storm of 2007 when we went days without electricity and it got down-right uncomfortable, so we can only be thankful.
Our Jayhawks are smoking with a 21-1 record and they are a joy to watch. They are playing more like a team every game and the chemistry is clicking. KU will be ready for the last six games of the year and they might not win it all but I believe they will be in the hunt. I like this team. They have the big men, top notch shooters and can run up and down the court like few can. Oh, and they can pass.
The kids are enjoying the days off but will be mad later when they have to make up the days. My grandson said “we don’t have school tomorrow so it’s time to party.” He’s a crazy talker at times. The other day we were driving down the road and I messed up his channel and he told me he was going to put me in a rest-home. Damn, see what I got to look forward to!
In the winter time, I have more time to do my projects. I built my sister a birdhouse and she said she now had a place for the neighborhood birds. I told her no this birdhouse is for the Purple Martins, not village birds. I also built a life-guard chair for my yard. I have no beach or pool but I saw one in Florida and took a picture of it and built it from that shot. I’m going to sit in that chair next summer when I’m taking a break from my yard and garden work. I go to my workshop and fire my stove up, crank up the Ipod to full blast and work. I take many breaks and think how I’m going to build something and enjoy the general solitude. I don’t have much time in the summer to do projects.
Oh, getting back to the snow – next year I’m going to get me one of those snow-blowers. I was watching this guy at work clearing the side-walks and it sure looked more efficient than the back-breaking work of using a shovel, plus it might save a heart-breaker. Stay safe out there!
Our Jayhawks are smoking with a 21-1 record and they are a joy to watch. They are playing more like a team every game and the chemistry is clicking. KU will be ready for the last six games of the year and they might not win it all but I believe they will be in the hunt. I like this team. They have the big men, top notch shooters and can run up and down the court like few can. Oh, and they can pass.
The kids are enjoying the days off but will be mad later when they have to make up the days. My grandson said “we don’t have school tomorrow so it’s time to party.” He’s a crazy talker at times. The other day we were driving down the road and I messed up his channel and he told me he was going to put me in a rest-home. Damn, see what I got to look forward to!
In the winter time, I have more time to do my projects. I built my sister a birdhouse and she said she now had a place for the neighborhood birds. I told her no this birdhouse is for the Purple Martins, not village birds. I also built a life-guard chair for my yard. I have no beach or pool but I saw one in Florida and took a picture of it and built it from that shot. I’m going to sit in that chair next summer when I’m taking a break from my yard and garden work. I go to my workshop and fire my stove up, crank up the Ipod to full blast and work. I take many breaks and think how I’m going to build something and enjoy the general solitude. I don’t have much time in the summer to do projects.
Oh, getting back to the snow – next year I’m going to get me one of those snow-blowers. I was watching this guy at work clearing the side-walks and it sure looked more efficient than the back-breaking work of using a shovel, plus it might save a heart-breaker. Stay safe out there!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The Weather, Politics and Birthdays!
Around these parts we were hit with over 16” of snow and it was bitterly cold for a spell, but now it’s going to start melting with a warming trend in the forecast. Maybe the warming trend started with our last general council meeting. It got heated with arrows flying everywhere and I think some of those hot arrows hit the snow. Some joker said in politics you can make some of the people happy some of the time but not all the time. You gotta love it though and if you can’t take it then it’s time to get out of Dodge or melt like the snow I mentioned.
I sat on the council for years and took the same verbal abuse and you just can’t take it personally, because it is self-evident that whoever gets on that pedestal will be targets. I see the many emotional outbursts at these meetings and wonder why they just don’t go see the council before hand and air their grievances, but I think it’s helluva lot more fun for them to get on a soap-box and carry on, and sometimes it leaves everybody practically speechless. Nothing in politics is a matter of honor, my friend. I think people ought to be glad they can see another day, but that’s something they need to discover. The point is sometimes it’s best to not even try and anticipate any attack, just deal with it the best way you can. Politics is like playground basketball, no blood, no foul. It’s a given those attacks will continue on a quarterly basis and is probably needed to purify the air and they shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the room. That’s my dime-store advice to new comers to the world of politics and probably worth about that much.
I think the biggest surprise for me these days is reaching the age of 60 in a few short days. I feel lucky in a lotta respects to even write about this occasion or milestone, but hell, nonetheless, I'm still here. I coulda been gone a couple of times, but somebody wanted to me to stick around for some reason, maybe I'll figure that one out someday. I’m happy because now I can enjoy my grandchildren and I appreciate that opportunity. Plus, I'm still waiting for that Powerball win, because that would ease retirement concerns and would allow me to humbly live out my life.
This is also the 3rd birthday without my twin-brother Larry. He might not be around anymore, but I’m sure he’s patiently waiting for our next golf outing. I’m going to be mean about this though, I’m going to make him wait a few more years. Please indulge me for a second: I had this dream….that I was an old guy working in my garden with my great grandson, I’m thinking Pat ko shuk’s son, and I’m chasing him around with these vampire teeth in my mouth and I keel over and die in my garden among my tomato plants….
In the meantime, I better get out on our new course and try to sharpen the old game. In my golf outings with Larry, I used to talk “smack,” as the kids say, and his game would fall apart and I would win. Those were good memories for me. I miss that, I miss his daily emails, I mIss the trips to the Land of 10,000 lakes to visit him, I miss his political commentaries, I miss shaking his hand, but you have to adjust. Hell, there isn’t an option here. And maybe it’s true the good guys die young, so now it’s official I’m not a good guy. Yet, people dying can’t define our time here, we have to concentrate on what we have.
On the less serious side, I was sitting next to this one guy and he said he didn’t celebrate birthdays anymore because he already had one foot in the grave. And this other old guy, Wabnum, said: “I’m not old, I just look old.” That’s how I feel about this birthday. I used to tell my brother on our birthday “it was a helluva ride” and is has been. It ain’t no good to beat yourself to sleep every night over the things you did wrong in life, it might be better to regret the things you didn’t do.
I sat on the council for years and took the same verbal abuse and you just can’t take it personally, because it is self-evident that whoever gets on that pedestal will be targets. I see the many emotional outbursts at these meetings and wonder why they just don’t go see the council before hand and air their grievances, but I think it’s helluva lot more fun for them to get on a soap-box and carry on, and sometimes it leaves everybody practically speechless. Nothing in politics is a matter of honor, my friend. I think people ought to be glad they can see another day, but that’s something they need to discover. The point is sometimes it’s best to not even try and anticipate any attack, just deal with it the best way you can. Politics is like playground basketball, no blood, no foul. It’s a given those attacks will continue on a quarterly basis and is probably needed to purify the air and they shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the room. That’s my dime-store advice to new comers to the world of politics and probably worth about that much.
I think the biggest surprise for me these days is reaching the age of 60 in a few short days. I feel lucky in a lotta respects to even write about this occasion or milestone, but hell, nonetheless, I'm still here. I coulda been gone a couple of times, but somebody wanted to me to stick around for some reason, maybe I'll figure that one out someday. I’m happy because now I can enjoy my grandchildren and I appreciate that opportunity. Plus, I'm still waiting for that Powerball win, because that would ease retirement concerns and would allow me to humbly live out my life.
This is also the 3rd birthday without my twin-brother Larry. He might not be around anymore, but I’m sure he’s patiently waiting for our next golf outing. I’m going to be mean about this though, I’m going to make him wait a few more years. Please indulge me for a second: I had this dream….that I was an old guy working in my garden with my great grandson, I’m thinking Pat ko shuk’s son, and I’m chasing him around with these vampire teeth in my mouth and I keel over and die in my garden among my tomato plants….
In the meantime, I better get out on our new course and try to sharpen the old game. In my golf outings with Larry, I used to talk “smack,” as the kids say, and his game would fall apart and I would win. Those were good memories for me. I miss that, I miss his daily emails, I mIss the trips to the Land of 10,000 lakes to visit him, I miss his political commentaries, I miss shaking his hand, but you have to adjust. Hell, there isn’t an option here. And maybe it’s true the good guys die young, so now it’s official I’m not a good guy. Yet, people dying can’t define our time here, we have to concentrate on what we have.
On the less serious side, I was sitting next to this one guy and he said he didn’t celebrate birthdays anymore because he already had one foot in the grave. And this other old guy, Wabnum, said: “I’m not old, I just look old.” That’s how I feel about this birthday. I used to tell my brother on our birthday “it was a helluva ride” and is has been. It ain’t no good to beat yourself to sleep every night over the things you did wrong in life, it might be better to regret the things you didn’t do.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Half-Time Report!
The hardest part of this edition of KU basketball is the wait between games. At this very moment, KU has a not too shabby of a record at 16-0, about mid-way through this season. Around here its a given that KU will win the Big 12 and most of the time the league tournament, but all that takes second fiddle to the last six games of the season. They won it all in Mannings last year and 2008 and could be knocking on the door again this year.
Remember the movie "The Rock" with Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery. Cage said we got to go back and diffuse the bombs, we got to do our best. Sean Connery, one of the best actors of the ages said, "Losers talk about doing their best, winners go home and make love to the prom queen." Of course, I edited that last part down a bit to keep this blog under the radar screen of morality. But that describes KU basketball, we don't want to hear any whining and crying about doing the best they can, we expect a helluva lot more than that.
There has been some close games in this first half, but KU guts the game out and finds a way to win. In the last game against Iowa State at Ames, KU played the best of all. They pounded the ball to the Morris twins underneath and between them, they had 50 points in a 84-79 win. In the past, KU took some big-time teams into Ames and couldn't win there but this team did. This is the type of ball that will take KU a long way this year. The ESPN announcer said the Morris twins are the best big men in the country. It pains me to see the twins shooting from 3-point range when its a given they can knock down two underneath and a chance to go to the foul line.
This game approach will off-set the missed 3-pointers Reed and Selby and Morningstar will have, but it is spectacular when they go down. Speaking of Morningstar, he sure pissed me off when he did that behind the back pass and caused one of KU's big men to travel. Come on, we have a mission here Morningstar, if you want to showboat go to the Lawrence Country Club and show off for the rich folk there. Selby, once he finds his groove, will contribute more and more. I like his smooth shooting, the ability to give up the ball and pass to an open teammate. He won't be around for long, so enjoy him while you can. This team has the makings of something special.
Now listen closely to those screeching wheels outside our door, the KU bandwagon is going to slow down for a short time and we're going to let a few wildcat fans on board. Jump on board and enjoy the ride. Times awastin!
Remember the movie "The Rock" with Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery. Cage said we got to go back and diffuse the bombs, we got to do our best. Sean Connery, one of the best actors of the ages said, "Losers talk about doing their best, winners go home and make love to the prom queen." Of course, I edited that last part down a bit to keep this blog under the radar screen of morality. But that describes KU basketball, we don't want to hear any whining and crying about doing the best they can, we expect a helluva lot more than that.
There has been some close games in this first half, but KU guts the game out and finds a way to win. In the last game against Iowa State at Ames, KU played the best of all. They pounded the ball to the Morris twins underneath and between them, they had 50 points in a 84-79 win. In the past, KU took some big-time teams into Ames and couldn't win there but this team did. This is the type of ball that will take KU a long way this year. The ESPN announcer said the Morris twins are the best big men in the country. It pains me to see the twins shooting from 3-point range when its a given they can knock down two underneath and a chance to go to the foul line.
This game approach will off-set the missed 3-pointers Reed and Selby and Morningstar will have, but it is spectacular when they go down. Speaking of Morningstar, he sure pissed me off when he did that behind the back pass and caused one of KU's big men to travel. Come on, we have a mission here Morningstar, if you want to showboat go to the Lawrence Country Club and show off for the rich folk there. Selby, once he finds his groove, will contribute more and more. I like his smooth shooting, the ability to give up the ball and pass to an open teammate. He won't be around for long, so enjoy him while you can. This team has the makings of something special.
Now listen closely to those screeching wheels outside our door, the KU bandwagon is going to slow down for a short time and we're going to let a few wildcat fans on board. Jump on board and enjoy the ride. Times awastin!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Wednesday evening thoughts!
It is sickening again to read about another shooting, this time in Arizona. Geez, I know politicians aren't the most popular people to ever come down the pike, but to gun one down is insane. And that is the only word that can describe this guy who killed six people and wounded others including a gal named Gabby. Insane is when a person doesn't know right from wrong. The guy killed a little girl only nine years old. Maybe we can understand a bit about some of this horrible incident but not shooting a young girl. Insane!
The gal named Gabby is a fighter. The bullet went through her head and she is responding well, almost a miracle. I hope and pray she comes out of this a healthy and better person. I don't know if it would be worth it for her to get back into the political game though. It's bad enough people take pot-shots all the time, and hate each other over politics, but to add bullets to the assault isn't worth it for anybody.
And it ain't no sense bringing back talk of gun-control because they did that after the Kennedys were shot a long time ago and that debate didn't go anywhere and how many shootings have taken place since? Even if they did try and control it, people would still buy a gun on the black market, much like booze during the prohibition and dope on a rez corner. If they want it, they will get it. What is the answer? Nobody really knows, but people pretend they do and we know they don't. There is no answer on the political stage.
Maybe it's time for more prayer in everybody's life. It is easy to laugh at this suggestion for those who don't know prayer or think they will ever need it. Yet, in everybody's life there are low times, maybe not as bad as what is going on in Arizona and their grief, but prayer will help us and the people suffering so badly now.
The gal named Gabby is a fighter. The bullet went through her head and she is responding well, almost a miracle. I hope and pray she comes out of this a healthy and better person. I don't know if it would be worth it for her to get back into the political game though. It's bad enough people take pot-shots all the time, and hate each other over politics, but to add bullets to the assault isn't worth it for anybody.
And it ain't no sense bringing back talk of gun-control because they did that after the Kennedys were shot a long time ago and that debate didn't go anywhere and how many shootings have taken place since? Even if they did try and control it, people would still buy a gun on the black market, much like booze during the prohibition and dope on a rez corner. If they want it, they will get it. What is the answer? Nobody really knows, but people pretend they do and we know they don't. There is no answer on the political stage.
Maybe it's time for more prayer in everybody's life. It is easy to laugh at this suggestion for those who don't know prayer or think they will ever need it. Yet, in everybody's life there are low times, maybe not as bad as what is going on in Arizona and their grief, but prayer will help us and the people suffering so badly now.
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