DEALING WITH HYPOCRISY: TIME MAGAZINE’S DOUBLE STANDARD DEFAMES AMERICAN INDIANS AND INDIAN TRIBES

DEALING WITH HYPOCRISY: TIME MAGAZINE’S DOUBLE STANDARD
DEFAMES AMERICAN INDIANS AND INDIAN TRIBES
Statement by Ernest L. Stevens, Jr., Chairman

In its latest installment, “Playing the Political Slots,” TIME, Donald Bartlett and James Steele, implies that American Indians and Indian Tribes are “bad,” because we are participating in the American economy and the political process. TIME is using a double standard to defame Indian Tribes, by which Tribes lose no matter what. For example, TIME says it’s unfair that the Oglala Sioux Indian gaming operation is relatively modest, yet TIME implies that the Tribe exerted undue political influence to get President Clinton to visit the Oglala Sioux Reservation. TIME’s blatant and hypocritical anti-Indian sentiment is exposed.

American Indians were the last group of Americans to become citizens in 1924. Even then, many States denied the right of our people to vote until the 1960’s. Without the right to vote, Tribes could not resist the policies that took millions lives and hundreds of millions of acres of lands. Federal policies also authorized the government to take Indian children from their parents, and place them in far away boarding schools where they were forbidden to speak their language or practicing their religion. TIME may have liked it when Tribes were “barely a blip” on the radar screen but we, as American Indians, will never meekly return to the dark days of disenfranchisement.

Seventy percent of Americans support Indian gaming as Indian self-reliance when educated about Indian Tribes, per a report issued by Fairbanks, Maslin, Maullin in April 2002. Indian gaming means over 300,000 jobs nationwide, including 7,000 jobs in North and South Dakota where 60% unemployment on Indian lands is common. Indian gaming funds education, health care, police and fire protection, water, sewers, and roads. TIME’s reporters say Indian gaming does not work because revenues are not evenly distributed among all Indian Tribes. Nonsense. Is New York required to subsidize Arkansas or Alabama? Naturally, Tribes help other Tribes. California Tribes have established a fund for neighboring Tribes that don’t have gaming. The Shakopee Sioux help the Santee Sioux, as do many other Tribes. Tribal spirit is not a legal requirement. Moreover, Native communities do not publicize their assistance to other communities. Self-serving publicity is antithetical to Indian culture.

Economic activity relies on access to markets, so naturally Indian Tribes located closer to larger markets generates more revenue. Even the Oglala Sioux Tribe in a remote corner of South Dakota made gains with 80 jobs and have more than 100 jobs coming with last month’s ground-breaking of an $18 million expansion of their gaming facility. TIME disregards the importance of economic development in America’s poorest county because it can’t match California’s economy. TIME is amazed by its report that an Indian Tribe generates a 41% return but apparently does not know that the Pennsylvania lottery has a 40% return.

TIME says American taxpayers lose with Indian gaming. False! Indian gaming generates over $5.5 billion annually in Federal and State revenues, and over $50 million for local governments. In addition, American Indians individually pay over $4 billion in Federal income taxes. American Indians are American taxpayers and our people have the highest per capita military service in the country. Our young Indian men and women in the armed services pay income taxes while they prepare to defend American freedoms. We don’t have to justify our participation in American government.

TIME complains that a tribal leader responsible for building successful Indian gaming facilities in Florida makes $330,000 per year, while the CEO of AOL Time Warner makes $178 million per year. TIME criticizes the $1.4 million contribution by 568 Tribes to federal political campaigns, while AOL TIME Warner alone spent $4.4 million on political contributions in 2000, lobbying to “relax the rules prohibiting cable television stations from also owning broadcast stations in the same market,” according to the Center for Responsive Politics. TIME rails against Indian Tribes that hire Washington representatives to advocate for diabetes, education, and water quality programs, while AOL Time Warner paid lobbyists over $3.5 million in 2001 alone to prevent the V-chip regulation of the violent images it portrays on television.

TIME’s inflammatory report cannot mask the vote of the people of California to support Indian gaming as Indian self-reliance. Naturally, after Las Vegas and anti-Indian economic interests put together an anti-Indian gaming campaign, Indian Tribes invested in a cohesive effective public relations strategy. That’s free speech as well as good sense.

TIME reporters complain that one Indian Tribe received $5,700 per tribal citizen from Federal programs to assist with law enforcement and other governmental services. Those funds are not paid to tribal citizens. They’re used to fund police and fire protection, judicial services, and government administration. Using a similar measure, the Census Bureau reports that Virginia, where AOL has its corporate headquarters, receives over $8,000 per citizen in federal funding for its governmental services. Federal programs that support Tribal law enforcement represent the Government’s attempt to fulfill treaty obligations incurred in the midst of building the land base for this Nation. Every State in the Union receives federal funding in many forms and for many purposes.

TIME slanders Indian gaming as under-regulated. Patently false. Indian tribes spend $212 million annually federal, state, and tribal regulation of Indian gaming. Tribal regulators are professionals, including former FBI agents, state SWAT team members, tribal police, and state regulators. The National Indian Gaming Commission is headed by a former United States Attorney, former FBI agent, and former State Deputy Attorney General. The FBI and Justice Department have authority to prosecute anyone, customer, employee, or manager, who would cheat or steal from an Indian facility. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network works with Indian Tribes to prevent financial crimes, just as it does for National Banks. Perhaps TIME should look closer to home for regulatory problems – like AOL Time Warner’s precipitous drop from $20 per share to less than $2 per share and the SEC’s investigation of its auditing and stock reporting practices?

Over the past two weeks TIME has “exposed” nothing but its own ignorance and disingenuousness. TIME suggests a change in federal policy that would amount to two standards for America - one for Indian Country, and one for the rest of America. It seems that while AOL-TIME-Warner advocates for and richly profits from a free-enterprise economy, it would like to prevent Tribal communities from enjoying economic development. During the years of the Indian wars, anti-Indians used to say “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.” TIME Magazine has revealed a new version of the anti-Indian, and has updated the slogan: “The only good Indian is a poor Indian.” Through Indian gaming – Tribes are working to create jobs, and provide education, health care, and other essential government services for their memberships. This is called self-sufficiency. For us this is not a slogan. We are planning for our future. We want to ensure that we have viable economies, which Indian gaming is a part of, so we can continue to live on our Indian lands according to our time-honored traditions.