The late comedian Sam Kinison had a classic, foul-mouthed routine about common sense advice to the regular victims of famine in certain remote areas of the world – something to the effect of YOU KNOW WHY YOU’RE STARVING? YOU LIVE IN A DESERT! THERE’S NO FOOD THERE! NOTHING GROWS THERE! NOTHING IS GOING TO GROW […]
Indian Country Betting on the Future
Indian Gaming, like reservations, is a complex subject. I address it now because of the coming premiere at the Sundance Film Festival of Casino Jack and the United States of Money, Oscar winner Alex Gibney’s documentary on Jack Abramoff and his lobbyistg scamming of everyone, including, as always, his own clients – various Indian Tribes […]
Indians Caught in the Middle
It is generally observed by those who believe that Native Americans receive far too much sympathy for the effect on their cultures of the European arrival in the Western Hemisphere – as if it served as the argumentative coup de grâce – that Indian Tribes throughout the Western Hemisphere warred with each long before and […]
The Nature of Things
Cobell v. Salazar, the thirteen-year Individual Indian Money Trust Fund litigation, was settled on Friday for $3.4 billion. I have taken some time to sort through reports and my own reaction. The New York Times provided background: The Interior Department now manages about 56 million acres of Indian trust land scattered across the country, with […]
New Work
BloodLotus Issue 14 October 2009 ————————————————————————————————— Global Viewpoints Indigenous Peoples My poem “Myth” appears in the latest issue of BloodLotus, just hitting the screenstands. “Aboriginal Sin,” which originally appeared in Tikkun, is now reprinted in Global Viewpoints: Indigenous Peoples. The textbook anthologizes significant works and statements on the situation of indigenous peoples around the world, […]