Deflamation of Indians on trial

By William Reed

A blockbuster Washington, D.C., scandal will produce racial epithets aplenty. Jack Abramoff and an associate currently face charges of conspiracy and fraud, allegedly having lied about assets to secure financing to purchase a fleet of gambling boats. Evidence in Abramoff’s case illustrates the American establishment’s continual condolence of discrimination and will produce congressional corruption and criminal cases against up to 20 lawmakers and staff members.

Annals of Washington politicians contain many grubby chapters of unscrupulous behavior toward Native Americans. But in terms of sheer greed and exploitation, few can match the tale of Jack Abramoff’s and Michael Scanlon’s milking of half a dozen Indian tribes newly enriched by gambling revenues. Tribes were bilked of vast sums to protect the casino gambling operations that are their financial lifeline – in return they got called scandalous names and empty promises of access to corridors of government power.

In late 2001, Abramoff and associates backed a grassroots lobbying campaign that led to closure of the Tigua Casino in El Paso. Then they contacted the tribe and offered to use their influence on Capitol Hill to get the same casino reopened. All the while they were in that business, they heaped scorn on the Indians, referring to tribal officials as “morons,” “troglodytes” and “idiots.”

For months, prosecutors in the nation’s capital focused on whether Abramoff defrauded his Indian tribe clients of millions of dollars and used improper influence on members of Congress. The lone Native American in the Senate, Ben Nighthorse Campbell from Colorado, told Scanlon, “For 400 years, people have been cheating Indians in this country, so you’re not the first. It’s just a shame, in this enlightened day, that you’ve added a new dimension to a shameful legacy.”

The American deception will be to call Abramoff a “jerk,” contending “racist” doesn’t accurately characterize his remark. They’ll just say there’s no evidence that he actually believes Native Americans are “troglodytes” or “monkeys” or that their race is inferior or his race is superior.

Sadly, some Blacks will acquiesce and join into such deceptive debates. The reality is that bigotry, racial discrimination and economic exploitation still exist for Native Americans – big time. Racism permeates the country for African Americans, but we’re in the back of the bus when in comes to Native Americans.

The reality is, the North American continent is comprised of ghetto and reservation systems. Native Americans have been asking for justice since initial contact with whites. Their population prior to European contact was greater than 12 million. Four centuries later, their numbers have dropped to 237,000.

The U.S. has broken every single treaty it made with its natives. Discovery of gold in California in 1848 prompted American migration and expansion into the West. The greed of Americans for money and land was rejuvenated with the Homestead Act of 1862.

Recently a movement among Indians is helping them regain their cultural identity and see things through the lens of their own culture. Also, gaming has emerged as a major catalyst for Native Americans’ community development. After decades of poverty and high unemployment, gaming provides sources of employment and governmental revenues and a promising enterprise for tribes to achieve self-sufficiency.

The Indians thought Congress was there to help. In a five-year span, ending in early 2004, Indian tribes represented by Abramoff contributed millions of dollars in casino income to congressional campaigns, often routing the money through political action committees for conservative members of Congress who opposed gambling. If we allow it to degrade to just a debate over words, that will allow too many Americans, Black and white, to pardon establishment bilking of the Indians.

Economic power is a combination of wealth, income, status and occupation, access to education and health care, connections and geographic and social mobility. These in turn translate into political power, organization and access to media, business and government. A great deal of the damage done by racism is done through the economic system. It’s time for people of color to pay attention, see how we’re too often denied or relieved of economic power in discriminatory ways.

William Reed is president of Black Press Internationa.