A response to an article by Rep. Knoblauch and Sen. Neaville

These two individuals are responsible for sponsoring a bill that would ban slot machines, unless the Tribes agree to renegotiatie their compacts.

The following is some thoughts that came to mind after reading their article titled “State within it’s rights to seek new agreement with Tribes”. The opinions are mine and mine alone, I welcome all comments and criticism, you may contact me by e-mail cgj@mailexcel.com, or phone 218-679-2559

Nobody cared about the social impact that the treaties would have on the Indians, why must we lose our right to operate casinos because of the small problem of compulsive gambling.? Why is one not thinking of the people that are benefiting from casinos when considering this proposal? Numerous people, both Native and non-Native alike, are benefiting from Tribal gaming.

I think that we as leaders of our Nations must refuse this new negotiation attempt. Would they allow us to go back and renegotiate the old treaties? Lets say we want to get the true value of what the land was actually worth, you think they’d agree to that? How about we negotiate revenue sharing with the farmers that acquired lands through the treaties? All this in the name of the “social harm” that our ancestors endured when they were taken advantage of by “the lawmakers”. Some of the state lawmakers seem to be saying “it’s wrong for the Indians to benefit off of compulsive gambling, but if we build a casino its ok.” Now where is the rationale in that way of thinking?

We have done poorly in some of our negotiations in the past, we must not do the same this time around. Whenever we start doing good, they come to attempt to talk us out of it, knock us back down, keep us wasting time planning and researching ways to economically survive, saying its in the name of good. They have hit us hard in the past with their negotiations, almost wiped us out, but now that we are getting back up and dusting ourselves off, they want to knock us back down. Will we let them? We must not forget that the US Constitution gives us a government to government relationship with the US Government. We are the ones with the advantage here, if it comes down to a “forced” negotiation, lets not lose sight of the big picture when they attempt to persuade us with more minimal profit games of chance, in which we will not benefit as much as they would.

These two lawmakers, (Rep. Knoblauch - St. Cloud and Sen. Neuville - Northfield) are forgetting about the more serious social ills that are happening in our state, because their eyes see the potential of the state making money to get out of the current budget situation they are in, and in my opinion long careers as politicians. Banning slot machines seems to me similar to someone going to McDonald’s and saying “we are going to ban all the Big macs’ because they make you fat, unless you share profits with us”. Doesn’t it kind of remind you of something you’d expect the Mafia to do?

Nobody ever seems to protest the liquor stores, despite the “social ills” alcoholism creates. The “war” on drugs seems to focus on the supply versus the demand, when it’s a two-way street. Is this really because of the “social harm” done by gambling? If so, then why not go after fixing more of the serious “social harms” that are out there? Why not, because there is no money in curing diseases, only in treatment of diseases. I believe that this is a blatant attack on Indian Nations, some new age cavalry type of stunt, caused by jealousy and greed.

I would like to commend the Legislators that seem to have good hearts and a caring for native people, in my observations of the Red Lake, White Earth proposal I was surprised by the questions and comments they made. It helps reassure that there is some good hearted people willing to lend a hand to us, and that there is hope.

Sincerely,

Chris Jourdain

Red Lake Nation