 |
| Search |
|
|
|
|
Editorials
I am writing in response to Mr. Michael Niman’s article that appeared in the June 15 – 21 edition of Artvoice entitled “Anti-Casino or Anti-Indian.” In this article he referred to our organization in terms such as anti-indian and then making general references to racism. Although Mr. Niman does not actually come out and say that UCE is a racist organization he comes very close and without saying it practically does say it. It should be made clear at the outset that although the Niagara Frontier Chapter of Upstate Citizens for Equality supports and is a member of the Coalition of Gambling in New York (CAGNY) and I serve as a Director-at-Large for CAGNY I am writing this in my capacity solely as Chairman of the Niagara Frontier Chapter of Upstate Citizens for Equality and as one of its members.
It is interesting that Mr. Niman chose to use the word racism in his article. Racism is the oppression or the act of bestowing special rights and privileges based on one’s race. This more aptly describes Federal Indian Policy rather than our organization. In 1871 the United States ceased entering into treaties with Indian nations and tribes and in 1924 the members of all Indian nations and tribes were made citizens of the United States and the States wherein they reside. It is Federal Indian Policy which encourages U.S. and New York citizens of Native American descent to live on secluded plots of land called reservations and be governed by an entity that does not have to give them the same civil liberties guaranteed by the United States Constitution to other citizens. The alleged reason that they take on this role is purportedly to help preserve the culture and heritage of the Native Americans and fulfill the United States’ trust responsibility over them.
Mr. Niman believes they should be able to operate free of regulations by "other" governments, such as New York or the United States and be like Canada or Mexico. Tribal advocates base that idea on the original 19th century federal description of the tribes as "domestic, dependent, sovereign nations." However, the meaning of that definition is that the tribes and their reservations are subject to the whim of Congress and its unilateral acts which includes the power of complete defeasance of them. So it's fair to say that if your status is at the mercy of someone else's say-so, you might be domestic and you might be dependent, but you're definitely not sovereign. Sovereignty in its governmental sense is Canada or Mexico free and independent, not a small reservation reliant on local external governments for essential public services.
Our organization seeks the following: an expeditious and final resolution of all Indian land claims within the State of New York; the enforcement of New York State Tax Laws requiring the collection of sales tax by Indian merchants from non-Indian and non-member patrons.; either the rescission or full legalization of gambling, but not the granting of a monopoly; enforcement and collection of the lawfully levied property taxes on all non-reservation Indian lands within the State of New York; and the end of government sponsored inequalities in education, health and welfare programs.
The 14th Amendment guarantees, with no expressed or implied exceptions for Indians, equal protection and treatment under the law for all citizens. The Supreme Court in 1954 struck down the hideous racist concept of "separate but equal," in all its nefarious disguises -- including, in my view, Indian reservations, which are outdated anomalies left over from a sad era of institutionalized racism. The hard-won civil-rights laws of the 1960s reaffirmed, yet again, the founding principle of citizen equality. Every honest impulse in the American people's spirit is based upon our nation's egalitarian ideals. Apparently Mr. Niman believes we should go back to the days before Brown v. Board of Education.
In fact very few of the New York Indians have aboriginal land in New York. Just a mere 100 years prior to the Europeans arriving the current New York Indians came to New York from the north and south and conquered such tribes as the Huron, The Neutrals and the Erie by killing their men and assimilating their women. Discovery and conquest was not new to this continent. Genocide was not even a word, much less a crime, until after World War II. If these acts were committed today we as a society would decry it. However, we cannot take the standards and mores of today and apply them to conduct of times past in order to justify a gift to ease our guilt over these past acts. There is no remedy to be granted, only a lesson to be learned.
When will we learn that separate but equal, separate development, self-determination as that term is used in Federal Indian Policy, and apartheid is unethical, immoral and is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution and its amendments and the laws of this country? In these times we must become one nation, not a nation with several hundred mini-nations within it, and all citizens of this country should enjoy the federal constitutional protections set forth in our Constitution against all governmental entities and share in the same civic obligations and adhere to the same set of laws. It is time to abandon the current Federal Indian Policy and unite all U.S. citizens under one form of government with one set of rights and obligations. One cannot have human rights without equal rights.
Sincerely,
Daniel T. Warren
Chair
Niagara Frontier Chapter of Upstate Citizens for Equality
http://www.upstate-citizens.org
© Copyright 2023 - Speakupwny.com
hosted by Online Media, Inc
Buffalo Web Design and Web Hosting
Top of Page
|
|
|
Editorials
Latest Headlines
|
|
Buffalo Web hosting and Buffalo Web Design By OnLineMedia, Inc
www.olm1.com
Part of
www.onlinebuffalo.com
|