Today in class we talked about the protest that the Idle No More did in the Mall of America. I found it really interesting how the Natives used such a public and large space, but the event still got virtually no media attention. I see this as another form of racism. Anytime white people have a protest, it is all over the media. Why is it not the same for Native people? Probably because Native issues are not recognized and/or known by many Americans. This goes back to the whole issue of undereducation on Native history and the modern issues that Natives face.
We also started talking about Indian Gaming. I thought it was very neat how we took the common stereotypes and broke them down. After learning what I have in this class, it is pretty unbelievable that people think that Natives are doing so good and getting rich off casinos. We saw the math, only 57/568 tribes make enough revenue off casinos to give per capita payments. I also found it crazy how much tax the state required from casinos. Like with the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, the state is using the money that the Natives are bringing in to help the state not go bankrupt. How is that fair to the Natives?
blengel July 13, 2018
I think it’s so dumb that the protests are not televised for the whole nation to see. That’s what really needs to happen so we can make a difference for the natives. But unfortunately, I don;t think that will be the case for a while. I would think in a world like today, we’d be able to make sure these things are seen by everyone via social media. We’ll see where the world goes with this, but I definitely see it as an act of racism. The US just doesn’t view the Native population as important and will avoid talking about them to avoid talking about our own problems. In order to get anywhere with them, we have to acknowledge what we did and then act upon it.