Before coming to this class, I had never heard that Indians were known for owning casinos. Learning about Indian gaming was a little sad because they are just trying to provide for the rest of their tribe but it becomes so difficult because of the taxes and guidelines that must be met. Learning that out of 568 tribes, only 57 have enough money after paying off dues that they are well off is terrible. Like someone said in class, it is so backwards how Indians are treated. First, settlers take their land and kill off thousands of Indians, and then when times get a little better for them, they get no compensation or even an apology. To this day, they are still trying to survive off of barely anything and that is because the settlers left them with nothing.
Something else that angered me was when I learned that Arnold Schwarzenegger claimed that Indians are “ripping off” California because of their gaming industry. First off, I didn’t know that Arnold Schwarzenegger was a governor or in politics at all. Secondly, I don’t understand how they could possibly be ripping off an entire state if their income from the casinos can barely help their own tribe.
tkyle July 12, 2018
Yeah it is crazy that the U.S. continues to try to take away from the Native Americans after all this so-called “change” that has come. I’m sure the government is aware of the amount of money the tribes are actually making from these casinos. I see this as a modern day version of them torturing the Native Americans as they did before. The process just seems more innocent now because they go about doing so in a indirect way. Additionally, despite the apology and payments issued to the Native American people, our country is still trying to break them down and eliminate their culture. The ultimate goal hasn’t been changed.