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Laws give Native Americans an unfair
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Excerpt from Opinion Editorial printed 3/30/03 We cannot sue Indian tribes due to tribal sovereign immunity. But every year there are dozens of lawsuits initiated by Indian tribes and Justice Department lawyers against innocent property owners, state and local governments, and small businesses, ranging from tribal land claims to tens of thousands of acres to enormous claims to water, fish, wildlife, and other natural resources. There are 245 tribal lawsuits now pending in states across America. U.S. taxpayers largely foot the bill. Current Indian policies are tearing the fabric of unity at the heart of equal rights. Our federal government encourages tribal governments to ignore state and local land use and regulatory authority. So when tribes build and expand their tax-exempt casinos, they can lower the property values of their neighbors by refusing to follow local building codes, signage regulations and infrastructure requirements. Many tribes also fail to adequately mitigate the public health and safety, law enforcement, water, sanitation, and other environmental and traffic impacts of their development projects. California gaming compacts lack enforcement powers, leaving it up to the tribes to act in "good faith" toward their neighbors. Our own federal government is driving Americans apart by fostering needless conflict between tribes and their non-Indian neighbors. The United States has created two classes of citizens -- taxpayers and nontaxpayers -- based solely upon Native American ethnicity and tribal ancestry. Compounding the problem, federal Indian policy encourages tribal business monopolies destructive to a healthy "free enterprise" system. The economic success of Indian tribes does not have to come by bankrupting hundreds of nearby taxpaying small businesses. This happens because our federal government gives grants and interest-free loans to tribes, encouraging them to open businesses which, in short order, put adjacent non-tribal retailers out of business. Non-Indians cannot compete against the tribes' lower, tax-free prices. Tribes don't pay income taxes or property taxes either. Why are "monopolistic practices" illegal when practiced by Microsoft, but allowed to flourish when practiced by Indian tribes? When tribal businesses refuse to collect and remit sales and excise taxes, they do so in direct defiance of three separate U.S. Supreme Court decisions requiring them to collect and pay state and local taxes on retail purchases by nontribal customers. No one except the federal government can sue Indian tribes to enforce these court rulings. Sadly, the federal government looks the other way. Yet, ours is supposed to be a nation of laws. The local tax base is eroded as tribal businesses expand and more local law-abiding businesses go under. Now is the time for Congress to close the loopholes that allow tribes to enjoy unfair and illegal advantages - while disadvantaging everyone else - including millions of tribal members who still live in poverty on some of the wealthiest Indian reservations across our country. Our organization has launched a nationwide petition drive. We're calling on President Bush, Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Congress to reform federal Indian policy and give local citizens more voice in how our communities' future is shaped by federal government decisions relating to tribal gaming expansion. Like the revolutionaries who founded this nation by casting off the abuses and oppression they suffered under the British crown, Indians and non-Indians alike are suffering from oppressive and intolerable actions by our own federal government. We are facing severe erosion of our constitutional rights and the balance of power between our states and federal government. Even recently enacted "campaign finance reform" regulations failed to include tribal governments, Indian casinos and other tribal businesses in the contribution limits all other U.S. citizens, businesses, and governments must follow. California tribes not give more money to political campaigns than any other special interest group. Huge tribal campaign donations threaten our local elections' integrity and our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech. As reported in a recent investigative report by two Pulitzer Prize-winning reports in Time magazine, Indian leaders' secrecy about their financial affairs means most tribal members don't know how much money their casinos are bringing in or how profits are being spent. Since tribal members can't sue their own governments either, tribal leaders who behave irresponsibly cannot be held accountable for their actions. Internal dissent is routinely crushed, cronyism flourishes and most rank-and-file tribal members aren't benefiting from casinos. It's hard to believe this could be happening in modern-day America. Let's stop pitting one American against another by federal government policies that deliberately dismantle "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." -- Barb Lindsay, of Thousand Oaks, is executive director of United Property Owners, a tax-exempt, nonprofit public educational organization. She is an enrolled member of the Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri. http://www.united propertyowners.org. This opinion editorial was printed in the March 30, 2003 issue of the Star East County (http://www.InsideVC.com). |
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