CasinoFacts.org - PAC board member publishes anti-sovereignty activist's email in Gazette letter
4/17/08 To date, CasinoFacts has, to my knowledge, taken no position on the sovereign rights of a recognized Indian tribe over their land into trust. In today's Gazette Letters to the Editor section Judy Gibbs, who is a member of the CasinoFacts Board and who is scheduled to host a "a letter writing campaign which will send a strong and clear message to our government" at her house this evening, had letter published which was mostly a copy of an email she received from a California anti-casino activist named Kathryn Bowen.
The letter isn't in the Gazette's Online edition but another CasinoFacts board member, Mary Tufts, published it in her Gladys Kravitz blog here.
Bowen is well known as being strongly against tribal sovereignty.
Bowen is described as follows in an article in News Blaze (in which she explains many of her positions) Tribal money buys election process :
Four year expert/activist on government regarding gambling across the country Issues include: tribal expansion, tribal sovereignty and immunity, political corruption due to unlimited funds from casino tribes both in local and state government, civil rights, equal protection issues communities struggle with due to representative government becoming too reliant on big gambling dollars. Member of the legal subcommittee team involving a lawsuit filed by Preservation of Los Olivos (POLO) and Preservation of Santa Ynez (POSY) against the federal government in 2005. This suit was filed as an appeal to the Bureau of Indian Affairs decision to accept privately purchased land by the Santa Ynez Band into federal trust status without proper representation of community interests. Writer/Producer of documentary "Big Gambling Dollars and Politics at Work"
The letter isn't in the online Gazette but I urge readers to purchase a copy to read it.
Here ar two excerpts from Gibbs' letter which describes what Bowen says will happen to Middleboro if we have an Indian casino:
"Your selectmen better have a very good understanding of the 'MOU's" they sign. They are not worth the paper they are written on."
"Your town will slowly but surely become a Casino Company town losing the very character that has made it YOUR (sic) town and worse you will have lost your civil rights as a community in the process."
More from Kathryn Bowen:
Money Envy from the Santa Ynez Valley Journal.
Bowen's feelings are so strong that she is quoted as follows:
Bowen said presidential candidates should be asked two questions. One is "How do you view the issue of accepting multi-millions of dollars from sovereign nations within our borders that are not bound by the U.S. Constitution and who remain outside U.S. regulatory laws and are still not subject to fair taxation?"
The second question is "What is your view regarding the blatant unchecked influence this has on swaying presidential, senatorial and Congressional candidates to favor tribal casino expansion and the gambling industry?" from The Community Voice, Casino controversy simmers - Foes continue to fire criticism on proposed casino and resort hotel
The following is from an editorial in Indian Country Today:
"Indian nations are forming a serious united front against the growing forces focused on destroying the bases of Indian sovereignty under United States law.
"At its 58th Annual Session the National Congress of American Indians, with its membership of more than 250 tribal governments from every region of Indian country, adopted a resolution condemning the actions of anti-Indian organizations and hate groups. Likewise, at its January 2002 Impact Week in Washington, D.C., the 24 Indian nation members of the United South and Eastern Tribes passed a resolution identifying and condemning groups intent on eliminating American Indian governments, societies and cultures. Both of these respected American Indian advocacy organizations appropriately called attention to anti-Indian groups including but not limited to Citizens for Equal Rights Alliance, United Property Owners, and Upstate Citizens for Equality.
"The backlash movement against the honorable foundation of tribal government sovereignty by regional, and increasingly, nationally networked anti-Indian organizations represents a serious political challenge that Indian nations must confront. It is of utmost importance that the nations and all Indian leadership everywhere understand that no matter how much local clout you might have, all Indian nations are, of necessity, in it together on such critical termination movements that would deny American Indian freedoms and liberties in their aboriginal lands. Reprinted in The Public Eye website here which has other material about the anti-Indian sovereignty movement.
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