Alright! Time to Call Times Up!

I am absolutely an advocate for diplomacy and meaningful conversations on issues that cause conflict. Real diplomacy requires patience and an acknowledgement that the two parties in a conflict may not have the same priorities or understanding of the problem. Diplomacy is not supposed to be about winners and losers but about mutual respect and coming to a solution that solves the problem, not stamp it out or wait it out.

Back at the beginning of February, I began meeting with the offices of Congressman Brian Higgins and US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. I brought up a law that they both strongly supported and voted for in their respective houses. The Childrens Health Insurance Reauthorization Act or CHIPRA was widely vaulted as only having the upside of helping children. But in a world where no good deed can go unpunished, someone had to be punished. So the good target was cigarette smokers; those dreaded beings that have single-handedly driven up the cost of health care. The feds funded this act by raising the federal excise tax on tobacco products; a carton of cigarettes was raised $6.16. However hidden in the law was a provision to prevent major manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers from stocking up on large amounts of product in advance of the tax increase for sale after the increase; a floor tax.

Native people and Native lands were never mentioned anywhere in this law. We are not mentioned on either the receiving end or the taking end. So when millions of dollars in floor tax assessments from the US Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) began showing up to Native retailers and wholesalers last Christmas for product purchased and sold almost three years prior, we were a little surprised.

In my meetings with the Higgins and Gillibrand people, I asked if they had intended to, for the first time in the history of federal intervention on Native businesses, create a scenario where product purchased and in our possession on our lands would be billed by the TTB for additional monies after-the-fact. The staffers of the representatives said they would have to get back to me on that but expressed a clear understanding of what I was asking and a sense that a mistake had been made. And sure enough after consultation with their legislative specialists in DC, they concurred that the over zealousness of the TTB pursuing these funds was, indeed, "an unintended consequence" of an unclear law and that there was no intent to impose this tax on our lands. So my next obvious question was, "Well, what are you going to do about it?". After 5 months it is obvious that there is no intention to do anything.

Even the limpest promise of a letter of support on the issue was never realized. The most ambitious request I made still really required almost no action on the part of Mr. Higgins or Ms. Gillibrand. I simply wanted their offices to facilitate a meeting with the White House Senior Policy Adviser on Native Affairs so the same question could reach the President. This seemed like a great idea when I mentioned it. After all they had to do almost nothing. My thoughts were that because of the discretion that the taxing agencies can show on issues like this, that a simple phone call from the President could make it go away. But that is when the back pedaling started. After hearing nothing back after repeated calls and emails, I was asked how come the Seneca Nation President, Robert Porter wasn't raising these concerns. The staffers now suggested that involvement from he or the SNI council would be necessary for them to facilitate the meeting or write their letter even though they fully acknowledged from Buffalo to DC that this was all a misunderstanding. So 8 Seneca Nation Councilors joined me in the request, many of whom were committed to making the trip to DC to meet with the White House adviser.

Even with meeting this new requirement, neither Brian Higgins nor Kirsten Gillibrand have shown an ounce of integrity on this issue so diplomacy aside, it's time to call them out. It is also time to call Rob Porter out on this issue as well. For it is he who went before the Senate Finance Committee and never once saw fit to address this affront to Native sovereignty as he promoted his own unauthorized agenda. I believe that it was not just Porter's lack of interest on this issue that Higgins and Gillibrand are using as an excuse to do nothing but his encouragement to do just that: nothing.

This is primarily an issue that impacts the private sector in Native communities. Although the US promotes private sector development everywhere on the planet (especially in communist or socialist countries), that's not the case for Native people and Native lands. This is another area where tribal governments and the feds are clearly on the same page but quite a different page than the one Native people are on. Only "tribal" enterprises are encouraged while the private sector is gutted from prospering or expanding. And the unholy marriage between those successful individual businessmen on Native lands and tribal government has only been made more unholy by bedding with the feds.

So Times Up! Let the hard truth begin to flow until real diplomacy can begin to walk back some of these issues.

Terry Nelson Lays it Down as Canada Attempts to Keep First Nations in Poverty

Injunction Backfires

May 30th 2012

A Manitoba Court granted an injunction sought by the Province of Manitoba against the Dakota Canupawakpa First Nation operating the Dakota Chundee Smoke Shop. Terrance Nelson, a former Chief of Roseau River First Nation who sold untaxed cigarettes twenty years ago stated, the province has just lost this case, over 50 First Nations in Manitoba worked with the province on Tobacco Tax Rebates for two decades, now that is destroyed by this case. Some of my Mohawk friends in the manufacturing of cigarettes agreed to support the Dakota in their battle with the Province. I will also step into this matter. The Dakota have 90% unemployment and we as warrior societies will protect them. We will begin by flooding the province with Mohawk cigarettes.  

If the province thinks that they won something today, they are wrong. If the RCMP create a "martyr" and blood is shed, we can guarantee that the entire First Nation communities across Canada will take action. We will shut down the economy of Canada if the RCMP kill a Dakota in this. This is an issue of regulation between governments not a criminal matter.. Imagine if we as indigenous people of North America went to Germany and took over their lands and resources and we set up a government that demands that the German people pay taxes to us and that government is not their own, what do you think that their reaction would be. I think once they stopped laughing at how absurd that idea is, they would kill us. Not only have the immigrants stolen all our lands and resources, they now demand that we the indigenous people pay taxes to them. This ends here, we need to stop the immigrants from their self serving imposed laws in our lands.

Chief Frank Brown was one of four people who attended the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa recently and is awaiting an invitation from the Iranian Government to attend Tehran sometime in June. This is about economic sanctions and we will seek support from other countries. Terrance Nelson said, I intend to give a bow to the President of Iran, the symbol is that the indigenous people of North American used stone age weapons to fight for their lands against the "crusaders", now Iran is being told they cannot defend themselves against the nuclear nations. So Israel can train over 100 nuclear weapons against Iran but Iran cannot have even one nuclear bomb to defend themselves. The United Nations is not impartial, it does not demand to search for weapons of mass destruction in Israel. In Wounded Knee South Dakota in 1890, the US 7th Cavalry killed 350 Dakota men women and children after they had stripped the Dakota of all weapons and had them lined up. This is the same concept, the Iranians are being told that they must face nuclear weapons targeting their people but they cannot develop any ability to have equal weaponry.

Terrance Nelson

204-451-0740

Chief Frank Brown can be reached at 204-851-2169

Enough with the BS. Let's Talk About the Real Issue.

For weeks we have heard nothing but the UN this and the UN that; the DRIP, the "Special Rapporteur", the Permanent Forum. All for what? So we finally can have our issues, Native issues, heard by the WORLD, the international community, responsible nations. And what do we talk about? Access to sacred sites, a 500 year old decree by the Vatican and, of course, treaties.

So even while the dust was settling from all this running around to DC, NYC and elsewhere, who was knocking on our doors? The IRS. It seems the illegal imposition of taxation, travel restrictions, use of roadways and anything else the the state and feds can throw at us to kill any chance for an economy didn't make the cut when we had the "World Stage". Even the much exalted chiefs councils of Onondaga and Tonawanda got served by the IRS.

A couple of years ago when the State Department was holding its "Consultations" on rethinking the US support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples(DRIP), I turned to the audience in the auditorium of the National Museum of the American Indian, putting my back to the stage full of federal agency representatives and asked the room full of mostly tribal government employees why is it that they work for their own nations on their own lands yet pay a tax on their wage to another nation. In that session, I was they only one addressing US interference in Native trade and commerce as.

The single biggest problem on Native lands is poverty! All social ills come back to this. Can some of it be traced to the Discovery Doctrine or other means of stealing our lands? Sure. But today's genocidal policies are specifically about denying our own economic development. Taxation and the constant assault and/or interference with our right to freely sell our labor, goods and services is at its core. Every town, county, state and nation of the world markets its regulatory advantages to promote its economy, yet ours is criminalized. Even Native to Native trade, from one Native territory to another is under constant attack.

For anyone that would suggest; yeah, but at least we got casinos. Well let's look at that. When California failed in its attempt to shut down a small Native community's bingo hall in the Cabazon case before the US Supreme Court in 1987, what happened was a scramble by Congress to shove a law down the throats of the "federally recognized tribes" that placed both the states and feds squarely in the middle of the Golden Goose of "Indian Country" within the year. So the ONLY regulatory advantage that can be exploited is the one regulated through federally mandated gaming compacts with the states under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act which all too often has the states scooping large percentages from the till. Hell, even pull-tabs had federal agents snooping around on our lands under the authority of IGRA.

In spite of the President of the Seneca Nation's plea to the US Senate Finance Committee this week for tax reform or for an "experiment" in tax immunity, we do not need a Congress that does not represent us to change its tax laws that never should be applied to us to be rewritten to help us. We also do not need, as Mr. Porter suggested, for "federal Indian policy" to secure exclusive authority over all economic activity on Native lands to tribal governments as a matter of federal law. As a people who would never convey such authority to anyone, we view the right to sustain ourselves as our birthright. Mr. Porter must have forgotten that legitimate governments derive what authority they do have only from the consent of the governed, not from his idols in Washington. The people's authority to regulate their own economies is also the authority not to. It seems the concept of freedom without chaos has become almost forgotten, even by those who descended from those that taught the concept to the white man.

We don't need reparations, compensation, cash settlements, acts of Congress or rulings from a far too politicized Supreme Court. We need to have our trade, commerce and livelihoods left alone. The message the world should have heard from us over the last several weeks should have been some simple instructions to the most self righteous and hypocritical bastion of freedom and human rights: Stop your attempts to assess and collect tax, stop your seizures of our products, get out of our casinos, leave our paychecks alone, stop interfering with Native to Native trade and watch freedom work. Maybe something will be learned again. Or is that what everyone is afraid of?

It's Time to Stop Asking Everyone to "Honor Indian Treaties" and Start Demanding Legal Standing

Porter Asks UN To Honor Sovereign Rights

Posted: Thursday, April 26, 2012 9:50 am

By Christopher Michel Olean Times Herald 

The Seneca Nation of Indians took its case for honoring Native American rights to an international stage this week.

With a small delegation of officials from other tribes, Robert Odawi Porter, Seneca president, spoke to the United Nations Special Rapporteur Wednesday in Washington D.C. Specifically, the tribal leaders met with Rapporteur representative James Anaya on his first official visit the United States.

During the meeting, President Porter told of instances in the Seneca’s history when the tribe’s sovereignty was infringed upon and treaty rights were ignored by state and federal authorities.

“The treaty commitments that were made by the United States are still valid today — the treaty violations therefore must be addressed in meaningful and substantive ways,” President Porter said in a press release. “We can no longer abide the federal government’s track record of treaty abrogation and the path of destruction that has mangled Native lands, resources, and communities.

My Response

It is not a question of asking the international community to honor or recognize Native sovereignty. The question is where, when and how was there ever a legal or internationally recognizable transfer of our sovereignty to the US, Canada or anyone else. If we start with the premise that our sovereignty WAS recognized, the only way it could not STILL be is that if there was some legal act of subjugation. Let the US or Canada produce their treaty that establishes that transfer of authority. Our sovereignty is NOT a treaty right and it was not surrendered in one either.

This isn't about a broken promise. We aren't jilted lovers. We are not begging for the international community to respect us or feel sorry for us. Our sovereignty is an internationally recognized authority to "carry ourselves". We aren't asking a favor of the world. It is the legal and moral obligation of other nations to acknowledge that America's "Final Solution" has failed. We are still here and although it is argued that some of our distinction has faded (and how could it not have in light of US and Canadian policies?), our sovereign birthright has not.

Acquiescence and Complicity

The question is: when does the former become the latter? Should silence on an issue ever be interpreted as acceptance or, worse yet, approval? Well, whether it should be matters little; it is. By definition "to acquiesce" is to consent or concur quietly or passively. To acquiesce is to comply. If silence on an issue, especially issues of grave concern to a community, is not to be regarded as broad acceptance of societal ills in our territories, how do we change the message of silence or stop the passive approval?

In the video poem by the 1491's, "To The Indigenous Women", Ryan Red Corn prays for enough light to show what we truly are, regarding violence against our women; Complicit! When we make excuses for rape or blame the victim, when we coddle bad behavior in our men; young or old, or when we simply remain silent or fail to ever even acknowledge it, we don't just let those performing these criminal acts off the hook, we condone them.

Ryan's words raised the whole issue of silence for me, not just on the issue of violence against women but on drugs, alcohol, parenting, fidelity, respect. How complicit have we been in bad government, corruption, loss of our lands and the selling out of our birthright? Perhaps silence is our enemy. Perhaps, like all these other things, silence too can no longer be tolerated.

Let's not confuse speaking out and speaking up with bitching. Blogs and social networks are not the places to hold people accountable. It starts with holding ourselves accountable. Are we prepared to take an uncomfortable stand against our friends and relatives when we know they are hurting others with their actions? Are we prepared to no longer welcome the abuser, the dealer, the thief into our homes? Are we prepared to give ultimatums to to those around us who violate the rights of others and genuinely make those that lose our respect, earn it back? And earn it back from all of us.

How is it we let the man on his third family sit in a position of respect? How do we let drunks and deviants sit on councils; Handsome Lake was still a full fledged drunk when he signed the precious Treaty of Canandaigua, years before his "visions". And that "tradition" continues today. We elect, select, appoint and even condole those we know we should have spoken up about when they committed unacceptable acts.

We remain silent as the State and feds attempt to assimilate us; Thomas Indian School operated for over 100 years. The US Senate "Declared" us all US citizens in 1924 while we declared nothing, we said nothing and we still say nothing. How many will stand and say, "I reject the imposition of US citizenship"? Or do we quietly try to have it both ways?

There comes a time for all of us when silence is all we'll have. We will join generations of our ancestors in silence. Too many of them acquiesced to injustices as well. While we still have our fires and our voices, it is not just the right thing to do, it is our obligation to speak out and speak up. We don't need a code of conduct or some set of puritan standards to guide us. Our birthright grants us freedom and liberty; we only need to be vigilant to ensure that the right to good and safe lives for our children, our women, our families and our communities are not infringed upon from within or from anyone.

Speak up! Don't be complicit!

Enhanced Tribal Cards; The New Path to Citizenship

I warned about the US using their, post 9-11 developed, Department of Homeland Security to subjugate Native people. Well, here is part of the plan. To get a new "Enhanced Tribal Card"(ETC) from participating tribal governments, proof of US or Canadian citizenship are required and the resultant card becomes a declaration of that citizenship; emblazoned with flags and everything.

The Department of Homeland Security(DHS) developed requirements for new travel documents under their Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative(WHTI or as I prefer, WHITIE). The new "tribal" cards are WHITIE compliant and provide the US with all the necessary tools for tracking movement, building better files on individuals and provide the added benefit of coercing Native people into accepting the will of the genocidal societies around them.

The treachery in all this is that there is an attempt at selling these cards as some sort of expression of sovereignty; like the federal government respects us so much that they will honor "our" tribal ID's. Let's be clear here; these are US government ID's, DHS ID's, WHITIE Cards. Just because tribal logos are added, or the tribal clerk issues them, or the tribe is complicit in providing them or covering part of their costs does not change the fact that every feature is federally mandated.

The photos must be compatible with the facial recognition programs employed by the feds. There must be a scannable bar code for US government agency scanners to retrieve identification data. Each card will have an RFID chip embedded which can broadcast ID data up to 30 feet to automated receiving stations without ever needing to hand your card to anyone. And every time this card is seen, scanned or transmits its presence another data point gets added to the system.

If all this information technology seems like an invasion of privacy or a violation of Native sovereignty, relax. By getting one of these ETC's you already declared yourself to be one of them.

One question: where were all those tribal leaders fighting for our right to travel our homeland, our right to maintain our distinction? Perhaps if we stop with all this "tribe" bullshit we could get our heads straight. I am not a "tribesman". I am not a member of a "tribe". I have no "tribal leader", "tribal card", "tribal rights" or "tribal customs". I am Ohnkwe Ohnwe: a real human being; forever in my past and forever in my future, with both connected.

Two Big Changes Coming to "Let's Talk Native..."

I am in the process of transitioning from a one hour show to a two hour format for Western New York's only Native radio talk show and, perhaps, the only show of its kind anywhere. We are just finalizing the new expanded time slot for 9-11pm Sunday nights. LTN will also start streaming live on line. This week will be our first test run with the streaming where we will officially be live to a world-wide audience. The great part is that even if only a portion of the live show is caught, listeners can always come back to catch what they missed afterwards. The show will also be a true podcast as well. I apologize in advance for any confusion or technical difficulties that may arise during our expansion and upgrades. We will make the media player and/or link to the live stream available on Native Pride, the LTN page on KB1520.com and on the LTN Facebook group page. Look for the two hour edition of LTN to begin April 8th, but look for our web streaming this week and every week as well as our 50,000 watt AM signal.

We Need to Turn the Tables on the State and Feds

Although I have said it before, let me start this rant by making one thing perfectly clear: Our sovereignty was not given to us by a white man, another country, a treaty or God. It was not "purchased" with our land and it cannot be legislated away or ruled away by white men in black robes. Our sovereignty exists because we are a distinct people with land, history and a culture all our own.

While clearly much of that distinction has faded over the last several hundred years, that does not diminish our birthright. The recognition of that birthright is clear. The entire early history of the United States is an analysis and study of a people who lived the concept that sovereignty is not God given to a royal family but is a birthright and a part of the laws of nature and creation. The concept of an inalienable right and that certain rights are natural and that to deny those rights is unnatural and defies creation came from us. This is the concept that went into developing the US republic. Even nations who would never grasp these ideas, recognized our distinction and our sovereignty. No one, until recently ever tried that bullshit "Christian Discovery Doctrine" lie on us. All those Christian nations knew better. They treated, begged and grovelled long before they lied, cheated, defrauded or ever dared to fight our people. The problem with all those that would like to pretend our sovereignty does not exist today, is that they can't pretend that it never existed.

And this is where any legitimate claim against our sovereignty or over jurisdiction falls apart. Even with some of our distinction fading over the years, if there has never been a legal and recognized transfer of our sovereignty, if we have never signed terms of surrender or in any other way agreed to subjugation, then there can be no claim of such. The US Congress can declare us their citizens till they are blue in the face, the US Supreme Court can write opinion after opinion about quasi-sovereigns or domestic dependent nations. They can claim in even more opinions that their congress has plenary powers over us. These aren't even rulings; they're opinions. Just because a white man in a black robe offers this opinion as a lame excuse for making bad rulings, does not make it so.

In our culture only the individual can give up his birthright. It is not legal in our way to sell out our children. For those who have never quite understood the concept of looking out for the seven generations, I suggest they do some soul searching. I have news for you; they know it is all a house of cards as well.

Consider the concept of making a "treaty argument" in our rejection of their jurisdictional claims or our defense against the general application of their laws on our lands against our people. It is absurd to be sucked into a circumstance where WE are trying to prove that our sovereignty exists, or to what extent it exists or that we have this right or that right by treaty. We must place the burden on THEM to prove that subjugation. Let THEM produce a treaty that gives them these powers over us. Don't feed me this bullshit about "rule of law" when you just make this stuff up as you go along! We don't have nor do we need a "treaty argument" to establish our sovereignty or our "rights". The "treaties" gave us nothing. Some of them may have acknowledged certain already undeniable facts but they "granted" us nothing.

The Feds Try to Make an Example of the Tonawanda Senecas

On Thursday morning, February 23, at approximately 9 am, almost 100 federal agents raided four retail establishments on the Territory of the Tonawanda Senecas. The federal agents were armed with assault rifles and hand guns and represented the Department of Homeland Security(DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms(ATF), the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency(DEA) and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs(BIA).

The warrants "authorizing" the armed invasion by federal authorities into the sovereign lands of the Tonawanda Senecas listed three specific product areas as the focus for search and seizure. No arrests were made and the speed and precision of the raid had agents in and out before the community could respond.

A product marketed as incense but is regarded as "fake weed", because its producers attempt to skirt the state and federal definitions of a controlled substance is the most sensational of those product areas. These products also known as "Spice" or "K2" are widely available at dozens of non-native retail establishments throughout Western New York. It is actually distributed by New York licensed wholesalers.

Another product area that was targeted were counterfeit or "knock-off" designer products such as purses, clothing or jewelry. These are the items sold by thousands of flea market vendors or street vendors in any populated area including New York City.

The final reason listed for the this vulgar display of threat and intimidation is cigarettes. Along with many brands of federally compliant tobacco products, many Native retailers carry cigarettes that are not produced with permits from the federal government. The products are produced by Native people on Native lands and are often retailed within the same community where they are manufactured. Some are branded and others are sold as a generic cigarette in bags rather than cartons. To the extent that these products are not retailed within the territories where they're produced, they are distributed as a form of Native to Native trade.

If this last target seems different from the first two because of its unique availability; know this: many retailers in many states now advertise the sale of non regulated cigarettes. Non-native shops even in Western New York allow consumers to walk into their store place an order and walk out with non federally regulated cigarettes. They will simply manufacture them while you wait and you can call them "roll your own". Yes it is true that a $30 carton of cigarettes still can be purchased in Western New York without having to travel to a Native territory; just search "head shops" and while you are there you can buy all the "fake weed" you like. No armed agents, no surveillance, no problem.

Make no mistake about this act of aggression. Its purpose is to harm Native people. The weapons were primarily to cause psychological harm; the bullets were to kill. The effort is just another in a long line of attempts to subjugate Native people. Killing the tiny private sector economies of Native lands is a federal policy. Always has been. Treating our people like criminals after stretching state and federal laws just far enough (or in these cases, simply misrepresenting the same) to criminalize our commerce is also federal policy. Nothing was confiscated here that couldn't have been seized from dozens of non-native retailers in Western New York alone. This was not about the "products". The feds know who produces and distributes these life threatening purses and incense. This was about singling out Native people for an act of pure aggression.

If it has never quite been made clear before, let's be clear here; The federal government, and the states as well, have no problem with our commerce as long as we are only consumers. They are even willing to look the other way on whether we pay taxes; again I'm talking about on our purchases. It is sales that the the feds and states want to kill. They don't want us selling anything to generate an economy. They don't want us selling our labor, our crops, our game, our art, our natural resources, our manufactured goods; nothing,,,unless they can tax it. And by tax it, I mean to tax it high enough to kill the sale.

There is one thing they have always wanted us to sell. They never worried about taxing this sale. They never worried about whether the sale was fair or legal. They never worried about the terms or how much boozed or how many guns or troops were used to coerce the sale. The only thing the state and federal government ever wanted us to sell and remains the object of their policies is our mother; our land. Everyone of these pieces of legislation, whether it is at the state or federal level, is designed to wipeout the distinction of our people and, more importantly, our land.

Believe It or Not, There are Bigger Issues

Before the frenzy caused by a New York State Senator and his wife rolling around the floor of the Seneca Niagara Casino, a bigger problem was creeping up on Native Territories.

A law passed back in 2009 called the Children's Health Insurance Program Authorization Act or CHIPRA has created a circumstance where the IRS now feels compelled to assess a tax, the likes of which has never before been seen on Native land or by Native people. The act increased the Federal Excise Tax or FET on cigarettes by $6.16 per carton to cover health care for children. A Floor Stock Tax is also provided in the act, which was intended to prevent non-native retailers, wholesaler and distributors of tobacco products from buying huge overstocks of cigarettes and other tobacco products in advance of the tax increase to avoid paying it on that stock.

Almost three years later a trickle of "Inquiry Letters" have begun showing up at certain Native tobacco shops. The letters read that "The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), an agency of the US Department of the Treasury... has received information that you may have held tobacco products for sale on April 1, 2009(the day the FET increase came into effect)." As such the TTB took it upon themselves to assess the tax liability, penalties and interest and include it in their letter of inquiry. Individuals have be assessed this tax in amounts that range from $50,000 to $1.5 Million and the "letters" keep rolling in.

Never before in our history has the federal government(or state) attempted to tax us for products that were in our possession on our territories after-the-fact. Never have they said that once the clock struck midnight on April 1, your paid in full purchases are no longer paid in full. Never before have they said, Oh yeah, by the way, that product you bought 3 years ago; you owe us $200,000 more on it and because it's three years later, make it $300,000 now for penalties and interest.

Two quick meetings, one with the office of one of the Congressmen who voted to pass this bill and one with the office of one of the US Senators who did as well, resulted in them coming to the conclusion that this is "unintended". So now what? I simply suggested that if they didn't mean to pass a law that would once again be twisted into another affront to our sovereignty, not to mention an attempt to whisk away tens of millions of dollars(maybe 100's when all the "letters" are sent) away from Native communities, that they fix it. I suggested that if we were not specified in the law, that he IRS and TTB are making a huge assumption. I also said that even if it was intended, it assumes authority that has no foundation in law anywhere. I offered to help them raise the question by offering to meet with the White House Senior Adviser on Native American Affairs to discuss the issue if they would facilitate such a meeting. One nagging issue with the "letters" is the 45 day time limit to respond called out in them. I suggested while some may respond to the Inquiry Letters by requesting more time to address the issue, many would not. I encouraged the legislators to call off the TTB dogs to allow them more time to resolve this and to stay out in front of the IRS or TTB taking any action against Native people on this.

Hopefully level heads will prevail and a simple phone call from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. will make this go away. Wouldn't it be great if simple and direct talks could resolve conflicts like this, without lawyers, lobbyists, PR firms or bank account seizures, arrests or Thruway closures? Let's hope and stay vigilant.

Do you believe me now that we have to get our voices out there?

Well if one thing should be painfully obvious, "Let's Talk Native..." is an important voice for an under-served people. The media was perfectly content with New York State Senator Mark Grisanti's version of his altercation at the Seneca Niagara Casino last Friday night . They were fine with painting Native people in the worst possible light over this whole mess. It was only through my show, my guests and the cell phone video of one of my phone guests that this story began being questioned. If you are offended that the truth is coming out, don't support my show. If you liked Mr. Grisanti's unchallenged version of his altercation, don't support my show. If you think the main stream media is doing a fine job without a Native voice among them, then by all means, do not support my show. But if you want to learn about Native issues, if you care to understand a Native perspective, if you think there is value in challenging how poorly the main stream media characterizes Native issues and events, then support "Let's Talk Native...with John Kane". Give us a listen. Call, comment, agree, disagree; but Let's Talk. I promise to be respectful; no racial slurs, no savage attacks and if you don't "know who the *#@& I am, that's OK. If you are Native and you haven't listened and if you don't support a Native voice on Western New York's air waves, then my show isn't for you.

The Seneca's Half a Billion Dollar Question

There is no question that the State breached the Exclusivity Clause of the Gaming Compact with the Senecas. There MAY be some question as to whether the breach will (or should) cost the State all of the revenue it is hoping for, but only because of some very clever wordsmithing by the writers.

You see the "gaming devices" the State has installed in their own facilities DO breach the exclusivity agreement but the State is hoping that their "machines" fit into a "catagory" (not class) that allows them only to lose revenue from the Seneca's "machines" that fit into the same "category". Of course most of them won't.

Never mind that the entire spirit of the agreement has been breached by the State's proliferation of their own "casinos" and "racinos", clearly in the region carved out in the agreement. Everything from the scale to the financing of the Seneca gaming facilities relied on the premise that elimination of the threat of competition was purchased from the State with a percentage; kind of like buying protection from the mob. Only in this case the State has less honor.

So the State, as the regulators, with its unfettered access to the information on how many, what "category" of machines the Senecas operate and of course the revenue flow for each, makes the financial calculations and, ultimately, the decision that they can breach the agreement, pull significant customers and revenue away from the Seneca enterprises and STILL get paid their "protection" money.

The Senecas, for their part, finally stop paying. Under the advice of their "policy advisor", Rob Porter, the Senecas began to escrow the would-be payments. Now as that escrow account approaches $500,000,000.00 and the "policy advisor" is the Seneca Nation President, the question can only be: now what?

President Rob now suggests, having forced the issue of arbitration, that this money may indeed be lost in arbitration. Again, so now what?

The buzz is that half a billion dollars can buy a lot of favors, for someone. Who ever could be credited with getting this prize to the financially beleaguered State coffers sure would be owed a debt of gratitude (or something).

The half a billion dollar question is: who is getting played?

Do the Senecas really need to pay their "non-compete" protection money to their breaching competitors? Will this decision ever really make it to arbitration? Or will President Rob buy a partnership with Governor Andrew to secure his future beyond his gig with the Senecas? $500 million certainly will get someone something.

Is it possible that the very person who advised the hold back, convinced the Senecas they didn't owe it, already failed in an attempt to pay out some of it, is wearing out his welcome in his political party, community and nation and certainly is looking to advance himself past the Seneca Nation Presidency; was playing everyone all along? I guess maybe there is no half a billion dollar question but rather half a billion questions.