And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Organization: The University of Michigan - Flint
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 12:31:38 EDT
>Subject: Re: Gun Lake Band of Odawa
>X-Confirm-Reading-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>X-pmrqc: 1
>Priority: normal
>X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.53/R1)
>
>Letter sent to the Detroit News
>
>To: Thomas Bray
> Letters to the Editor
> Detroit News
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>From: Catherine Davids, Michigan Representative
> National Coalition on Racism in Sports & Media
> (day) 810-762-3328
>
>Re: Gun Lake Band of Odawa
>
>The American Indian people have gone through a 500 plus year struggle on
these
>lands to retain their identity, culture, and other forms of heritage. In
the
>process of conquest, the Anglo-Europeans committed gross acts of genocide,
>enslavement, and forced assimilation in order to take what did not belong to
>them. In the southwestern part of these lands the Seminole people risked
their
>very lives to help black people escape slavery as did many other American
>Indidan tribes. Compensation for stolen lands, treaty violations, and the
>worst holocaust in Earth's history have come slowly...if at all.
>
>For many years the Odawa people of the Gun Lake Band have sought to have
their
>tribal status recognized by the federal government in order to be
>compensated (housing, medical, education) properly for lands and
>lives that were taken from them. The United States government, on
>behalf of its people, created the situation and American Indian
>people's very survival depends on these legitimate programs. The
>programs are long overdue payments. I personally feel that the Gun Lake
Band
>should just take the issue into court and foreclose on the western half of
the
>State of Michigan. If the courts and government do not want to honor their
>promises then take the land back. Why not?
>
>American Indian people recognize the legitimacy of the
Match-e-be-nash-she-wish
>Band and do not need to be told of their rightful claims. It has been the
>United States government who hisitorically has denied them their legal
status
>in order to continue to deny them centuries old-justice, but that attitude
had
>changed and the federal government was finally giving the Gun Lake Band
their
>rightful legal status. And then...the unthinkable happened: history
repeated
>itself led by Mayor Dennis Archer and the Detroit City Council (think of
>General Phil Sheridan and the U.S. 7th Calvary).
>
>Attacks on the American Indian community have been coming with great
regularity
>across the country, but it is particularly appalling that Detroit would
involve
>itself in these racist and bigoted actions towards the smallest minority
>population in the United States. That Detroit has become a racial bully is
>shameful. Hundreds-of-thousands of Detroiters against 220 Odawa people.
David
>vs. Goliath. A minority struggling against a callous majority.
>
>Nobody has the right to deny the Gun Lake Band their federal status and the
>Mayor, City Council and the legal bullies taking this action should be
>thoroughly ashamed of themselves. This issue has been around a lot
longer than
>the casino issue, but now Archer has tied the two of them together, and has
>taken a stand on the side of crass profit and commercialism instead of
>considering the more imporant matter: 220 people who want their identity
>returned.
>
>
>
>
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
