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There’s
no danger
of Indians murdering families on the bloody
frontier anymore – that ended before 1800.
The threat in Virginia
today comes from feel-good politicians sponsoring legislation to
grant six Virginia Indian tribes official
recognition by the U.S.
government.
The
bill is supposed to be salve old racial
insults. But federal tribal status represents
the worst of racial politics, creating a blood
census, race-based special privileges, a new
level of government, and an open door for
“businesses” that are illegal for all
other Virginians.
Hard-core
conservative Republicans stand by
bleeding-heart liberal Democrats supporting
the Virginia Indian Bill in the U.S. Congress.
Why not?
Virginia’s Indians are wonderful citizens – good Christians and
strong conservatives. They just want a piece
of pride. But
Virginia
needs to find another way to honor their heritage – one that
does not damage and dishonor the Commonwealth.
Virginia’s eastern Indians began assimilating in 1700. Their
descendants are true Virginians and
indistinguishable from their neighbors.
Federal recognition of Virginia’s Indian tribes would resurrect the disgraceful race
classification of the Jim Crow era, when
segregationist government bureaucrats labeled
Virginia’s eastern Indians either white or black. Federal recognition
of the tribes would require a new census to
identify citizens who are at least one-eighth
Indian.
Virginia’s Indian tribes won state recognition in 1983, but the
designation didn’t come with any special,
privileges. Federal recognition means that Virginia’s Indians will be able to open gambling casinos, even though
today’s Indian leaders disavow any intention
of doing so. Virginia
voters have rejected riverboat gambling by huge margins: This is
the back door for gambling – sooner or
later.
The
day the bill is passed, an Indian can open a
state and federal ‘tax-free’ alcohol,
tobacco and you-name-it store in Virginia. Read the law. Unfair business advantage, based on race, will
cheat the governments of taxes everyone else
pays.
The six Indian tribes become sovereign governments with which
local, state and federal governments will
contend on every issue of public policy –
education, environment, land/water use, law
enforcement and development. Virginians
rejected regional governments by a two-to-one
margin in 1998. With recognition, a new
government, based on race, will rule with real
authority.
Educational benefits, based on race, are handed out by the
federal government. Why do Virginia Indians
need or want welfare in any form? How is the
Indian situation different from that of their
neighbors?
Since when do Republicans want to increase welfare, expand
government, provide special privileges and
benefits? How can anyone in good, conservative
conscience support group identity and rights
over individual rights? How can any Virginian
advocate anything being done as a condition of
race and race alone?
Race-based, group rights are repugnant. How can anyone advocate
special rights for eastern Indians and deny
reparations for blacks? The only moral
reasoning that works is to reject race-based
identity and group rights.
Virginians should tell their Congressional delegation to vote
‘No’ to race-based public policy. It’s
right hearted and wrong headed. Indians should
be honored for their heritage but not awarded
anything for the accident of race by birth. My
wife is one-sixteenth Indian (wrong tribe) and
she, her mother (1/8th), and
grandmother (1/4th) never deserved,
expected nor wanted special privileges based
on their birth. They earned their way in life
– just like everybody else. Let’s keep it
that way.
--
May
26, 2003
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