Casino Revenge

From the very first week of Columbus’ landing in the new world, the Native Peoples have gotten the shaft. For the next 500 years, the American Indians would have everything taken from them, including their most important cultural possession: their land. They’ve been cheated, murdered, “re-educated”, humiliated, enslaved and finally, herded onto the most worthless tracts of land available to get them out of the way.
The results, as you might imagine, have been devastating. Government entities, private research firms, and Indian groups have detailed reports concerning poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, high crime rates, poor educational facilities, and many other problems.
In 1988, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act which recognized the right of Indian Tribes in the United States to establish gambling and gaming facilities on their reservations as long as the states in which they are located have some form of legalized gambling.
The economic benefits that have arisen from gambling can best be seen in the labor market. Tribal unemployment and welfare rates have dropped. Indian unemployment rates of 30 percent and more are dropping to almost nothing with the emergence of Indian casinos.
Furthermore, they are building schools/colleges and community centers, setting up education trust funds and scholarships, investing in alcohol and drug treatment programs, financing new business enterprises and putting in water and sewer systems on the reservations.
JoAnn Jones, tribal chair of the Wisconsin Winnebago Nation observed, “Tribal governments realize that a casino is not an end in itself. It is a means to achieve what no state or federal economic development program has been able to achieve for Indian people in 200 years--the return of self-respect and economic self-sufficiency".
So, at least temporarily, many Indian Tribes have finally found a tool with which to better themselves and wreak a delicious revenge on the white man at the same time. And the Indians do not have to rob or kill or even cheat the white man. No, the foolish white man is voluntarily, even eagerly, marching into the casinos and emptying his pockets and bank accounts onto the gaming tables and walking away happy. Custer would be horrified.