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Lashing back with the truth
When my tribe won federal recognition in 2000 I moved 70 miles south, from Bellevue to Olympia. Although this only put me on the border of Cowlitz Country, it was close enough for me to get involved in the renewal of my tribe.
Those who know me for my work on gender issues and politics may wonder why the sudden change in my priorities. Particularly as during the past several months I have posted nothing new to my site. The answer is that it wasn't entirely intentional. I joined some tribal committees, pitched in where I could, after a couple years I was elected to tribal council and things escalated from there.
To a significant degree what led to my hiatus from writing here, however, stems from the moneyed interests who are fighting to prevent my tribe from building a casino. Personally, I have no interest in gaming. But the reasons why our tribe decided to pursue it should be obvious: casinos make money.
After 150 years of fighting for federal recognition, the demographics of our membership may not be as bad as they typically are for reservation tribes, but they're bad enough. Diabetes, depression and a host of other ills are pervasive throughout Indian country and my tribe is no different.
Some argue that the key to a cure is to end the reservation system, but my own tribe is proof that it happens to landless tribes, too. Moreover, with more than half of all members of recognized tribes now living in big cities, it should be obvious that reservations are not what's bringing America's Indians down.
The cause is complicated and intertwined with culture, politics, education, history as it happened versus as it has been told, and what may be a big surprise to most Americans, the multiple backlashes against Indian economic success. It's not the settlement of Indian lands by Asians, Blacks and Caucasians, or the mythical slaughter of millions of "noble savages" by "evil whites" that devastated Indians so much as the repeated confiscation of American Indian business enterprises.
Following the historical fact of the European invasion of the Americas and the apocalyptic devastation caused by the diseases that came with them, probably the most egregious harm to be inflected upon Indian country has been the practice of closing down thriving Indian enterprises and giving them to non‑Indians, mostly whites. In the 20th century, too.
These and more are topics for future articles. Because what brings me now to resume writing here is that the fight against my tribe has reached the point where a prominent local newspaper—The Vancouver Columbian—whose publisher, Scott Campbell, opposes our proposed casino, has published lies about us in their effort to defame our people and poison our application.
My tribe simply lacks the resources to counter them and the incestuous organizations that have sprung up to oppose us. So rather than focus my efforts solely on responding to the bloggers and writing letters to the editor, I've decided that it's time to lash back with the truth.
Which, after all, is what The Backlash! is for.
Regards, Rod Van Mechelen, publisher
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