Navajo Family Fights New Casino and Obama: Too Little, Too Late
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
In today's news, Calvin Johnson, Navajo, writes about the Scott Family's fight against the Navajo Nation's plan for a new casino, east of Flagstaff.
Traditional Navajos have a saying: "Gambling will steal the future from the children."
While some Indian Nations in the US have used their revenues generously for charities and the betterment of their own people, in Arizona that has not always been the case.
The Scott family's statement of opposition comes as the National Congress of American Indians announced its support for the Tohono O'odham Nation's plan to build a casino in Glendale, in the Phoenix region.
However, NCAI should talk to the Tohono O'odham people, who are living in desperate poverty despite the Tohono O'odham's longtime lucrative Desert Diamond Casino near Tucson.
Tohono O'odham are desperate for housing and jobs, even food, and question where the millions of dollars in revenues are going from the casino.
Anyone who drives by the packed casino, then drives through the Tohono O'odham Nation, can see that something is extremely wrong.
Reporters covering Indian issues know that one of the most censored issues is the extensive poverty in southern Arizona Indian communities, where there are lucrative casinos.
In other news, President Obama announced he will give $125,000 of his Nobel Peace Prize award to the American Indian College Fund.
First of all, no amount of money can ever bring back a mother's son or daughter killed in these wars, wars based on the lies of politicians. The Nobel Peace Prize for a warmonger is essentially blood money, blood money which continues the deceit of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Further, the American Indian College Fund receives a mediocre rating on the charity rating charts. In simple language this means that the people who operate the American Indian College Fund spend far too much money on themselves, and too little on American Indian scholarships.
(The chief executive officer received compensation of $213,000 in 2008 and nearly $2 million was spent on fundraising.)
President Obama's announcement comes as the Obama administration declared a winter storm emergency in South Dakota for the storm in December, months after the disaster. Lakotas, repeatedly blasted by winter storms, pleaded for aid in January and February and were ignored. Cheyenne River Sioux in central South Dakota were without electricity for weeks and water for more than six days. Indian Nations and individuals rallied to their aid with online campaigns to deliver aid and buy propane. A telephone campaign, that was organized online, urging CNN to cover the disaster in the Dakotas resulted in less than a minute of news.
Read more on Censored News Homepage:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
References:
Navajo Family Stands Strong Against Casino:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/03/navajo-family-stands-strong-against.html
Charity rating for American Indian College Fund:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3263
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