Wampum

Because not paying attention is one of my core competencies, I've no idea what Senator Obama, representing the 13th district to the upper house of the Illinois state legislature, accomplished while a member of a state legislature prior to 2004, when he was elected to the upper house of the federal legislature. But I do know that he ran for a seat in the lower house of the federal legislature in 2000, so for at least the last eight years he has had the opportunity to think about issues that are germane to the federal legislature. So this quote in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dec. 23, 2007 surprised me some -- after eight years running for the federal legislature, when a core Indian economic and development issue is on the table, the federal legislator ego takes a powder, leaving the state legislator id's finger on the yea-or-nay button.

If it was just taking the ethanol pledge when-in-Iowa, or the nuclear pledge when-in-Labland, if he was in a non-gaming state pulling the wool over the willing eyes of the local, non-gaming rubes, whether Xtian moralists or no-special-rights Injun Fighters, that would be bad policy judgment excused by good political judgment, to be forgotten when no longer convenient. However, it was in Clark County Nevada, where even the lizards take the neon glow from the Strip for granted.

I can't think of a Tribal Executive, current, former, or prospective, whom we know, who is looking for the BIA and DOI billets of the Transition Team, or the long-term political appointments to the BIA and the DOI that will fall due in 2009, or the Article III judges, particularly to the 8th, 9th, and 10th districts, that will fall due before 2013, to be selected by a state legislator certain of the principal of state superiority over tribes within the state's territorial boundaries.

Which is not to say that there are no Indians, some in tribal government, who do not personally support Senator Obama over Senators Clinton or McCain, only that their rational may not be centered on transactional collective self-determination.

Turning to Senator Clinton, first there is her position on the legitimacy of the St. Regis Mohawk (Akwesasne) claim to operate gaming in the Catskills, but there is also the record of her partner -- in early November of 2000, Bill Clinton used the power of their administration to affirm tribal sovereignty through an executive order. The executive order directed federal agencies to work closely with tribal governments and give them "the maximum administrative discretion possible" in enforcing federal law and regulations. The order prohibited federal agencies from proposing legislation that would hurt tribal governments, and requires agencies to designate an official to handle relations with tribes.

Federal agencies were required to consult with tribes early in agency rule-making processes and provide tribal leaders with information regarding the financial impact of agency decisions.

Today, there is nothing more important in federal-tribal relations than fostering true government-to-government relations to empower American Indians and Alaska Natives to improve their own lives, the lives of their children and generations to come. We must continue to engage in a partner-ship, so that the First Americans can reach their full potential. So, in our Nation's relations with Indian tribes, our first principal must be to respect the right of American Indians and Alaska Natives to self-determination. We must respect Native Americans' rights to choose for themselves their own way of life on their own lands according to their time honored cultures and traditions.

Bill Clinton added: "We must also acknowledge that American Indians and Alaska Natives must have access to new technology and commerce to promote economic opportunity on their homelands."

While he didn't mention Indian Gaming, Bill and Hillary Clinton were aware that the most important reservation commercial enterprise in history is gaming, and it can't be a coincidence that his statement relating to access to new technology echoed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act's emphasis on tribes' use of new technologies in the operation of bingo games, particularly since his executive order came just five weeks after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that fast-play bingo games that utilize satellite and other technology are legal Class II games under the IGRA.

It may not be glamorous or play well in Peoria, for large values of Peoria, some of which are in Indian Country, it is something every Tribal Executive can take to the bank, and everyone of them has to take something to the bank, or find another line of work.

Turning to Senator McCain, his record is far more problematic, as MB has documented in the DOI & DOJ Corruption, the Abramoff & the Injuns, and the McCain 08 sections of Wampum. However, he has a record from 1983, when he was elected to the House and assigned to the Committee on Interior & Insular Affairs (now the Committee on Natural Resources), and eventually to the chairmanship of the Republican Task Force on Indian Affairs. In 1987 he became a member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, where he helped preserve ICWA as we know it, a territory far from taxes and gaming, the staples of his Federal Indian legislative advocacy, and in 2002 was one of the founders of the Senate Native American Caucus.

Again, it may not be glamorous or play well in Peoria, for large values of Peoria, some of which are in Indian Country, but that's a lot of handshakes and overlapping histories.