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RICH TRIBES, RICH JEWS : Comparing the New Anti-Indianism to Historic Anti-Semitism. Slate magazine cartoon of playing card next to article on Indian gaming, 1997. German playing card depicting a Jew with yellow badge, moneybag & pig, 15th century. Dr. Zoltán Grossman
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RICH TRIBES, RICH JEWS : Comparing the New Anti-Indianism to Historic Anti-Semitism Slate magazine cartoon of playing card next to article on Indian gaming, 1997 German playing card depicting a Jew with yellow badge, moneybag & pig, 15th century Dr. Zoltán Grossman Member of the Faculty (Native American Studies/Geography) The Evergreen State College Olympia, Washingtonhttp://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz
Historic Images:Indians as “Poor” or Degraded When the contemporary movement against Native sovereignty began in the 1970s-1980s, it attacked Native Americans as a “poor minority” Secular racialized image of Natives Anti-Indian movement used “Welfare Cadillac” myths previously used against African Americans Demeaned American Indians as “drunks” and dependent on welfare Wisconsin anti-treaty protester opposes welfare, 1991
THE NEW ANTI-INDIANISM:Indians as “Rich” and “Powerful” Connecticut newspaper ridicules Schaghticoke tribal status and casino
Growth ofTribal Gaming With opening of tribal casinos in the 1990s-2000s, prejudice grows against Native Americans as a supposedly "rich" minority. Tribes criticized for getting themselves (and many neighbors) off of welfare. Gaming became an available economic development tool for some (not all) tribes. Tribes had few other economic options. Cartoon with Native cultural symbols on dice
Economic Benefits of Gaming for Tribes • Social programs, higher incomes, housing, education (Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, 2005) • Enables environmental /cultural protection, land purchases • Clout in state and local governments and courts • Influence via contracts, hiring, investments, cultural events
Economic Drawbacksof Gaming for Tribes • High initial debt to outside investors • Layoffs, cutbacks in tribes • Uneven distribution among tribes • Distance from cities, tourism • Half of reservation Indians not in gaming tribes • Conflicts within tribes • But agree on sovereignty • Public misperception of wealth leads to federal withdrawal of aid Time magazine series criticizing tribal gaming, 2002
Anti-Indian GamingMovement • Opponents of social costs • Churches, neighborhood associations • Often do not see motives of allies: • Non-Indian gaming interests • Donald Trump, Tavern League • Anti-sovereignty groups • Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) • TribalNation.com Native identity and sovereignty often reduced to gaming issue.
Indian Country Today (10/20/93)
Double Standards Critics of Indian casinos often exhibit a double standard by not challenging non-Indian or state gaming operations Tribes allowed same “Class” of games as states where located (1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act) Only way to end Indian casinos is to ban lottery (both Class III) Yet Indian gaming singled out
Double Standards Tribal casinos dwarfed by non-Indian gaming in many states (NV, MT, SD) Tribes are not supposed to play the political “game” (funds for lobbying/campaigns) Individual tribes’ profits treated as “Indian” profits (white profits not racially lumped) Tribes expected to spread the wealth to other Indians (same not expected of whites) “"What is shocking to me is that if you had any other company that was going to employ 2,500 people and pay them $30,000 a year and up and generate millions of dollars in private investment, people would be falling all over them.” – Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello, New York Times (2/1/04)
State Demands for Revenue Sharing Governors demands more revenue in gaming compact talks with tribes Tribes already pay $4 billion to feds, $1 billion to states, $50 million to local governments Asked to pay more to states than corporations do (~8% tax rate) Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty (R): Tribes must share 25% or state will open its own casinos. His 2004 casino proposal also pit “poor” against “rich” tribes
Wisconsin IndianGaming Conflicts Tribes largest employers in 8 counties; reversing dependency on “border towns” Ex-Gov. Thompson (R) demanded tribes limit treaty rights, environmental regs in return for compacts New Gov. Doyle (D) targeted for accepting tribal campaign donations Wisconsin Republican video of tribes “scalping” taxpayer, 2003 Cartoon opposing Hudson casino
Conflict over Casinonear Madison Madison liberals join conservatives against agreements for new Ho-Chunk casino Alliance did not oppose state lottery or non-Indian tavern gambling Referendum for agreements defeated, 2004 “Satire” in Madison’s Isthmus weekly (12/26/03): “(The) Dane County Executive…announced today that she has reached an agreement with the Ho Chunk to open a number of 24-hour liquor stores on tribal land, including the recently acquired former City-County Building, now Ho-Chunk Hall. Under the deal, the county will get a 3.5% cut of the liquor stores' net revenues (on sales of schnapps ….)” Native student attacked, leaves U.W.-Madison; Native students harassed in public schools
Washington state backlash Racist defacement of Stillaguamish casino signs near Arlington “The anti-casino message turned ugly on the back of one sign. A racist joke was scrawled in red marker next to a stick figure of an American Indian shooting a bow and arrow. A talking head was depicted speaking in mock Indian gibberish. ‘We want publicity or ransom ... just joking,’ someone also wrote in red letters. ‘We want your casino the hell out!’ “ (Scott Morris, EverettHerald, 6/10/05)
California IndianCasino Conflicts 51 tribes with casinos; $4 billion revenue; Employ 40,000 + Calif. tribes compete with Nevada gaming interests
California Fiscal Crisis State demands more revenue sharing to offset huge deficit Voters backed tribal casinos, 2002
Criticisms of Gov. DavisToo “soft” on tribal sovereignty; not enough revenue concessions from tribes
Equating Native cultures & casinos Rationale for opposing bills banning school mascots or sacred site desecration
Schwarzenegger Campaign Criticized tribes involved in lobbying, campaign donations Attacked three opponents for accepting tribal contributions Schwarzenegger ads against tribal campaign donations “We are sickened by the legislative clout tribes are deriving from huge money pots acquired through gaming, then poured into the coffers of elected officials.” – Citizens STAND-UP Committee (Washington anti-Indian group), 2001
“The Indians AreRipping Us Off” “The Indians are ripping us off. We want them to negotiate and pay their fair share.” Gov. Schwarzenegger (10/14/04) Gov. reexamines some gaming compacts; reaches new compacts with other tribes Leads defeat of two propositions for Indian & non-Indian gaming, Nov. 2004 “We have the big tribes lobby up here, and they control the legislators.” Gov. Schwarzenegger (9/20/05) California Legislature paid large bounties for Native scalps starting in the 1849 Gold Rush
Parallels with past federal Indian policies Removal Era (1820s-60s): More prosperous Native nations (e.g. Cherokee) targeted for forced removal Termination Era (1950s-60s): More prosperous Native nations (e.g. Menominee) targeted for termination of federal status.
Othering of “wealthy” minority groups East Indian merchants in ex-British colonies Ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia UGANDA: Idi Amin expels Asian minority in 1972 INDONESIA: Anti-Chinese riots kill more than 1,000 in 1998 FIJI: Coups target ethnic Indians in 1987 & 2000
HISTORIC ANTI-SEMITISM:Jews as “Rich” and “Powerful” “Then……Now” A German anti-Semitic postcard before the Nazis came to power.
Historic Images:Jews in league with the Devil Religious anti-Judaism predated the Crusades, but Jews are later depicted as demons
Historic Images:Jews as Poor Itinerant Peddlers Caricature of a Jewish peddler. Italy, c. 1700
Medieval Stereotype of Jews as Usurers It was the “uneasy lot” of many European Jews in the medieval period to find their “economic energies limited” to usury—lending money with interest (Trachtenberg). A farmer and a Jewish moneylender Augsburg, 1531 “…Credit was essential to the expanding economy that was a major product of the First Crusade, and through a combination of circumstances it became the uneasy lot of many Jews to find their economic energies limited to this field. The extinction of the comparatively large-scale Jewish trade with the Orient after the Crusades left them no other economic function, since agriculture and handicrafts were virtually closed to them…” (p. 188) The Devil and The Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Antisemitism by Joshua Trachtenberg (Yale Univ. Press, 1943)
Reasons for Usury, 1100s • Commercial Revolution needs credit for economic expansion • High interest rates due to high risks and lack of capital • Church critical of Christians who lend money with interest • Moneylending, trade open to Jews Warning against "Jewish usury" Moravia, c. 1475 “The Church, while prohibiting Christian usury and thus restricting effective competition, acknowledged the right of Jews to engage in it, so that for a very short time they enjoyed an advantageous position as moneylenders.” (p. 188) The Devil and The Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Antisemitism by Joshua Trachtenberg (Yale Univ. Press, 1943)
Reasons forJewish Usury • First Crusade (1096) cut off trade with East, stimulated pogroms • New artisan guilds required Christian oaths; Jews driven out of occupations & crafts • Agriculture virtually closed to Jews; no access to land ownership • Jews had few other • economic options. "The Jurist, the Jew, and the woman drive the world insane." (The Jew has a moneybag & badge.) Germany , c. 1600
Exclusion from Land Ownership • Jews were cut • off from wealth • & power from • the “then basic • activity of • economic life— • agriculture.” • (Morais) Trachtenberg “…There was no place for the Jew in the feudal system, either as master or serf. It became generally accepted practice, often incorporated into laws, that he could not own land. Admittedly, there were many exceptions and variations, but in time this became general in the Christian world. And so the Jews were excluded from the then basic activity of economic life—agriculture.” (p. 108) A Short History of Anti-Semitism by Vamberto Morais (WW Norton, 1976)
The “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy” A minority “assumed to be inferior is forced…to engage in conduct that seems further confirmation” of inferiority (Langmuir). "Jewish Greed.” England, 1773 “In the twelfth century…set into motion the process known as the self-fulfilling prophecy whereby a group already assumed to be inferior is forced by the majority to engage in conduct that seems further confirmation of the minority’s inferiority. By the middle of the twelfth century in northern Europe, Jews were becoming stereotyped as usurers… it was the pressure of anti-Judaism which had restricted Jews to a specific and degrading role.” Gavin I. Langmuir, Toward a Definition of Antisemitism (Univ. of California Press, 1990)
Revenue Sharingand Competition Rulers fostered Jewish usury in order to exact tribute and extort cash Encouraged Christians to compete with Jews in moneylending “…Jewish moneylending had its fiscal uses: rulers directly fostered it in order to be able to exact a steady flow of tribute, while the constant extortions to which they were subjected obliged Jews to keep a fund of ready cash on hand. Here was a vicious circle from which there was no escape for the Jew. Society conspired to make him a usurer—and usury exposed him to the cupidity of feudal overlords and to the embittered hatred of the people. So long as he was a source of profit, the state protected him, in a measure….But when Christian competition began to press him hard, as it did in the 13th century when Christians realized that easy profits were to be made from moneylending, and when non-Jewish commercial activity increased to such an extent that the Jew no longer counted for much in his field, his importance as a source of governmental revenue vanished” (Trachtenberg, pp. 189-190) Trachtenberg
Double Standard • Christians also became usurers (Schatzmiller) • Many monasteries began to lend money • Christian usury not as restricted • - Competition with Jews encouraged • Yet Jewish usurers singled out • Disproportionate role only in 1100s • Stereotype of Jews as moneylenders • persisted for centuries after their disproportionate role in usury ended In the 12th century the words Jew and usurer had become almost synonymous….Thus the Jew was obliged to bear the brunt of popular feeling against the moneylender from the outset, and long after his short-lived prominence in the field had been pre-empted by others, he still remained the usurer in mass memory and had to suffer for the sins of his successors.” (Trachtenberg, p. 190) “Manifest by Catherine I” Russia, 1727 ”[Jews] are those who are not loved by anybody, who hate everything…are those who ruin the country and suck the people's blood."
The Jewish “Pale”in Russia Jews in Russian Empire circumscribed to the “Pale.” Often victims of pogroms; driven off land into towns Pogroms
Russia Racialized images of Jews in early 1900s France Religious “anti-Judaism” becomes racialized as secular “anti-Semitism” “Scientific racism” asserts “biological” inferiority of Jews & other groups Hungary
COMPARING HISTORIC ANTI-SEMITISMAND THE NEW ANTI-INDIANISM Chile 1930 U.S. 2005 TribalNation.com
ParallelHistorical Oppression • Christian majority intolerance • of religious minorities • Religious fear & hatred secularized as modern biological racism • Common experience of genocide • (Cook-Lynn) • Legacy in families today • Parallel responses • Social cohesion / mutual aid • Political activism • Sense of humor (from marginality) "Like Anti-Semitism in Europe, anti-Indianism in America raised its ugly head in specific places and in a variety of contexts but gained momentum as a fundamental element of American Christianity. Indigenous America was not Christian , therefore it was seen as an opposing force to be obliterated at any cost.... Anti-Indianism, like Anti-Semitism, displaces and excludes; thus, its distinguishing purposes have been to socially isolate, to expunge or expel, to fear and menace, to defame, and to repulse indigenous people...." Anti-Indianism in Modern America by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Champaign: Univ. of Illinois Press, 2001), pp 3-4.
Parallel Historical Oppression JewsNative Americans Expulsions Removals Circumscribed to ghettos Placed on reservations Pogroms Massacres Restricted to towns Urban relocation Itinerant peddler Dependent on welfare Shylock Casino Indian
France New Parallel Stereotypes Like the myth of the “Rich Jew,” the growing myth of the “Rich Tribes” implies that all Indians are wallowing in cash. Damned if they’re poor, damned if they’re not Convenient scapegoats in times of economic crisis U.S. “The Natives are getting restless.” – Colorado Gov. Bill Owens at tribal gaming conference (3/31/05) “I have to meet with the monkeys.” – Attorney Jack Abramoff, representing Mississippi Choctaws on gaming issues
Allowed: “White landowners are complaining that they are the victims of a ruthless land grab by greedy Indians ….” Washington Post (2/13/01) “The Indians are ripping us off.” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (10/14/04) Gov. Doyle… “doesn’t want to tee off Native Americans who put him into office by all the money….Am I crazy here or what?” Bill O’Reilly, FOX News (2/20/05)
