Of Indians, Iraqis & Sovereignty

Given the corruption in the BIA (the Bureau of Indian Affairs) not be be confused with the BIA (Bureau of Insular Affairs, staffed by our military, that used to run the Empire in the Philippines and elsewhere) as described in this article in The Village Voice,, maybe the"Neocon Tribe" can do a little"Nation Building" with Halliburton right here in the Good Old USA. The Lumbees here in NC, the largest tribe east of the Mississippi, much intermarried with Caucasians and whose war veterans in the 1960s chased the Klan into the night, have now also discovered the virtues of being"An Indian." As Tonto (the Fool) once said to the Lone Ranger,"What you mean 'us,'"White Man?" Isn't there a song from"Annie Get Your Gun" that would allow all of us to qualify for the largesse?

Perhaps my favorite in the Government's"the Assumption of Sovereignty" for the Indians, which I mentioned in an Indian section in A History of Florida, was the effort by the Choctaw, in landlocked Oklahoma, to go into Offshore Banking. The tribe found out quickly, as the Iraqis will soon, about our politicos notion of"Limited Sovereignty," -- a wonderful oxymoron! Since we're into Outsourcing everything else, I guess it was natural our Proconsuls would soon be Outsourcing some Sovereignty as well. After all, Empires always have a surplus of that. I suppose it's too outrageous to suggest an individual might like to buy a little too! Maybe Wal-mart will start selling it soon.

I once had a great interview with Patrick Hurley, the Irish-Choctaw, Oklahoman, Harvard lawyer who handled the oil claims for the tribe. Philippine Commissioner, later SecWar & leader of a mission to China. A millionaire in his 20s, he used to tease his wife, Jane, the daughter of Adm, Wilson & tracing back to James Wilson, about having to marry down to a lowly Injun.