Greg Sarris at Bioneers ???

[Dixon]

Hey, Frank, your bitching and moaning about the alleged promise-breaking by the Indians misses the point that they should not have had to make any promises to us in the first place. Get it through your head--the Indians don't owe us a damn thing! Isn't it enough that "we" (European-derived society) stole their continent and slaughtered anyone who resisted? And don't tell me that that's all over with. It continues to this day; the white power structure still controls the continent, and the Indians are still subject to racism and ravaged by poverty, depression, alcoholism, suicide,--all the things we might expect in people who suffer from intergenerational PTSD caused by the unimaginable horrors and indignities of genocide. (Are you listening, jbox?) People like you add insult to injury by suggesting that the injustice is a thing of the past (wrong!) and that the Indians owe it to us to get our permission to do what they want on their own continent.

If you're so concerned about people keeping their promises, Frank, I'm sure you've been crusading to have the American government honor the 230 or so Indian treaties that it has broken, right? RIGHT? Nope, I'm sure you haven't evinced the slightest distress about THOSE broken promises, have you? Let's be honest--your concern is not about people breaking or not breaking promises; it's about you thinking you have a right to tell Indians what they can or cannot do on their own continent. My suggestion: if you don't like how Indians run their continent, leave. Scram. Vamoose. Or, if you prefer, stay--if you can quit spewing ignorant, arrogant and implicitly racist bullshit.

[tommy]

Dear Melissa, Cara, Nina and Kenny, from Bioneers,

Thank you for your gracious response to my WACCO post questioning and criticizing Greg Sarris as a Bioneers speaker. My shock was at Greg being a Plenary Speaker at Bioneers. I've attended Bioneers twice, and each time I was truly inspired and refreshed in an rare and uncommon way, in light of the dynamics and complexity of the issues we face, living on this planet. There's no way I could attend this year, with Greg as a speaker, knowing the damage that he and those paying him and his tribe, will wreak on the laguna in Rohnert Park. I'm sure he's a good speaker, but he speaks with two tongues.

I felt sadness at your statements "We ourselves don't take formal positions on political issues" and "We don't take a position about the Rohnert Park casino"... because when you, and I, don't take a stand, our precious home is overrun and decimated by corporate and government interests who use their money and power to feed their insatiable hunger.

I do not think your statement " The Graton Rancheria nation has had to satisfy environmental regulations just as any other developer would" is truthful. There is a court suit challenging the right of the Graton Rancheria to override Sonoma County land use and environmental laws. The Casino is non conforming under local land use laws. Class III gambling in California is not allowed on non Indian land. I doubt that when the CA Initiative was passed years ago, permitting gambling on Indian lands, there was ever any thought of a massive $700 million Casino/hotel investment scheme (with a tiny trickle down to a few local Native Americans) would be built on the laguna in Rohnert Park. As we all know, smart individuals and financial interested are all to happy to co-opt the good intentions of society, for their own selfish interests.

Dear Fellow Bioneers:

Several of you have written to us to express your passionate objections to Greg Sarris’ plenary at Bioneers 2012, and we would like to respond. “We” are Melissa Nelson, a Native American Board Member, Cara Romero, Native American Director of our Indigeneity Program, and Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, Co-CEOs and Founders.

First, we deeply appreciate and welcome your feedback. Thank you. We embrace the opportunity to take the issue head-on.

As you know, Bioneers is a diverse forum as well as a big tent. We feature a wide range of participants from diverse backgrounds who don't always see eye-to-eye on many issues. In truth, there are serious fault lines and open disagreements among presenters as well as among our conference participants. We have vegan activists and organic cattle ranchers, anti- and pro- nuclear environmentalists, green entrepreneurs and anti-capitalists, secular rationalists and spiritual leaders, technology mavens and neo-Luddites, and so on. Despite these differences, we seek to create a space of inquiry, respect and solidarity around what we do share common ground.

We often invite people to speak when a specific project they’re engaged in seems innovative and important to us. We ourselves don't take formal positions on political issues and often entertain divergent viewpoints that we believe are legitimate, even when we ourselves may not specifically agree on certain points. What we do require is a high degree of integrity. We believe there that in this impossibly complex world, we need to make space for the differences and to do so with respect even when we may not agree. And even though most of us Bioneers do share a broadly progressive and eco-conscious worldview, we aren't an advocacy group.

We invited Greg Sarris to speak – and he has spoken before, opening the conference a few years ago (he received standing ovations) – because several of our Native Board members and staff wholeheartedly recommended him - and because we greatly respect him as a leader and for the work the Graton Rancheria nation is doing in revitalizing the culture and livelihood of his people, who were so decimated during the westward march of Europeans on this continent. We also see ourselves as guests on their homeland. Greg Sarris is the elected chairman of the only federally recognized Indian nation in the San Francisco Bay Area. He leads the tribe on numerous social, cultural, environmental, and economic initiatives and we recognize him as an elected leader as well as a prominent scholar. We respect his integrity greatly.

Bioneers has been deeply shaped by Indigenous worldviews since our inception, and our relationships with Indigenous leaders have been and continue to be essential to our mission. It is traditional to honor the First Peoples of a place when engaging in any activity on their ancestral lands, and we have always tried to respect that tradition by asking members of the remaining Native Californians from the regions whose lands the conference takes place on for their blessing.

The issue of casinos has long been highly controversial both in Indian country and in mainstream society. We do not believe it is our place to judge it, and we do not. We have close Native and non-Native allies with strong positions on both sides of the question. We don't take a position about the Rohnert Park casino, and environmental concerns and worries about the socially deleterious effects of gambling are very valid to raise. From all we know, serious ecologists (including respected allies from the Bioneers community) are working on the project. The Graton Rancheria nation has had to satisfy environmental regulations just as any other developer would. Moreover, the Nation has donated other land to the public trust and taken other serious conservation measures in respect for the larger community.

Native California Indians have tragically suffered from a horrific history of colonization, genocide, discrimination, marginalization and economic privation. Bioneers recognizes this often hidden history and works toward truth and reconciliation about the true history of this country and the land that Bioneers holds our annual conference on. Unfortunately, many modern Americans unknowingly continue to hold racist stereotypes about Native Americans. Contemporary Native peoples are held to impossible standards of being “traditional Indians” and modern people simultaneously. Due to enormous land loss of California Indians and the minimally sized reservations for California Indian nations, many of these tribes have no or few options for viable economic development, which makes gaming an important option for some. We find it a double standard that, when an Indian nation wants to do economic development in the form of a resort, casino or other commercial enterprise, they are criticized for being anti-environmental, yet when Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Hilton, wineries or other commercial corporate developments are built, they are seen as “business-as-usual” without protest.

We deeply respect your concerns and applaud your impulse to civic engagement and to protecting the wellbeing of your community. Sadly, it is not uncommon for people of good will with otherwise similar perspectives to find themselves on opposite sides of an issue. We have seen that often with labor unions and environmentalists, or affordable housing advocates and those seeking to preserve open space, to cite only two examples. It saddens us when this happens, but these are inevitable conflicts in a world as complex as ours.

Greg will be sharing his views on many of these issues in his plenary, describing the work his people are doing. We hope you will be open to hearing his perspective with respect. In any case, please accept our deep appreciation for your willingness to challenge us, and we do sincerely respect your position.

Sincerely,

Melissa Nelson, Bioneers Board member (Turtle Mountain Chippewa Nation)
Cara Romero, Bioneers Indigeneity Program Director (Chemehuevi Nation)
Kenny Ausubel, Bioneers Founder and Co-CEO
Nina Simons, Bioneers Co-Founder and Co-CEO

Bioneers | The Collective Heritage Institute
www.bioneers.org

PS-
Tommy, thank you for the opportunity to reply to your concerns via this dynamic forum.

[jbox]

Hey, Frank, your bitching and moaning about the alleged promise-breaking by the Indians misses the point that they should not have had to make any promises to us in the first place. Get it through your head--the Indians don't owe us a damn thing! Isn't it enough that "we" (European-derived society) stole their continent and slaughtered anyone who resisted? And don't tell me that that's all over with. It continues to this day; the white power structure still controls the continent, and the Indians are still subject to racism and ravaged by poverty, depression, alcoholism, suicide,--all the things we might expect in people who suffer from intergenerational PTSD caused by the unimaginable horrors and indignities of genocide. (Are you listening, jbox?) People like you add insult to injury by suggesting that the injustice is a thing of the past (wrong!) and that the Indians owe it to us to get our permission to do what they want on their own continent.

If you're so concerned about people keeping their promises, Frank, I'm sure you've been crusading to have the American government honor the 230 or so Indian treaties that it has broken, right? RIGHT? Nope, I'm sure you haven't evinced the slightest distress about THOSE broken promises, have you? Let's be honest--your concern is not about people breaking or not breaking promises; it's about you thinking you have a right to tell Indians what they can or cannot do on their own continent. My suggestion: if you don't like how Indians run their continent, leave. Scram. Vamoose. Or, if you prefer, stay--if you can quit spewing ignorant, arrogant and implicitly racist bullshit.

Yes, Dixon, I'm listening, I just disagree. I hope you at least give me that right, though you and Miles seem to think that anyone that disagrees with you is a racist. As a proponent of critical thinking, don't you see the contradiction in saying the Native Americans should be treated differently than all others living here, afforded rights nobody else enjoys? Don't you find it funny that Miles thinks they are "special" and need this advantage to survive? I employed a Seneca Indian for 6 years, he was my foreman in my construction company, he didn't ask for special treatment but was a great guy, a hard worker, a self made man, and my friend.

I repeat, it is condescending, patronizing, and racist to say one ethnic group needs special rights and treatment afforded to nobody else to make it. You don't see a contradiction here? I do not dispute the wrongs done to Native Americans in the past but you and I had nothing to do with that really. Does not your ability do think critically see the contradiction in now doing the same wrong thing to make up for sins of the past.? How is it that 2 wrongs make a right? I still think we are all created equal and throwing the playing field out of level for one ethnic group over another is wrong, and ultimately racist.

And I still think casinos are a bad thing, no matter who runs them.

[jewelbridge]

Casinos are a bad thing no matter who runs them.!

...
And I still think casinos are a bad thing, no matter who runs them.

[Ice Queen]

I think it is called reparations, some people get it and some don't. I think there are a lot of black Americans still waiting for their forty acres and a mule. Indian casinos are the revenge of the Indians and they do collect their reparations. I personally like them. I also appreciate Greg Sarris' leadership.

Yes, Dixon, I'm listening, I just disagree. I hope you at least give me that right, though you and Miles seem to think that anyone that disagrees with you is a racist. As a proponent of critical thinking, don't you see the contradiction in saying the Native Americans should be treated differently than all others living here, afforded rights nobody else enjoys? Don't you find it funny that Miles thinks they are "special" and need this advantage to survive? I employed a Seneca Indian for 6 years, he was my foreman in my construction company, he didn't ask for special treatment but was a great guy, a hard worker, a self made man, and my friend.

I repeat, it is condescending, patronizing, and racist to say one ethnic group needs special rights and treatment afforded to nobody else to make it. You don't see a contradiction here? I do not dispute the wrongs done to Native Americans in the past but you and I had nothing to do with that really. Does not your ability do think critically see the contradiction in now doing the same wrong thing to make up for sins of the past.? How is it that 2 wrongs make a right? I still think we are all created equal and throwing the playing field out of level for one ethnic group over another is wrong, and ultimately racist.

And I still think casinos are a bad thing, no matter who runs them.

[aldeno]

Tommy,

Why don’t you come to the lecture or inquire within the Tribe about the facts of what we are doing with our profits for the environment? Why don’t you look into the huge amount of money my Tribe has given to environmental restoration and education and our goal to use our financial resources to position ourselves to buy back all of the open space in Sonoma County to restore natural environments and to create organic farms that will feed the citizens of Roseland and other poor communities who cannot shop at Whole Foods like a lot of the rich folks do who complain about the casino? Why don’t you come and listen to some of the facts and then maybe you will see that it’s not you or others who will have financial resources to protect the land it takes to stop further development, not to mention the proliferation of non-organic grape growing to the tune of 70,000 non-organic grapes in Sonoma County that have lowered the water table and still have unregulated water usage unlike anything the casino resort will ever have or ever use? Why don’t you talk to us, why don’t you get to know us before you speak?

With respect Mr. Sarris, the one key factor you're missing is clear: honor. Does it honor the history of a beautiful people and culture to build on a floodplain a HUGE casino that preys on a base addiction towards those who can least afford it? Your answer of money, or "it's our only choice," is the equivalent of the child who says of their alcoholic parent "at least daddy recycles."

[Runningbare]

Here's what Russell Means had to say about casinos in an interview with Nadezhda Kevorkova four years ago:

"Casinos are legalized robbery. Only weak-minded and weak-spirited would want to spend their time playing in them. There won’t be any casinos in the Republic of Lakotah. We don’t want people to be robbed under a pretext that this kind of business is profitable for a tribe."

https://rt.com/news/russell-means-interview-116/