|
Too many chiefs?
September 22, 2005
It was with delight that I read Sam Lewin's September 20, 2005, gem titled
"Department of Interior releases status report on Indian trust
accounts - Officials cite progress, critics fire back,"
published by the Native American Times. http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7011
Sam "gets it!" He understands the way language deception
is used by those with control agendas -- be they government
agencies, non-governmental organizations or the like -- to squelch
dissent and outcry.
If a person doesn't realize he's being robbed, he won't struggle,
and he won't report the theft -- because he is unaware that
there has been one.
If taxpaying Americans can be made to believe that this obscene
amount -- "estimated at more than $12 billion" -- is
actually being used to conduct an honest audit and accounting of
funds that the accountant is likely guilty of
"misplacing," and is truly being spent to this end ...
well, I've some oceanfront property in Arizona for sale, cheap. This
is theft: from the nation's treasury and from tribal members.
The uneducated (or undereducated) and the poor have historically
been targets for pillage and other unsavory fates. I've seen the
Navajo lands of the Four Corners region, replete with monumental
splendor but rife with the collateral damage of having been made
into a "kept" people.
Government has historically been no more able to control its
appetite than a kid turned loose, unsupervised, in a candy store.
And we wonder why the kid is now sick?
Gale Norton knows that she fronts a Medusa with many heads, and if
she were to reduce the number of heads -- or even the number of
hairs (budget dollars) on any of those heads, she'd be putting the
feathers of her own nest at risk. She's mastered an alluring chant
that she never misses an opportunity to pitch to the public, hoping
that no one will look closely at the "4 Cs" --
"Communication, consultation, and cooperation -- all in the
service of conservation." She's so proud of this global
language deception ploy that it's part of the official DOI
"welcome" page: http://www.doi.gov/welcome.html
The 4 Cs are no less language deception than the 28-page DOI
"Historical Accounting" report: http://www.doi.gov/indiantrust/iimaccounting.pdf Both
rely on the public's information overload and the majority of
Americans who will only look at the glossy and eye catching
graphics, never noticing that there is little, if any, real
"meat and potatoes" information about how that
"estimated at more than $12 billion" is being spent.
Who among us realistically believes that the tribes will benefit
from this feeding frenzy? Other than a scant few whose careers are
built, like P.T. Barnum, on "fooling some of the people all of
the time," our gut feelings tell us that this is probably
high-level, high stakes "smoke and mirrors" -- and our tax
dollars continue to flee like leaves before a Front Range chinook
wind. In government, it is time to ask: Are there too many chiefs?
Julie is a property rights researcher who champions responsible
resource providers. Her website is http://www.PropertyRightsResearch.org
The BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) button is http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/articles4/boifrms.htm DOI
http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/doiframes.htm
|
