"An old trivia game among bureaucracy-watchers is to guess what preposterous reason some official has invented to stop economic development. The game reached a new high of gobbledygook this week, when Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, urging it to deny a tribal request to build a casino-hotel complex on its 230-acre site in Seneca and Cayuga counties because it "would harm Upstate New York's local tax base, its businesses, and its future economic development."
Notwithstanding the fact that a casino-hotel operation is itself a fairly substantial economic development employing hundreds of locals, Schumer issued a release pointing up every negative he could think of, leading with a snide we-don't-want-your-kind-around-here notice that "the tribe is 'out-of-state.' "
That's true. It's the federally recognized tribe of Seneca and Cayuga, based near Grove, Okla. Federal recognition includes "Native American self-determination," which is a type of sovereignty known as "domestic dependent nations" -- a sort of "sovereign within a sovereign" status, with the United States holding ultimate power. Federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, sometimes treat tribal petitions on a nation-to-nation footing, and advocates argue that tribal contacts should be handled by the secretary of state."
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Ron Arnold:
NIMBY New Yorkers: We don't want any Indian casino near us
(The Washington Examiner 1/31)
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