"In 1819, in the case McCulloch v. Maryland, Chief Justice Marshall famously wrote, “That the power to tax involves the power to destroy [is] not to be denied.” This destructive power of taxation is the context for comments by New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Aug. 13, in regard to a long-proposed tax on cigarette sales by Indian nations. The State of New York is now claiming that the state tax on Indian cigarette sales went into effect Sept. 1.

The New York Post quoted Bloomberg as saying: “I said to David Paterson, I said, ‘You know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun. If there’s ever a great video, it’s you standing in the middle of the New York State Thruway saying, you know, ‘Read my lips: The law of the land is this and we’re going to enforce the law.’”

Mayor Bloomberg’s comment is beyond bizarre: It proposes that a blind African-American governor wield a shotgun on the New York Thruway, while portraying the stereotypical image of a racist, white cowboy-style sheriff. The shotgun that Bloomberg would have Gov. Paterson wield symbolizes the use of deadly force to impose one’s will upon others. It evokes the image of the “Indian wars.” A shotgun in this context symbolizes war, killing and coercion, not peace and diplomacy.

Indeed, Mayor Bloomberg’s symbolism advocates that the governor of New York threaten rightfully free and sovereign Indian nations with deadly force if they do not agree to go along with a state tax on their cigarette sales.

What is evidently lost on the mayor is the fact that the sovereign nations of the Haudenosaunee, or Six Nations Confederation, which are the target of New York’s proposed taxation, have existed much longer in North America than the State of New York. The mayor’s ugly comment reflects an imperial style of arrogance that goes with New York state’s moniker, “The Empire State.”"

Get the Story:
Steven Newcomb: Mayor Bloomberg shoots off his mouth (Indian Country Today 10/4)

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