Mille Lacs Messenger
by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
April 16, 2003

MORAL STANDARDS
In response to Melanie Benjamin's April 9 letter to the Messenger, I would like to say that I agree with her statement that the band's casino gambling businesses provide a lot of jobs for rural area people. But so do the sales of illegal drugs. Drug dealers make a lot of money, and then they buy houses, cars, etc. and this "helps" our rural economy to "prosper". I wonder if Melanie Benjamin ever stops to think about whether the casino business is immoral and incompatible with the Mille Lacs Band's traditional high moral standards. If she were to see band member children going without food because their parents lost all their money gambling, like I have on a number of occasions, she might start thinking more seriously about these moral issues.

Why do our country's Native Americans have to abandon their tradition of high moral standards and degrade themselves by getting involved with the casino gambling business, the casino sales of tobacco at cut-rate prices, storing nuclear waste on their reservations and, after centuries of suffering with the plague of alcoholism, the business practice of selling alcohol in many of their casinos?

With all the foreign aid that our government gives to far away countries, I would think that they could help our country's Native American communities' economics to prosper without forcing our Native Americans to degrade themselves by abandoning their traditional moral standards in order to make enough money to live comfortably.

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Desecrating Indian Land

by Thomas Dahlheimer

Gambling addition is the fastest growing addition in America. And "Indian gaming" is the fastest growing segment of the gambling industry. National leaders against legalized gambling are deeply concern about gambling addiction and their dedication to putting an end to legalized gambling is fueled by a study that says 20 million Americans are either chronic, moderate or at-risk gamblers. Casinos on Native American land are abominations because they contribute to the mental health epidemic associated with legalized gambling. Native American casinos located on Native American land desecrate sacred Native American land by contributing to this mental health epidemic. And Native American organizations that say they are trying to protect sacred Native American sites (land, water ways, etc.) should be openly opposed to Native American casinos located on Native American land. It does not "honor the earth", a common phrase amongst Native Americans, for "protecting sacred Native American sites" organizations to approve of Native American casino gambling, as many do. And if a Native American organization that claims that it is trying to protect sacred Native American lands receives money from a Native American casino it commits a sacrilegious act that contributes to the desecration of sacred Native American land.

Many Native American's tribes believe that tobacco is sacred. And they also know that the abusive use of tobacco kills over 400,000 Americans every year. So why do Native Americans sell tobacco in their casinos, and even at cut rate prices, when they know that most of the people who buy their additive produce will abuse (desecrate) it, and do it on sacred Native American land. Could it be that money has become their God.

Tobacco desecrating Indian casino customers expose casino employees and other customers with toxic health destroying second hand smoke. But do tobacco selling - casino operating - Native American communities care,? No they do not. Money seems to be all they care about. They sell their additive produces (gambling and tobacco) for money, and in doing so, jeopardize multitudes of people's mental and physical health. That kind of an example is this giving to their children?

Studies have shown that when the price of tobacco is reduced more teenagers will start to use and abuse tobacco, and in doing so jeopardize their health. But never-the-less many Native American tribes continue to sell tobacco at cut rate prices in their casinos located on their reservations. The selling of tobacco in Native American casinos located on reservation land desecrates sacred Native American land, and it also contributes to the tobacco abuse health epidemic of non-indians and Indians, especially Indian youth.

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojbwe sell tobacco in their casino located on their Mille Lacs reservation, and even at cut rate prices. And what makes this situation even worse, is that the band has received a grant of $10,000 to help curb the abusive use of tobacco on their reservation. And they have no problem using this money while they continue to promote tobacco abuse in their Mille Lacs casino. For ill-gained money that they can make in their Mille Lacs casino they abandon their sacred traditional ways, desecrate their sacred land and contribute to the destruction of their peoples' health, as do many other tribes. When will these people come to an understanding of what they are doing and change their ways?

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"Indian Gaming"
by Thomas Dahlheimer

The introduction of "Indian Gaming" is more threatening to Native American culture and sovereignty than alcohol or smallpox ever were. It is destroying Native American culture and sovereignty by causing conflicts between tribes and state governments as never before seen. What has the White man ever given Native Americans that they have not, in due time, taken away, because of greed. State government officials' promises of protecting the Indian monopolies on casino gambling in their perspective states will be broken, leaving the tribes broke, indebted, addicted and abandoned. This will be the worst of all our governments broken promises to our country's Native Americans. And only then will Native American communities that decided to assimilate into a greedy money loving aspect of the White man's culture (the casino gambling business) understand what a terrible mistake they made.

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Expansion Of Indian Casinos
by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer

In respect to the popular issue concerning the expansion of Indian casinos in Minnesota and throughout the rest of our nation, I would like to express some points of view on this topic. The following statements from prominent American Indian activists should shed some light on this issue:

Susan Abrams, a Seneca tribal activist and prominent member of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling wrote: "What Congress is doing is destroying a culture - the First People of this land! We need to repeal the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. And we need to teach our children there are values and morals and principles to live by, and that a quality of life is more important than making a buck off a person who has an illness."

A Comanche Indian activist, Dr. David Yeagley of the University of Oklahoma, argued that any monetary benefits are outweighed by the spiritual consequences of gambling.

"The whole concept of money without labor," he said, "is the fundamental flaw in the whole concept of the benefits that the gaming industry brings to Indian country."

He also said not all tribes welcome gambling. The Navajo and the Hopi, for instance, have opposed gambling interests encroaching on their sovereignty.

"The Hopi people, this past July 2004, voted against having casinos," Yeaglbey said. "It's against their values, it's against their tradition and an elder was quoted as saying that it's morally wrong to take advantage of someone else's weakness."

He said the quickest way to surrender Indian sovereignty is to permit gambling, because business interests from the outside take hold.

I would now like to explain how an Indian gambling "business interest" has "taken hold" in our wonderful State of Minnesota, a "business interest" that is responsible for "surrendering Indian sovereignty".

I founded and am spearheading an international movement to rename a river that is derogatory to American Indians, Minnesota's "Rum" River. The historical presumption, as expressed on historical markers all up and down the river, is that this river's current name was derived from a "faulty translation" of the scared Mdewakanton Dakota name for the river, Mdo-te-mini-wakan, translated as mouth (of river) + water + sacred.

But even after gaining a lot of local, national and international support for the effort to change this river's derogatory name, I am still having a difficult time influencing Minnesota's Indian Communities that own and operate Indian Casinos to support the effort to change this river's profane name, a name that blatantly desecrates their culture and language.

I believe that this appalling situation is occurring because they are afraid that if they were to say they knew that the name was derogatory and started to help me to change the name that high ranking State government officials might get mad at them and then take their slot machines and/or some of their casino income money away from them, or even establish State owned Casinos. And I believe that this is an example of how an Indian gambling "business interest" is "surrendering Indian sovereignty" in Minnesota.

During a "protecting sacred American Indian sites" meeting held at the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Government Center in the summer of 2004, a meeting that I participated in, an international regarded Native American activist mentioned this safeguarding Indian Casinos's business interests verses protecting sacred Native American sites and sacred Native American geographic place names problem.

To many of our nation's prominent Native American leaders are being corrupted by their love for Casino business money. And when they are corrupted by their love for Casino business money they often abandon a lot of their sacred traditional culture. And they therefore also loose due respect for people and their movements to influence people to show due respect for sacred Native American sites and sacred Native American geographic place names.

People trying to protect sacred American Indian sites and sacred Native American geographic place names can not do much to protect and restore sacred traditional Indian culture with U. S. Congressionally sanctioned Indian Casinos in our way. Evidently, when Congress passed the Indian Gambling Regulatory Act it wanted American Indians to assimilate into a greedy money-loving aspect of our country's dominate culture, the casino gambling business. And in doing so, abandon their culture for money. It seems to me that Congress' passage of the Indian Gambling Regulatory Act was another attempt by Congress to assimilate Native Americans into the dominate culture.

But this situation seems to be changing. It is commonly known that there are social, economic and psychological problems caused by legalized gambling, therefore in 1996 Congress established the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. And then after years of research this U.S. Congressional Commission called for a national moratorium on the expansion of legalized gambling. Therefore, this is another reason why I am opposed to the expansion of Indian Casinos in Minnesota and throughout the rest of our nation.

And I am working on getting a coalition together that will seek to influence Congress to repeal the Indian Gambling Regulatory Act and then establish and implement a economic plan to help American Indian Communities to prosper economically, an economic plan that would be compatible with American Indian culture. My web site is www.towahkon.org.

P.S., I just recently spoke on the phone to Tom Grey, the Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. And during our conversation he told me that he and his organization understand how Indian casinos are destroying Native American culture and sovereignty. And he said that he would help me to build a coalition that would help educate people about how Indian casinos are distroyingNative American culture and sovereignty. And he said that I could use his and his organization's name as supporters behind my organization's effort to put an end to Indian casinos. And he supports my effort to use the Mdewakanton Dakota peoples' lack of support for the effort to rename the "Rum" River as an example of how Native American communities that own and operate casinos are destroying their culture and sovereignty.

Tom Grey also told me that he has spoken with Ralf Nader and that Mr. Nader is also "opposed to Indian Casinos" and that he understood how "corporate greed" associated with Indian Casinos was destroyiny Native American culture and sovereignty. Mr. Grey also told me that he would be making a phone call to a Minnesota organization opposed to Indian casinos. And he also told me that he travels a lot and that he would meet with me when he arrives in Minnesota.

Thomas Dahlheimer
Mailing address: P.O. Box 24 - Wahkon, Minnesota 56386
Phone number: 320-495-3874
Web site: www.towahkon.org

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Protecting Sacred Native American Sites

by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer

During a "protecting sacred Native American sites" meeting held at the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Government Center in the summer of 2004, a person who does not want her name mentioned and Jim Anderson, both prominent Minnesota Indian activists, talked about how they have had problems receiving help for their missions to missions to protect sacred Native American sites from the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, Joe Day. I also attended this meeting. And during this meeting, I would have liked to have mentioned that I am having a problem getting Joe Day to help me with my mission to protect a sacred Native American site.

During an early stage of my mission to change the profane name of a Minnesota river, and by doing so, attempt to protect a sacred Native American site (the "badly named" Rum River), I called Joe Day to ask him and the other members of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council for their support for the effort to change the "Rum" River's profane name. He was polite and gave his support for the effort to change the river's name. But when he was interviewed by a staff writer for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, he told her that he had given me his "blessing," but the council is not formally supporting the change. And he is also credited, in that same article, as saying: "If he wants to do it fine, but . . . don't call on us to testify before the Legislature."

After this statement by Joe Day was published in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, I met with Don Wedll, a consultant for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. And during our conversation Mr. Wedll told me that Joe Day could help me with my movement to change the river's derogatory name. I then responded with the words: "It did not help the effort to change the name for Joe Day to tell a Saint Paul Pioneer Press writer that I could not call on the MIAC to testify before the Legislature, and Don Wedll then said: "your right…it did not help". There was no need for Joe Day to have made that statement, all it did was but a stumbling block in my way to change the river's profane name.

Joe Day was mad at me for not asking him to schedule a meeting so that we could get together and talk face to face about this issue, and that is the reason why he used the words "call on us to testify" in his statement. He was letting me know that the MIAC was not going to testify before the Legislature because they believed that I was expecting them to give their full support by just calling them and not meeting with them and talking to them about this issue.

When I started this movement, I was not an experienced activist and I did not yet have the confidence that I could go immediately from being a person who could socialize and talk about issues with my common American Indian friends to socializing and talking face to face about the renaming the Rum River issue with important State governmental officials. Therefore, I chose, during the beginning stage of this movement, to not meet face to face with Joe Day and the other members of the MIAC. But Joe Day, evidently, took my neglect to meet with him and the other members of the MIAC as an insult. Hence, he put a big stumbling bock in the way of my movement to change the derogatory name of a Minnesota geographic place, a movement that would, if successful, lift an oppressive burden off of Minnesota's Indians. Therefore, Minnesota Indians are hurting because Joe Day has a personal problem with me, a problem due to a misunderstanding.

Not long after the beginning stag of my movement to change the river's name, I wrote and sent letters to Joe Day asking him if he would please schedule a meeting so that we could get together and talk about the renaming of the "Rum" River issue, but he has not done so, nor has he even contacted me.

Another problem that I am having with Joe Day has to do with another statement of his, a statement that was published in a Saint Paul Pioneer Press article about the Rum River name-change movement. In this article, Joe Day is credited with saying "The Indian community's problems with unemployment and welfare make Dahlheimer's efforts to change the name of the Rum River a low priority". It seems to me that this statement by Joe Day was formulated from an assimilated into a greedy money-loving aspect of the White man's culture and mentality. To many of our country's high ranking Native Americans are being corrupted by their love for Casino business money. And when they are corrupted by the love for Casino business money they often abandon a lot of their sacred traditional culture. And they therefore also loose due respect for people and their movements to influence people to show due respect for sacred Native American sites and sacred Native American geographic place names and ways.

And if they are in high governmental positions they put the cause's of people trying to influence people to show due respect for sacred Native American sites and sacred native American geographic place names and ways on their "low priority" list. As Joe Day and the other members of the MIAC did with my cause to try to influence people to show due respect for the sacred Mdewakanton Dakota name for the "badly named" Rum River.

In the bible, Jesus Christ is credited as saying: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things (material necessities) will be added unto thee." If Joe Day would follow this principle, by putting a priority on respecting sacred Native American sites, sacred Native American geographic place names and ways, I am sure the material necessities he wants for his people would "be added onto" them.

And another problem that I am having with the Minnesota Indian Affair Council is that some of the council member's when asked by the Executive Director of the Minnesota Catholic Council, what their positions were on this issue, they told him that they did not believe that the "Rum" River's name was derogatory.

Since they made that statement, I have received support for the effort to change the derogatory name of the "Rum" River from local, national and international Native American Organizations. In a letter from the Executive Director of the Tekakwitha Conference, an international Catholic Native American conference that represents hundreds of tribes, Sister Kateri Mitcell wrote: "At their request (the Tekakwitha Conference's Board of Directors), I am responding to your correspondence and newspaper articles regarding the name change for Rum River. The members of the board commend you for your many efforts to have this derogatory name for a river changed."

Ether the members of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council who had said that they did not find the name to be derogatory were very stupid when they made their statements to the Executive Director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, or they were lying. I think that they might have been afraid that if they said they knew that the name was derogatory and started to help me to change the name that high ranking State government official might get mad at Minnesota's Native Americans and then take their casinos, or some of their casino money, away from them. And I believe that this is probably the main reason why the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council is not helping me to influence people to give due respect for the sacred Mdewakanton Dakota name for a Minnesota river.

An internationally renown Native American activist mentioned this safeguarding Casino money income verses protecting sacred Native American sites issue at the "protecting sacred Native American sites" meeting held at the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Government Center in the summer of 2004.

I hope that Joe Day and the other members of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council will soon come to understand that if they to not start helping me to change the river's derogatory name they will have to deal with my judgments that criticize their lack of support for this important international movement to protect an indigenous peoples' sacred name for a geographic place.