Mille Lacs Messenger/September 27, 2006
Letter to the editor - by Thomas Dahlheimer

Contributing hatred

Because of what I have heard from prominent members of the Mille Lacs Band I believe that the band's leaders believe that most of the racism against their Indian community is brewed in our county's bars. An Isle council member said that he believed that the primary cause of the racist incident that occurred during this year's Isle parade was due to the consumption of alcohol in the Isle municipal bar. And in a Mille Lacs Messenger newspaper article, subtitled: "300 gather to note the toll by alcohol abuse", Melvin Eagle, a prominent member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is quoted as saying: "Alcoholism is not our traditional way. We need to try to pull together and away from alcohol because it is destroying our people." But the Mille Lacs Band has still not given its support for my effort to bring about a dry (alcohol free) Mille Lacs County.

In a recent letter to the Messenger, I tried to influence Mille Lacs County leaders to help me establishment a dry county. However, the leaders of the Mille Lacs Band as well as other leaders of our county have not given me any assistance with this initiative of mine. And now because of white racial hatred - brewed in a bar - our county is now receiving a lot of negative publicity that justifiably criticizes our county for being a white racist county that does not show due respect for Americans Indians.

During prohibition there was a movement to change the name of the Rum River. At the time, a lot of people did not want rivers and other geographic places to have names that were advertisements for alcoholic beverages, or addictive products that they considered harmful to society. And this is one reason why I am spearheading the movement to change the name of the Rum River. The non-Indian leaders of our county should be supporting the effort to change the name of the Rum River for this reason as well as for other reasons. Their lack of support is another example of racism in our county.

Tribal casinos are also a source of racial hatred. The United Methodist Church has taken a positions on this controversial issues by making the following public statement: "Because of the United Methodist's public witness on gambling we are on countless mailing lists for groups opposed to gambling. We believe that off-reservation casinos have fostered an anti-sovereignty climate, which is growing. We find the increase in anti-sovereignty and anti-Indian racist rhetoric by some of these groups alarming. We do our best to counteract the positions of these groups at every opportunity, but, the careless disregard for communities and children in promoting off-reservation casinos, some in poorest of areas, make this very difficult. It is simply unacceptable that tribes propose to build casinos with little or no regard for their social cost on a community."

I am also opposed to Tribal casino gambling, as well as to all other types of legalized gambling. And I am starting a movement to put an end to gambling in Minnesota. An article by Rep. Tom Emmer was recently published in the Princeton Union-Eagle. In the article he mentioned that he recently offered an amendment to the House of Representatives to put an end to gambling in Minnesota. I contacted him and we have started to correspond. Hopefully, we will be able to put an end to gambling in Minnesota, including Tribal casino gambling businesses, another source of racial hatred.

Thomas Dahlheimer
Wahkon