Good Indians

The origins of the phrase "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" may never correctly be identified. It may have been a General Sheridan or it may have been a U.S. Representative to Montana, a James M. Cavanaugh.

WOUNDED KNEE, SAND CREEK, ETC., ETC.

Who can say who said what? In any case, times have changed. The world is not the same as it was back in 1869. Indian Country times have changed as well. In fact Indians have changed. We have good Indians in 2008 just as the Europeans spoke of in 1869. We have a new creed, they have new motivations. They can't kill us or eat us now because both are illegal. The open season on Indian men, women, and children-is closed. So now what makes a good Indian?

PEABODY COAL, URSA MAJOR/GREAT BEAR CONSULTING, BLACK MESA PROJECT

ROSS SWIMMER?

In the interest of protecting the reputation of several big corporate interests, I will not mention Great Bear Consultants, Ursa Major consulting, Peabody Coal, or any other large organizations whose pockets are filled off the sales of Tribal Resources. But they have for purposes of this conversation, helped us actually. They alone have defined what it means to be a good Indian today. No longer does death standardize the requirements of a good Indian. Now, a good Indian is alive and well.

The good Indians are indeed alive and well....and poor. They are kept poor so that when a corporate interest comes along and wants to make money off our resources, we jump at the chance to earn a dirty percapita working at a higher-than-median-wage level in a job that supports their earnings of billions of dollars.

We have to be alive today so that we alone can broker the deals with them without outside interference, because we're on the rez. (This is where our sovereignty is used against us)

We have to be well, so that we can fill the jobs with pay that is more than we could ever make on the reservation. A good strong body means we can fill the truck loads of resources that leave the rez.

We have to be making-less-than-a-million-dollars a week too. In other words we need to be poor; that will motivate us to take a high wage (compared to what we normally make) to serve the corporation as they take home billions off the rez and leave us with holes in the environment.

So, todays discussion will lead us to the new definition of what good Indians are in 2008.

"The only good Indian is a POOR Indian."

-write that down...