MIGA... The Minnesota Indian Gaming Association destroys Native American Indian culture and sovereignty as well as undermines democracy in Minnesota.
MIGA operates in a very interesting way.
MIGA was put together by a racist white man, John McCarthy, who found early on in life that there were huge profits to be made off the poverty of Native American Indian people... be it stealing their land when they needed food to feed their families by offering his "help" in time of need by buying their land at far less than market value and then selling at a very high price.
McCarthy early on learned that he could buy off some Native American people to do his dirty work for him and this has paid off well since he linked up with Stanley Crooks who has a most fitting name.
Of course, John McCarthy was able to find many politicians already very adept at extracting bribes from the various industries ranging from banking to agriculture and mining to power generating to forestry... any place there were businessmen exploiting workers and raping the land, Minnesota's politicians quickly found they could extract bribes from the wealthy.
John McCarthy was quick to learn there were always a few people among any people who could be sucked into schemes to abuse and exploit their own people... and mistreat their own people in quest of greater profits.
John McCarthy quickly found that he could always buy a few people in some way to get what he wanted: great wealth for himself... something he has attained through the Indian Gaming Industry.
John McCarthy has found it very easy to bribe the politicians.
John McCarthy has found it quite easy to find people like Sally Fineday and Audrey Thayer and those operating Wellstone Action to twist around his fingers as if they were nothing but putty in the palm of his hand.
The recent letter McCarthy wrote which was signed by Sally Fineday on behalf of the Beltrami County DFL--- a DFL Party organization known for its racism and bigotry, the likes of Mr. Nelson the Chair and Mike Simkins, Michael Meurs and the rest of this crowd--- demonstrates very clearly how John McCarthy operates.
The "forum" being put on under the auspices of being a a forum for the public to find out from gubernatorial candidates where they stand on Native American Indian issues where voters were supposed to be able to share their concerns and ideas also has very cleverly been turned into a lobbying effort in support of the Indian Gaming Industry.
John McCarthy has conceived the idea of putting hereditary chiefs on the gaming payrolls to buy them off just as he previously has done so successfully with tribal politicians... those tribal politicians who refused to take his bribes quickly found themselves being called corrupt, incompetent and undemocratic as they soon became the targets of massive hate campaigns--- Roger Jourdain was one of the first targets of such a hate campaign orchestrated by MIGA... John McCarthy stood back and smiled as he began to destroy Native American Indians, their communities and their culture in this way.
We have seen how John McCarthy and MIGA operate in organizing this forum of gubernatorial candidates... first you call it non-partisan and open to the public--- which it was never intended to be; then, the day before the forum you begin distributing a completely different statement calling upon people to use the slick website of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association as their resource for information on issues like "What is sovereignty?" I notice in none of the pictures on the MIGA website do we see John McCarthy dancing.
Sally Fineday released a letter on behalf of the the Beltrami County DFL attacking workers demanding their rights as a threat to "sovereignty."
I have yet to hear anyone explain how workers having rights and unions is a threat to any nation's or people's sovereignty; especially when the majority of the people comprising the nation are working people.
This is the perverted, distorted and twisted view of "sovereignty" pushed by John McCarthy and those like Stanley Crooks who want to maintain Native American Indian communities as a source of cheap labor for the Indian Gaming Industry.
Over 95% of the Native American Indian population is working class which means just one thing: If, as workers, they do not have jobs paying real living wages they will live in poverty.
What kind of perverted and twisted sovereignty is responsible for maintaining an entire people living in poverty?
Workers without any rights are workers who will forever remain in poverty... especially when you have all white racist bigots making the laws and negotiating "Compacts" with tribal politicians who are in John McCarthy's hip pocket as are the state legislators... quite the cozy little deal.
All of which begs the question:
If the majority of the Native American Indian people are working people and most of these people have to rely on the casino industry for jobs because affirmative action in employment is not being enforced in the private or public sector... what kind of "sovereignty" do a people without any rights in their place of employment have?
Sovereignty is predicated on people being free and equal, protected by human rights legislation and statutes.
Workers without any rights who are employed under the most Draconian conditions enforced by their employers without any recourse to have their grievances heard and their rights protected are a people who have no sovereignty.
John McCarthy and MIGA along with Minnesota politicians like those running for governor are destroying sovereignty as they claim in their perverted way, that they are defending sovereignty... of course, they would make this claim because as long as people believe John McCarthy's perverted and twisted views of sovereignty, everyone profits--- everyone that is except for the Native American Indian people who are forced to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws; and this condition is what John McCarthy, MIGA, Sally Fineday, Wellstone Action, the American Civil Liberties Union, the tribal governments and Minnesota's Democratic Farmer-Labor Party are willing to endure in the name of sovereignty... interesting though, Native American Indians get this sovereignty of poverty without any rights and heart and lung diseases and the cancers... but, check out what John McCarthy gets out of this "sovereignty" deal--- just drive by his multi-million dollar estate high up on a hill overlooking the Mighty Mississippi.
Sovereignty works real well for John McCarthy; isn't it interesting that McCarthy's perverted and twisted version of sovereignty doesn't pay off as well for the people residing in the sovereign Indian Nations?
Something to think about as you chow down on the Indian Tacos compliments of John McCarthy and MIGA, just like the nice walleye dinners McCarthy provides for Beltrami County DFL fund-raising events which aren't reported to the Minnesota Elections Commission until someone just happens to question why not.
I don't know if anyone noticed, but the one and only person to rise to the defense of the racist Bemidji City Planner who refused to insist that the City of Bemidji's affirmative action policy be enforced in the construction, staffing and maintenance of the Bemidji Regional Event Center was John McCarthy, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association... Mr. McCarthy was afraid that casino managements might have to compete with higher wages paid to Native American Indian workers employed in a legislated smoke-free working environment with all the rights and protections the rest of Minnesota's workers enjoy.
One has to wonder and ask: If John McCarthy is so concerned with protecting the sovereignty of Indian Nations and the rights of Native American Indians, why has John McCarthy not written a letter on behalf of MIGA calling for the full implementation and enforcement of affirmative action in hiring with this massive public works project being paid for with the tax-dollars of Native American Indians just like everyone else--- except that Native American Indians are being denied employment in the project.
John McCarthy and MIGA are for a perverted and twisted form of sovereignty which is, in the process of being enforced by a bunch of racist and corrupt politicians like the ones running for governor all profit from the poverty of Native American Indians.
And Shar Knutson, President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO sits in silence through it all as do the big blow-hards like Richard Tumka and Leo Gerard who are tolerating a this bunch of racist bigots at the helm of the Minnesota DFL to hold everything from DFL fund-raisers to conventions in the smoke-filled casinos where working people have no rights.
I want to welcome everyone to North America's crown jewel of tourism, Bemidji, Minnesota which just also happens to be the most racist community in North America... Rita Albrecht has helped to plan Bemidji to remain this way.
Don't forget this MIGA forum where gubernatorial candidates have been brought together where John McCarthy will make sure they are lobbied to protect, defend and enforce poverty all in the name of defending sovereignty.
What the heck... I suppose if George Bush and Barack Obama can get away with occupying other countries in the name of defending democracy; I suppose John McCarthy and MIGA can get away with calling this enforcement of poverty a defense of "Indian sovereignty."
John McCarthy and MIGA have spent millions upon millions of dollars bribing Minnesota DFL politicians to see sovereignty in their way yet, what I find most interesting, is that they never question why there isn't one single Native American Indian sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature... now, there is something to think about.
Alan L. Maki