But, what are the real facts?
First, the funding they have secured is a mere pittance compared to the amount of state and federal funds that have been spent over the last one-hundred years and more to rob and deny Native American Indians of their language and culture.
Second, these same legislators have refused to adequately fund public schools on the Indian Reservations and in predominantly Native American Indian communities.
Third, none of these legislators have raised their voices to insist on the enforcement of affirmative action in hiring.
Fourth, how can children living in poverty expect to learn anything be it reading English or learning the very language their grandparents were beaten in school for speaking.
It is a disgrace to the human race that such vile politicians like Olson, Persell and Sailer have the unmitigated gall to go around boasting that one of the reasons they are entitled to the Native American Indian vote is because they have helped Native American Indian people secure wholly inadequate funding to re-teach Native American Indians their own language and culture that was beaten out of them by public school teachers and in boarding schools where the documented racist abuse was horrific.
In fact, what we have going here is the worst kind of racism because many times more money is going to be dished out to other communities and when we see how much more these racist politicians like Olson, Persell and Sailer are going to tell Native American Indians--- "Don't complain; you got yours." This is how this dirty racist political system has played people for years.
What DFL'ers Olson, Persell and Sailer refuse to address is the fact that it is much cheaper for the government and more lucrative for business profits to pay for language and culture, especially when part of the promotion is to promote Native American language and culture as part of the tourist and hospitality industries than for the government to put an end to racist unemployment and poverty and providing decent homes, quality educations and adequate healthcare.
Native American Indian language and culture is very important to restore; but, as part of a human rights agenda designed to bring full equality in employment, education, housing and healthcare.
Some people may view this token and completely inadequate tossing of money at a problem as "don't look a gift horse in the mouth." This is a shortsighted approach designed to prevent the kind of all-peoples unity needed to turn this country around.
Any country that can spend trillions of dollars on wars and militarization certainly can find the resources to provide Native American Indian peoples the lives with the dignity and human decency that comes with a real living wage job working in a healthy and rewarding working environment; after all, this entire system was built on the land and resources stolen from First Nation's peoples in the exact same violent manner their language and culture was stolen from them.
Mary Olson, John Persell and Brita Sailer have a lot of nerve waving around these inadequate funds for language and culture when they never lifted one finger or their voices to demand the development, implementation and enforcement of affirmative action on the Bemidji Regional Event Center when everyone knows that children living in poverty have a hard time learning anything and without a real living wage job, working people are destined to be poor.
I never saw a kid yet who could fill his or her belly on language and culture.
The Red Lake Nation pays Michael Meuers tens of thousands of dollars to advocate for the Red Lake Nation and what have the people received in return?
Check it out... Native language on the doors of Bemidji businesses for the tourists to look at while inside the owners have an unwritten sign:
No Native American Indians need apply for jobs here---
While below this same racist parasite living off the poverty of the Native American Indian people is scheming at a Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party Precinct Caucus Meeting trying to prevent a resolution in support of affirmative action from being approved, and is pulling strings to undermine the candidacies of Native American candidates for public office...
How come we don't see Michael Meuers standing with a group of Native American workers going to work on the construction of the Bemidji Regional Event Center holding a copy of affirmative action policies as mandated by President Lyndon B. Johnson's Executive Order #11246?
Check it out; anyone see any affirmative action policies anyplace as part of the planning process to develop this racist boon-doggle known so affectionately as THE BREC?
http://www.bemidjievents.com/plans.html
No one can say that Michael Meuers doesn't have any "pull" because the the Red Lake Nation Tribal Council hires him because of his "pull" in the Minnesota DFL...
PLUS...
Michael Meuers' wife sits on this racist, all white Bemidji City Council:
While Michael Meuers feeds his face, Native American Indian children go to school hungry and sick because their parents are victims of racist hiring practices enforced by the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party:
Hopefully the Minnesota DFL will choke on its own racism in the November Election.
Not one single Native American Indian sitting on the Bemidji City Council in spite of Bemidji's large Native American Indian population.
Not one single Native American Indian sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature in spite of Minnesota having one of the largest Native American Indian populations in the Nation--- a Nation, and its resources, stolen from First Nations peoples...
And, a government that won't obey its own laws and enforce affirmative action.
Welcome to Bemidji where Native Americans are disenfranchised from the political process and denied the jobs they are entitled to...
Welcome to Bemidji the most racist community in America.
Many people wonder how such systemic and institutionalized racism can exist in Bemidji, Minnesota.
The fact of the matter is that people are not learning the real history of this area.
This collection of post cards is a reflection of what students in schools are learning... of Bemidji, a resort and tourist community.
What is not being displayed for the present generation and the tourists to see is Lake Bemidji as it was inhabited by Native American Indians who were driven from their homes to make way for this tourist and resort community to be established... are there no pictures appropriate for display at the tourist center or on post cards depicting how the removal of an entire people from their homes and deprived of their livelihoods based upon what Nature had provided was accomplished?
People like Mary Olson, John Persell and Brita Sailer now want to make people think they have done some great deed for Native American Indians in securing this pittance of funding to help restore the language and culture destroyed by another "culture."
I'm wondering if some funding shouldn't be allocated to teach us all about the real "hidden" and "dark" history of how systemic and institutionalized racism created Bemidji, Minnesota--- the most racist city in the United States of America where the politicians really believe they can flagrantly violate the laws of the land in depriving Native American Indians of the jobs they are entitled to.
On the very land at the shores of Lake Bemidji where the Bemidji Regional Event Center is nearing construction, it wasn't that long ago Native American Indians were forced to leave their homes as this land was stolen out from under them... now, again, another form of racism is being carried out in depriving Native American Indians of their rights and livelihoods.
Shouldn't we have a series of post cards depicting the racist history and present of the City of Bemidji? Maybe then affirmative action would be enforced as required by law.