An Open Letter to Jill Stein and the Green Party, Green Shadow Cabinet and the Democracy Convention

Since there is no interest from any members of the Green Party, Green Shadow Cabinet or the conveners of the Democracy Convention when it comes to the plight of casino workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry with over 350 casinos and related businesses spread out across the country who are forced to work in loud, noisy, smoke-filled places of employment at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws in an industry where a bunch of rich white mobsters own the slot machines and table games once again leaving Native Americans mired in never-ending poverty caused by never-ending debt I don't have any interest in your Democracy Convention. 

More first-time job seekers and more women of child-bearing age are employed in the Indian Gaming Industry than in any other industry.

No other workers in the United States are more oppressed and more exploited.

No other workers of color in any other industry are more victimized by racism than in this hideous Indian Gaming Industry.

No other industry is more riddled with crime and corruption.

No other industry bribes politicians in the manner of the Indian Gaming Industry via its National Indian Gaming Association and the various state and regional gaming associations.

People like the Fertitta Family are typical of the management firms employed by the Indian Gaming Industry. If you aren't familiar with the Fertitta Family operations and the workings of their attorneys--- Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck--- I suggest you check them out. Frank Fertitta was caught trying to bribe the Missouri Attorney General.

Part and parcel of this hideous Indian Gaming Industry is the violence spun off which goes along with the illegal gambling, prostitution, loan-sharking, theft rings and drug dealing.

Over the last twenty-five years or so many millions of workers have been forced into employment in this hideous Indian Gaming Industry which is killing workers along with creating poverty--- workers without any rights paid poverty wages are going to be poor--- and corrupting the political processes in this country from the tribal governments to township and county boards, city and state governments, the U.S. Congress and the President.

I wonder if it by intent or chance the Green Party, Green Shadow Cabinet and the Democracy Convention keeps the Indian Gaming Industry off the agenda? It certainly isn't because Jill Stein is unaware of the hazards to human health caused by forcing workers into a smoke-filled working environment day in and day out and all night long 365 days a year.

If workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry can't rely on the Green Party, Green Shadow Cabinet and the Democracy Convention to stand up for justice; what workers can?

In the past there has been no response from you to our concerns. We will be taking our concerns with you over your indifference to these multiple injustices associated with the Indian Gaming industry in a much more public way.

The National Indian Gaming Association has employed the "services" of the union-busting outfit Altegrity/USIS trying to thwart our organizing efforts which already take place in a very worker-unfriendly environment because of the racist, anti-labor terms of the "Compacts" creating this hideous Indian Gaming Industry.

As workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry seeking to break free from the two-party trap of which the Indian Gaming Industry has become a component; we would rather work together with all those seeking to challenge Wall Street for power.

For many years the Rockefellers, Mellons, Pillsburys, the Bell family and other Wall Street families have been heavily invested in gambling so it should come as no surprise these wealthy Wall Street families together with mobsters of organized crime dominate the Indian Gaming Industry the same way they do mining, banking and the energy industries.

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Why did the EAGLE & CONDOR SACRED WALK FOR MOTHER EARTH leave out the demand to end smoking in the Indian Gaming Industry?

The Indian Gaming Industry is now the largest single employer of Native Americans.

I find it ironic no mention is made here by the EAGLE & CONDOR SACRED WALK FOR MOTHER EARTH of the need to end smoking in these casinos since workers are now spending a good part of their lives in these loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos being paid poverty wages and forced to work without any rights under state, federal and international labor laws and in complete violation of everything the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights stands for.

Putting an end to smoking in these casinos of the Indian Gaming Industry so workers are employed in a healthy and safe working environment should be a very simple reform compared to putting an end to the K-XL Pipeline, fracking and sulfide and peat mining which we also join you in opposing; but remind you, that to many people it seems a bit hypocritical not to include the demand the Indian Gaming Industry be smoke-free.

Failing to insist that the Indian Gaming Industry be smoke-free thus leaves open a door to the energy and mining industries to point out this hypocrisy which severely weakens any movements for clean air and water and protection of the land and all living things.

Is there a reason making these workplaces smoke-free given the medical and scientific findings of the adverse health impact on human beings subjected to second-hand smoke is not included in the EAGLE & CONDOR SACRED WALK FOR MOTHER EARTH?

Second-hand smoke is especially life-threatening to people who already have heart, lung and problems with diabetes, young women of child-bearing age and nursing mothers... thus, second-hand smoking in the Indian Gaming Industry not only adversely impacts the health of tens of millions of casino workers and casino patrons but the health of the unborn, babies and entire families forced to suffer when a loved one gets sick and/or terminally ill.

It seems to me it would be natural to include the demand that the Indian Gaming Industry be smoke-free.

This Sacred Walk through 6 RESERVATIONS, 5 HO-CHUNK NATION COMMUNITIES AND 3 MAJOR MIDWEST CITIES of the EAGLE & CONDOR SACRED WALK FOR MOTHER EARTH would be the appropriate time to bring the need for the Indian Gaming Industry to go smoke-free forward since it is all about the environmental quality of the workplace which is every bit as important as the air we breath, the water we drink and the land we live on and is every bit the threat as pipelines, mining and fracking. With the Indian Gaming Industry now comprising well over 350 casinos across the country the impact on the lives of people when it comes to second-hand smoke becomes just as pressing and important an environmental issue as pipelines, mining and fracking--- especially when it should be so much easier to put an end to second-hand smoke.

But, like with the pipeline, mining and fracking industries it seems that profits are once again the obstacle to ending smoking in the Indian Gaming Industry where profits come before the health and welfare of people.

The Indian Health Service and many Indian Nations have taken up the campaign to end second-hand smoke yet they fail, like the EAGLE & CONDOR SACRED WALK FOR MOTHER EARTH to take up the need to end smoking in the Indian Gaming Industry: why?

And why have the congregations of churches and synagogues engaged in supporting movements for environmental justice which refuse to take up the need to end smoking in the Indian Gaming Industry?

And what about all of these foundation-funded environmental organizations like the Sierra Club? Again, refusing to acknowledge the health and welfare of workers in their workplaces and the right of workers to a healthy and safe working environment.

A SACRED WALK THROUGH 6 RESERVATIONS, 5 HO-CHUNK NATION COMMUNITIES AND 3 MAJOR MIDWEST CITIES

A Sacred Walk with the intent to create public awareness of the global destruction that threatens the fate of our Sacred Mother Earth. With the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline on the verge of receiving approval for completion in America, we all need to wake up the world and stop the pipeline. As the 7th Generation, it is our destiny and responsibility as caretakers of Mother Earth to unite as Indigenous Peoples of the Americas to preserve this sacred planet for future generations.

With the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline, Natural Gas Fracking, Frac Sand Mining, Iron Ore Mining, Uranium Mining, contamination of our Sacred Water, Sacred Site Desecration, and the loss of species at an alarming rate...we need to intensify and direct more attention to the ill fated plight of Mother Earth and the impending doom for our youth and the unborn.

How Much longer will this hypocrisy endure?

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing, Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council