RICH TRIBES,
RICH JEWS :
Comparing
the New
Anti-Indianism
to Historic
Anti-Semitism
Slate magazine cartoon
of playing card next to article
on Indian gaming, 1997
German playing card depicting a Jew
with yellow badge, moneybag & pig,
15th century
Dr. Zoltán Grossman
Member of the Faculty
(Native American Studies/Geography)
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, Washington
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz
Historic Images:
Indians as “Savage,”
“allied with Devil”
Historic Images:
Indians as “Poor” or Degraded
When the contemporary movement against
Native sovereignty began in the 1970s1980s, it attacked Native Americans as a
“poor minority”
Wisconsin anti-treaty protester
opposes welfare, 1991
Secular racialized image of Natives
Anti-Indian movement used “Welfare
Cadillac” myths previously used against
African Americans
Demeaned American Indians as “drunks”
and dependent on welfare
Historic Images:
Indians “Honored” as Mascots
Historic Images:
Indians as “Noble Savages”
THE NEW ANTI-INDIANISM:
Indians as “Rich” and “Powerful”
Connecticut newspaper ridicules
Schaghticoke tribal status and casino
Growth of
Tribal Gaming
With opening of tribal casinos
in the 1990s-2000s, prejudice
grows against Native Americans
as a supposedly "rich" minority.
Tribes criticized for getting
themselves (and many
neighbors) off of welfare.
Cartoon with
Native cultural
symbols on dice
Gaming became an available
economic development tool
for some (not all) tribes.
Tribes had few other
economic options.
Economic Benefits of Gaming for Tribes
• Social programs, higher incomes,
housing, education
(Harvard Project on American Indian
Economic Development, 2005)
• Enables environmental /cultural
protection, land purchases
• Clout in state and local
governments and courts
• Influence via contracts, hiring,
investments, cultural events
Economic Drawbacks
of Gaming for Tribes
• High initial debt to outside investors
– Layoffs, cutbacks in tribes
• Uneven distribution among tribes
– Distance from cities, tourism
– Half of reservation Indians not in
gaming tribes
• Conflicts within tribes
– But agree on sovereignty
Time magazine series
criticizing tribal gaming, 2002
• Public misperception of wealth leads
to federal withdrawal of aid
Anti-Indian Gaming
Movement
• Opponents of social costs
– Churches, neighborhood associations
– Often do not see motives of allies:
• Non-Indian gaming interests
– Donald Trump, Tavern League
• Anti-sovereignty groups
– Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA)
– TribalNation.com
Native identity and sovereignty
often reduced to gaming issue.
Indian
Country
Today
(10/20/93)
Double Standards
Critics of Indian casinos
often exhibit a double standard
by not challenging non-Indian
or state gaming operations
Tribes allowed same “Class” of
games as states where located
(1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act)
Only way to end Indian casinos
is to ban lottery (both Class III)
Yet Indian gaming singled out
Double Standards
Tribal casinos dwarfed
by non-Indian gaming
in many states (NV, MT, SD)
Tribes are not supposed
to play the political “game”
(funds for lobbying/campaigns)
Individual tribes’ profits
treated as “Indian” profits
(white profits not racially lumped)
“"What is shocking to me is that if you
had any other company that was going to
employ 2,500 people and pay them
$30,000 a year and up and generate
millions of dollars in private investment,
people would be falling all over them.”
– Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello,
New York Times (2/1/04)
Tribes expected to spread
the wealth to other Indians
(same not expected of whites)
State Demands for Revenue Sharing
Governors demands more
revenue in gaming
compact talks with tribes
Tribes already pay $4 billion
to feds, $1 billion to states,
$50 million to local governments
Asked to pay more to
states than corporations do
(~8% tax rate)
Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty (R):
Tribes must share 25% or state
will open its own casinos.
His 2004 casino proposal also pit
“poor” against “rich” tribes
Wisconsin Indian
Gaming Conflicts
Wisconsin Republican video of
tribes “scalping” taxpayer, 2003
Tribes largest employers
in 8 counties; reversing
dependency on “border towns”
Ex-Gov. Thompson (R)
demanded tribes limit
treaty rights, environmental
regs in return for compacts
New Gov. Doyle (D)
targeted for accepting tribal
campaign donations
Cartoon opposing
Hudson casino
Conflict over Casino
near Madison
Madison liberals join conservatives against
agreements for new Ho-Chunk casino
Alliance did not oppose state lottery
or non-Indian tavern gambling
Referendum for agreements defeated, 2004
“Satire” in Madison’s Isthmus weekly (12/26/03):
Native student attacked,
leaves U.W.-Madison;
Native students harassed
in public schools
“(The) Dane County Executive…announced today that she has reached
an agreement with the Ho Chunk to open a number of 24-hour liquor stores
on tribal land, including the recently acquired former City-County Building,
now Ho-Chunk Hall. Under the deal, the county will get a 3.5% cut of
the liquor stores' net revenues (on sales of schnapps ….)”
Lumbee Tribal Status in North Carolina
Washington state backlash
Racist defacement of Stillaguamish casino signs near Arlington
“The anti-casino message turned ugly on the back of one sign.
A racist joke was scrawled in red marker next to a stick figure of an American Indian
shooting a bow and arrow. A talking head was depicted speaking in mock Indian
gibberish. ‘We want publicity or ransom ... just joking,’ someone also wrote in red letters.
‘We want your casino the hell out!’ “ (Scott Morris, Everett Herald, 6/10/05)
California Indian
Casino Conflicts
51 tribes with casinos;
$4 billion revenue;
Employ 40,000 +
Calif. tribes compete with
Nevada gaming interests
California Fiscal Crisis
State demands more revenue
sharing to offset huge deficit
Voters backed tribal casinos, 2002
Criticisms of Gov. Davis
Too “soft” on tribal sovereignty;
not enough revenue concessions from tribes
Equating Native cultures & casinos
Rationale for opposing bills banning school mascots or sacred site desecration
Schwarzenegger Campaign
Criticized tribes involved in lobbying, campaign donations
Attacked three opponents for accepting tribal contributions
Schwarzenegger ads against
tribal campaign donations
“We are sickened by the legislative clout
tribes are deriving from huge money pots
acquired through gaming, then poured into
the coffers of elected officials.”
– Citizens STAND-UP Committee
(Washington anti-Indian group), 2001
“The Indians Are
Ripping Us Off”
“The Indians are ripping
us off. We want them
to negotiate and pay
their fair share.”
Gov. Schwarzenegger
(10/14/04)
Gov. reexamines some gaming compacts;
reaches new compacts with other tribes
California Legislature
paid large bounties for
Native scalps starting in
the 1849 Gold Rush
Leads defeat of two propositions for
Indian & non-Indian gaming, Nov. 2004
“We have the big tribes lobby up here, and they control the legislators.”
Gov. Schwarzenegger (9/20/05)
“Red Man’s Greed”
“Red Man’s Greed”
“Red Man’s Greed”
Parallels with past federal Indian policies
Removal Era (1820s-60s): More prosperous Native nations
(e.g. Cherokee) targeted for forced removal
Termination Era (1950s-60s): More prosperous Native nations
(e.g. Menominee) targeted for termination of federal status.
Othering of “wealthy” minority groups
East Indian merchants
in ex-British colonies
UGANDA: Idi Amin expels
Asian minority in 1972
Ethnic Chinese in
Southeast Asia
INDONESIA: Anti-Chinese riots
kill more than 1,000 in 1998
FIJI: Coups target
ethnic Indians in
1987 & 2000
HISTORIC ANTI-SEMITISM:
Jews as “Rich” and “Powerful”
“Then……Now”
A German anti-Semitic postcard before the Nazis came to power.
Historic Images:
Jews in league with the Devil
Religious anti-Judaism predated
the Crusades, but Jews are
later depicted as demons
Historic Images:
Jews as Poor
Itinerant Peddlers
Caricature of a
Jewish peddler.
Italy, c. 1700
Medieval Stereotype of Jews as Usurers
It was the “uneasy lot” of
many European Jews in the
medieval period to find their
“economic energies limited”
to usury—lending money
with interest (Trachtenberg).
“…Credit was essential to the expanding economy
that was a major product of the First Crusade, and
through a combination of circumstances it became
the uneasy lot of many Jews to find their economic
energies limited to this field. The extinction of the
comparatively large-scale Jewish trade with the
Orient after the Crusades left them no other
economic function, since agriculture and
handicrafts were virtually closed to them…”
(p. 188)
The Devil and The Jews:
The Medieval Conception of the Jew
and Its Relation to Modern Antisemitism
by Joshua Trachtenberg (Yale Univ. Press, 1943)
A farmer and a Jewish moneylender
Augsburg, 1531
Reasons for Usury, 1100s
Commercial Revolution needs
credit for economic expansion
High interest rates due to high
risks and lack of capital
Church critical of Christians who
lend money with interest
Moneylending, trade open to Jews
“The Church, while prohibiting Christian usury and
thus restricting effective competition, acknowledged the right of
Jews to engage in it, so that for a very short time they enjoyed
an advantageous position as moneylenders.” (p. 188)
Warning against "Jewish usury"
Moravia, c. 1475
The Devil and The Jews: The Medieval Conception of the
Jew and Its Relation to Modern Antisemitism
by Joshua Trachtenberg (Yale Univ. Press, 1943)
Reasons for
Jewish Usury
First Crusade (1096) cut off trade
with East, stimulated pogroms
New artisan guilds required
Christian oaths; Jews driven out
of occupations & crafts
Agriculture virtually closed to
Jews; no access to land ownership
Jews had few other
economic options.
"The Jurist, the Jew, and the
woman drive the world insane."
(The Jew has a moneybag & badge.)
Germany , c. 1600
Exclusion from Land Ownership
Jews were cut
off from wealth
& power from
the “then basic
activity of
economic life—
agriculture.”
(Morais)
Trachtenberg
“…There was no place for the Jew in the feudal system, either as master or serf. It became generally
accepted practice, often incorporated into laws, that he could not own land. Admittedly, there were
many exceptions and variations, but in time this became general in the Christian world.
And so the Jews were excluded from the then basic activity of economic life—agriculture.” (p. 108)
A Short History of Anti-Semitism by Vamberto Morais (WW Norton, 1976)
The “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy”
A minority “assumed to be inferior is forced…to engage in conduct
that seems further confirmation” of inferiority (Langmuir).
"Jewish Greed.”
England, 1773
“In the twelfth century…set into motion the process known as the self-fulfilling prophecy whereby a group already
assumed to be inferior is forced by the majority to engage in conduct that seems further confirmation of the minority’s
inferiority. By the middle of the twelfth century in northern Europe, Jews were becoming stereotyped as usurers…
it was the pressure of anti-Judaism which had restricted Jews to a specific and degrading role.”
Gavin I. Langmuir, Toward a Definition of Antisemitism (Univ. of California Press, 1990)
Revenue Sharing
and Competition
Rulers fostered Jewish usury in order
to exact tribute and extort cash
Encouraged Christians to compete
with Jews in moneylending
“…Jewish moneylending had its fiscal uses: rulers directly fostered
it in order to be able to exact a steady flow of tribute, while the
constant extortions to which they were subjected obliged Jews to
keep a fund of ready cash on hand. Here was a vicious circle from
which there was no escape for the Jew. Society conspired to make
him a usurer—and usury exposed him to the cupidity of feudal
overlords and to the embittered hatred of the people. So long as he
was a source of profit, the state protected him, in a measure….But
when Christian competition began to press him hard, as it did in the
13th century when Christians realized that easy profits were to be
made from moneylending, and when non-Jewish commercial
activity increased to such an extent that the Jew no longer counted
for much in his field, his importance as a source of governmental
revenue vanished” (Trachtenberg, pp. 189-190)
Trachtenberg
Double Standard
Christians also became usurers (Schatzmiller)
- Many monasteries began to lend money
Christian usury not as restricted
- Competition with Jews encouraged
Yet Jewish usurers singled out
- Disproportionate role only in 1100s
Stereotype of Jews as moneylenders
persisted for centuries after their
disproportionate role in usury ended
“Manifest by Catherine I” Russia, 1727
”[Jews] are those who are not loved by anybody,
who hate everything…are those who ruin
the country and suck the people's blood."
In the 12th century the words Jew and usurer had become almost
synonymous….Thus the Jew was obliged to bear the brunt of popular
feeling against the moneylender from the outset, and long after his
short-lived prominence in the field had been pre-empted by others,
he still remained the usurer in mass memory and had to suffer for
the sins of his successors.” (Trachtenberg, p. 190)
Expulsions
The Jewish “Pale”
in Russia
Jews in Russian Empire
circumscribed to the “Pale.”
Often victims of pogroms;
driven off land into towns
Pogroms
Emancipation
Russia
Racialized
images of
Jews in
early 1900s
France
Religious “anti-Judaism”
becomes racialized as
secular “anti-Semitism”
“Scientific racism” asserts
“biological” inferiority
of Jews & other groups
Hungary
Nazi images
of rich &
powerful
Jews
Modern Anti-Semitism
COMPARING HISTORIC ANTI-SEMITISM
AND THE NEW ANTI-INDIANISM
Chile 1930
U.S. 2005
TribalNation.com
Parallel
Historical Oppression
Christian majority intolerance
of religious minorities
Religious fear & hatred secularized
as modern biological racism
Common experience of genocide
"Like Anti-Semitism in Europe, anti-Indianism in America
raised its ugly head in specific places and in a variety of contexts
but gained momentum as a fundamental element of American
Christianity. Indigenous America was not Christian , therefore it
was seen as an opposing force to be obliterated at any cost....
Anti-Indianism, like Anti-Semitism, displaces and excludes;
thus, its distinguishing purposes have been to socially isolate,
to expunge or expel, to fear and menace, to defame,
and to repulse indigenous people...."
Anti-Indianism in Modern America by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
(Champaign: Univ. of Illinois Press, 2001), pp 3-4.
(Cook-Lynn)
-Legacy in families today
Parallel responses
- Social cohesion / mutual aid
- Political activism
- Sense of humor (from marginality)
Parallel Historical Oppression
Jews
Native Americans
Expulsions
Removals
Circumscribed to ghettos
Placed on reservations
Pogroms
Massacres
Restricted to towns
Urban relocation
Itinerant peddler
Dependent on welfare
Shylock
Casino Indian
France
New Parallel Stereotypes
Like the myth of the “Rich Jew,”
the growing myth of the “Rich
Tribes” implies that all Indians
are wallowing in cash.
Damned if they’re poor,
damned if they’re not
U.S.
Convenient scapegoats in
times of economic crisis
“The Natives are getting restless.”
– Colorado Gov. Bill Owens at tribal
gaming conference (3/31/05)
“I have to meet with the monkeys.”
– Attorney Jack Abramoff, representing
Mississippi Choctaws on gaming issues
Allowed:
“White landowners are complaining that they are
the victims of a ruthless land grab by greedy Indians ….”
Washington Post (2/13/01)
“The Indians are ripping us off.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (10/14/04)
Gov. Doyle… “doesn’t want to tee off Native Americans who put
him into office by all the money….Am I crazy here or what?”
Bill O’Reilly, FOX News (2/20/05)
Not Allowed:
“Christian landowners are complaining that they are
the victims of a ruthless land grab by greedy Jews ….”
“The Jews are ripping us off.”
Gov. Doyle… “doesn’t want to tee off Jews who put
him into office by all the money….Am I crazy here or what?”
Parallel Dispossession of Land
Land as a source of power
Majority population took territorial
control over the land base
Like European Jews of the past,
Native nations have been denied
control over land, frustrating their
land-based economic development.
Communities circumscribed
to reduced areas
- Ghettos/Pale or Reservations
Forced Removals
Creation of
Indigenous “Diasporas”
Expulsions of Jews
Native Land Losses
“Checkerboarding”
of Reservation
Lands in the
Allotment Era
“How can we pull
ourselves by our
bootstraps if you
have our boots?”
– Winona LaDuke
Parallel Limited
Economic Options
Leipzig 1901
Left with few other economic
options, both Native nations and
European Jews had to engage in
unpopular financial practices to
develop their communities.
Jews: Moneylending,
banking, etc.
Tribes: Gaming,
cigarette sales, etc.
Parallel Objections
to Land Recovery
The same majority society that
had dispossessed the land
base also objected to these
financial industries, particularly
when they could contribute to
a recovery of land ownership.
Jews: Post-Emancipation
land purchases
Tribes: Casino-funded land purchases;
Lobbying/litigation for lands
Parallel Emphasis
on Revenue Sharing
Rulers allowed these financial
practices, as long as they could
be a source of profit for the
State, to scale down deficits
Jews:
Paying “tribute,”
subject to “extortions”
Tribes:
“Sharing” revenue or
limiting rights as
compact conditions
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson
opposed treaty rights, backed revenue sharing
Parallel Emphasis on Economic Competition
Viewing the success of these
financial industries, rulers
encouraged competition to
extract concessions & profit
Jews: Rulers encouraged
Christian usury in 1200s
Tribes: Pressure from State
casino proposals;
lawsuits by Trump, etc.
State casino proposal backed
by Minnesota House to compete
with Indian casinos & extract
tribal revenue concessions
Parallel Need for Scapegoating
Rulers need to identify enemies both below and above the majority.
Win over “Middle Americans” by diverting animosity toward poor,
but also by emphasizing economic threat from above to detract
attention from ruling institutions. (Warren)
White Christian citizens portrayed as underdogs; can mask
historic theft of land by claiming new “theft” of their wealth.
Successful gaming challenges “Noble Savage” myth (RDK Herman)
Despite recent gains in economic relations with white neighbors,
anti-Indianism can intensify as popular resentment & envy escalates.
Differences in Historical Contexts
Jews (and Gypsies) historically portrayed as “rootless.”
-Cosmopolitan or separated from land
Some rightists romanticize Natives as “rooted” in “blood & soil.”
-Warriors fighting to protect land from “Jewish” mining companies (Wickstrom)
Jews direct world conspiracy.
-Smart/crafty, manipulate others
Natives are passive “pawns” in someone else’s conspiracy.
-Tribes as “unknowing” participants in corporate/federal “land grab” (Lowman)
Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth. Anti-Indianism in Modern America. (Champaign: Univ. of Illinois Press, 2001).
Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. Cabazon, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act,
and the Socio-Economic Consequences of American Indian Governmental Gaming., Jan. 2005.
Langmuir, Gavin I. Toward a Definition of Antisemitism (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1990).
Lowman, Bill. 220 Million Custers. (Anacortes, Wash.: Anacortes Printing & Publishing, 1978).
Morais, Vamberto. A Short History of Anti-Semitism (New York: WW Norton, 1976).
Peterson, Iver. “Resistance to Indian Casinos Grows Across U.S.” New York Times (Feb. 1, 2004)
Schatzmiller, Joseph. Shylock Reconsidered: Jews, Moneylending, and Medieval Society
(Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1990).
Time magazine. “Indian Casinos: Wheels of Misfortune.” Special Report, Dec. 16, 2002.
Trachtenberg, Joshua. The Devil and The Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and
Its Relation to Modern Antisemitism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1945).
Warren, Donald I. The Radical Center: Middle Americans and the Politics of Alienation
(Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1976).
Wickstrom, James. Posse Noose Report (Posse Comitatus, Tigerton Dells, Wis., 1984).
Anti-Indian gaming cartoons:
Medieval prints:
www.bluecorncomics.com (Collected by Robert Schmidt)
www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/13.html
http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/albums/palbum/p04/a0201p3.html
20th century anti-Semitic postcards: www.vintagepostcards.com