When will the Indian Wars end?

Please make a note that on November 16, 2001, John WorldPeace, the next governor of Texas, took a stand on the Indian casinos. And also note on this date that neither Tricky Rick Perry nor Don Sanchez have made any statement on this matter.

Americans and Texans conducted a war of genocide on the Indian Nations which ended in 1890. However, since then there has being foisted on the Indian Nations repression greater than that which was applied to the Blacks after the Emancipation Proclamation. 

The Indian Nations all over America have found a way to support themselves through gambling casinos. For the first time, these people have a real opportunity to raise themselves from the poverty that the Federal Government along with the aid of the individual states have imposed on these people for over a hundred years. It is time to allow these people to bring themselves into parity with the rest of America. It is time to bring them under the Federal and Texas Constitutional guarantees of equality and justice.

The gambling issue is about money. It is about business. It is about who is going to be able to tap the huge gambling cash flow that comes from these casinos. 

John Cornyn, with the support of Tricky Rick Perry by his silence, has determined to stop the flow of monies into the Native American pockets until he can determine how those monies can be funneled into the pockets of his political supporters. This issue is about money. It is about continuing to disenfranchise Native Americans. It is not about religious opposition to gambling because this state long ago crossed that spiritual barrier.

John Cornyn is being absolutely untruthful when he says that he cannot determine which laws he enforces and those which he does not enforce. The Attorney General's office makes these determinations every single day. I am an attorney and I am familiar with the criminal law. I know that cases are ignored everyday due to lack of manpower in the Attorney General and District Attorney offices statewide, due to the facts of the case, due to many various reasons. 

In this case, the Attorney General needs to make it known to the legislature that he is going to go after the Indian casinos unless the legislature acts. I say the legislature because our Coca Cola Cowboy governor is completely lost and has no concept of what leadership and being governor is all about. He may not even know that there are Indian Nations within the borders of Texas. (Now watch and see if he does not make a visit to one of the reservations next week. You know in remembrance of Thanksgiving and the Native Americans saving the first American Colonist and all.)

As governor, I will find someone in the legislature to sponsor a bill that will allow casinos on the reservations. This legislation will define the parameters under which those casinos can operate and how the money is to be allocated.

As governor, I will represent all the people. And all means all. As governor, I will represent the interest of the majority of the people over the interests of the few. Under my governorship, no one will be able to say that I have not advocated and secured the passing of democratic laws that benefit the majority of the people.

John Cornyn and his racist money driven prosecution of the Native Americans must stop. And our do nothing and confused governor Tricky Rick needs to be immediately retired.

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas

November 16, 2001

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Casino backers protest Cornyn's stance 

By KAREN BROOKS 
Star-Telegram Staff Writer 

EL PASO - Two weeks before the Tigua Indian tribe's Speaking Rock Casino is scheduled to close, an estimated 1,000 people demonstrated in front of a hotel Thursday to deliver a message to Attorney General John Cornyn that shuttering the casino would have a devastating economic effect on El Paso.

"The tribe provides our meals, helps us pay our bills, our medical insurance," said tribal elder Rosa Hernandez, who has two children and a daughter-in-law who work at the casino on the far east side of the city.

"There are a lot of services that we as elders are not going to be able to get anymore."

Cornyn was in El Paso for speaking engagements.

Both Cornyn, a Republican, and his predecessor Dan Morales, a Democrat, have challenged the legality of the casino since before it opened, as have their respective governors, George W. Bush and Ann Richards. The attorney general's office has repeatedly taken the tribe, officially called Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, to court.

In September, a federal judge ordered Speaking Rock to shut down by Nov. 30.

Tribal leaders and their supporters accuse Cornyn of discrimination and of using the casino as an example to gain favor with anti-gambling conservative Republicans in his bid for U.S. Senate. Cornyn has denied any connection between the issue and his political plans.

The Tiguas say the opening of the casino in 1993 turned around a centuries-old cycle of desperate poverty in their community on the far east side of El Paso.

About 50 of the 800 employees at the casino are Tigua, and Tiguas get preference in hiring, meaning that anyone who wants to work there can.

All tribe members receive an annual share of the profits amounting to several thousand dollars, and the tribe has used millions in revenue to start other businesses. Older tribe members may eat for free in the casino's restaurant, and among other educational improvements for tribe children is a college scholarship fund.

Albert Alvidrez, the tribe's governor, said the tribe does not plan to close the casino and will ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay by early next week.

"As long as the state runs its lottery, the tribe is prepared to continue being self-sufficient and engage in the gaming operations that we currently have," he said.

Cornyn, the keynote speaker at a luncheon for the city's Better Business Bureau, said that although he sympathizes with the Tigua, he cannot justify allowing an illegal operation to continue.

"The tribe was led to believe by its leaders that they could open up an illegal casino," Cornyn said. But as the state's top legal official, he said, he cannot justify "picking and choosing" which state laws to enforce.

El Paso business leaders and county and city officials have publicly supported the casino.

In 1987, the tribe gained federal status on the condition that it did not break state laws against gaming. The Tigua now argue that gambling laws in Texas were liberalized with the introduction of the state lottery in 1991 and the approval of bingo.

The Kickapoo tribe in Eagle Pass is running a similar casino legally because their federal status came without that condition, officials have said.

Some polls have shown that as many as 71 percent of El Pasoans support the casino. Among them is state Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, who carried a sign Thursday saying, "Cowboy Cornyn: Don't shoot the Tiguas in the Back!"

"We need to be honest with the citizens of Texas," she said. "Gambling is legal - for some people."

kbrooks@star-telegram.com