American Indians protest their ousting from tribes

[NVMojo]

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Dozens of American Indians in several states tried to launch a national movement this week as they protested the growing trend of Native Americans being denied profits from tribal casinos following political disputes.

They denounced what they said was tribal corruption in demonstrations outside the Western Indian Gaming Conference here, a meeting already overshadowed by the scandal over Capitol Hill lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty this month to conspiracy to defraud Indians with casino interests of more than $20 million.

Thousands of Indians nationwide — including 4,000 people in California — have been stripped of or denied rightful membership in their tribes, and 75 percent of the California cases involved controversies over casinos, said Laura Wass, founder of the Many Lightnings American Indian Legacy Center in Fresno, Calif.

One of the protesters this week was Donald Wanatee Sr., who lived for nearly all of his 73 years on an Iowa reservation but, in a single day last spring, went from tribal elder to tribal outcast.

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