In California we have Indian tribes of 1, 2 and 3 people. One of the three person "tribes" is the Valley Miwoks. As a recognized non-casino tribe they receive one million dollars ($1,000,000) a year from the fund paid for by the other casino gambling tribes. That's not all. They then received over four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) in federal grant monies last year alone, for "tribal government", "tribal economic development", "tribal housing", etc. So we have three people who get over $1,400,000 before they do a thing. Recently two of them teamed up to kick the third out of the tribe and cut off his share of the pot of gold, and yes, they are trying to find a backer and a site to build another gambling casino. (we already have 61 here in California now).

So if the Akaka Bill should pass then it won't be just the Aztlan movement challenging the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. There will be several "tribes" of Mexican and Latino peoples laying claim to vast areas of the Southwest including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas even part of Utah and Colorado. (The Arapaho Indians have recently claimed the Northern half of the State of Colorado but they are willing to give up that claim if they can get 500 Acres near the Denver Airport for a casino) I can hear it now, "the Guadalajara band of Mixtec Indians" or the Sonora Band of Toltecs" etc.

How long before we see a Bill in Congress for the Restoration of the Creole Nation in the Southeastern United States? Can this folly be limited to Inuit Eskimo and Aleut tribes, Hawaiians and Indians ( there are 600+ Native American Indian tribes NOW) ? Under current federal recognition processes the sky is the limit. The BIA, the agency charged with making recognition determinations entitling recognized "tribes to federal welfare and other benefits, is heavily dominated by Indian descendant employees and bureaucrats.

The answer is to stop this absurdity and take away the economic advantage of claiming some obscure tribal status and eliminate the current political obsession with "cultural diversity" as if it were an objective. We are one culture, the AMERICAN CULTURE which is comprised of dozens of ethnic cultures, who are all free to preserve their particular cultural traditions and customs amongst their families and communities.

That is the essence of American culture, a democracy which allows the freedom to carry on such traditions. It does not permit separatism by any group that thinks that they can be a "Sovereign Nation" within this nation, and be immune from the laws and taxes everyone else must abide by. There are no such sovereign nations, not even Indian Tribes which are, for the most part, dependent cultural enclaves that have maintained separations from the economic, cultural and political system of this country largely because the tribal governments of Indian tribes draw their powers from being the conduit of federal welfare and who control and manage those revenues that the tribes generate from the lands they control, which now includes casino gambling income, and these governments do so largely without any checks and balances.

Tribal governments do not want to give up that power base so to preserve it they disguise their true motives by speaking of needing "sovereignty" and sovereign immunity for the preservation of Native Culture and tradition, as if anyone in modern America would, or for that matter has any desire to, take that away from them.

Thus the only thing Native American tribes have become under flawed federal Indian policies are dependent enclaves supported by non-Indian taxpayers, and ruled in many cases by dynasties and families that control their enrolled members, often ruthlessly, and those members have no legal rights nor any effective means to oust these governments. Under current federal law, the determination of who is or is not a member of any tribe is exclusively the prerogative of THE TRIBAL GOVERNMENT with no recourse in any such dispute except to that same government. Sovereign immunity has allowed these systems to persevere.

Do we need more "tribes" of this nature? Do the residents of Hawaii want a separate "Nation of Hawaiians" above the laws and taxes that every ther resident of Hawaii must abide by? One percent (1%) Hawaiian blood is enough under the Akaka Bill even though the other 99 % could be Russian, Chinese ancestry or, ironically, American, (at least for 2 or 3 generations).

The time to put an end to this absurd tribal renaissance in America has long since past because it is clearly not being utilized to preserve historic "cultural traditions" as often claimed, but rather it is no more than an attempt to evade the many laws which apply to everyone indiscriminately and the taxes that we are all obligated to pay for the public services and infrastructure we all use.

Jim Marino, Esq. is a resident of Santa Barbara, CA

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