“The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”
In the Thursday, October 2 article “Alarms raised on Tribal Council spending,” The Times brings to light what Tribal members have known all along, and what we here at ReelWamps have been pointing out for years. This Cromwell administration may possibly be the most corrupt and cynical mob ever to run an Indian Tribe. Financial information is sketchy, and frankly, suspect. Salaries are way out of proportion for a tribe that has practically zero in actual independent revenue sources. We would love to see the tax returns of the Council officers. Even more, we would like to know what kind of financial sleight-of-hand is going on between Genting and the Council and the Gaming commission. Does it trouble anyone that we borrow the money from Genting to pay the interest on the money that we borrow from them? Huh?
There are many more questions on our minds. Some of those were raised in the Times article, for example, the question of Land Into Trust. Councilman Hendricks raised the issue that LIT can only happen through an act of Congress. Good luck with that. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is from Nevada, home of the Las Vegas strip. I’m sure he looks forward to more Indian gaming on the East Coast.
Cromwell’s assertion that Tribe members get a say in the matters through the electoral process is laughable. Cromwell and his cronies have run at least two crooked elections since gaining control of the process, and all have some cloud or another hanging over them.
Worst of all the sins of the Cromwell administration is their continual efforts to quash dissent and silence even the softest of criticism. It is nothing new. It started on the very election day when Cromwell “won” and raided the Tribal information office and the padlocked others. This very blog somehow disappeared from blogspot.com. (One wonders whose doing that was?) Any council member or candidate who dissents does so at his peril. Richard Oakley was so harassed and left out of the loop that he resigned in disgust. Carlton Hendricks Jr. was arrested two separate times on the night before an election, once for a non-arrest violation. (One wonders whose doing that was?) Carlton Hendricks and Laura Miranda are getting the same cold shoulder as Richard Oakley did. Do any of you see a pattern here?
To add another Biblical reference, we have asked for bread, and they have given us a stone. We have asked for a fish, and they have handed us a serpent. We ask for substance, and all we get is worn out platitudes.
