Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Spring 2012
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 32:2 (Spring 2012).
Abstract
Catherine C. Robbins's highly personal tour of contemporary Indian Country begins with a moving description of 2,000 sets of human remains being returned from Harvard University "to the people of the Pecos Pueblo and their kin at Jemez" in 1999. The book then degenerates into a long rant of pet peeves that annoy its author.
Robbins's portrait of Indian casinos is not flattering (their glitziness spoils reservation vistas, she says). She doesn't think Indians dignify themselves by lecturing whites about sovereignty. In Robbins's view, Indians practicing their hunting and fishing rights under treaties bring an unwelcome din to the streams and woods. Put all of this together, and, according to Robbins, we have a new stereotype: the Casino Indian, "wily, rich, fat, corrupt, ready to ruin neighborhoods." They, writes the author, "have morphed from downtrodden, peaceful Indians to sovereignty- spouting bad neighbors." No Indian tribe or nation's members should brag about sovereignty, writes Robbins, unless they are prepared to offer a full range of governmental services, including senior care.
Comments
Copyright © 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.