What Potawatomi is spreading doesn’t smell like “economic opportunity”

We thought it had to be the latest headline from The Onion.

But we did some checking around after several Casino Competition for Wisconsin supporters e-mailed us this news flash today, and it’s apparently true.

That’s right. The same Forest County Potawatomi Community that has spent millions upon millions upon millions of dollars to kill the proposed Kenosha casino – a much-needed economic development project that will help lift a very poor, very large Wisconsin tribe out of extreme poverty – is now part of a national consortium dedicated to (emphasis ours) promoting economic development for ALL tribes.

Huh?

According to a press release issued by a Washington, D.C., PR firm, the Potawatomi will travel to Washington next week to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the richest tribes in the nation as they launch the “Native American Trade Network.” The media is invited – of course – and the group’s executive director says the network’s purpose is to “spread economic opportunity in Indian Country.”

Potawatomi’s spreading something, all right – but it’s not economic opportunity. After all, how many “economically advantaged” tribes that truly care about helping their struggling counterparts would:

• Organize front groups -- one, two, and possibly a third – to oppose an impoverished Tribe’s economic development plan.
• Spend more than $1 million on a massive, extremely negative campaign to defeat such a plan at the polls.
• Bus their own casino employees to a hearing to speak out against the other Tribe’s economic development efforts.
• Fund a flawed economic study falsely attacking the other Tribe’s project.
• Spend millions on lobbyists trying to hurt the other Tribe’s efforts in the State Capitol, the U.S. Capitol and even the Executive Office of the President of the United States.
• Drop big bucks on a glitzy TV ad campaign attacking another successful Tribe for helping a disadvantaged Tribe rise out of poverty.

What is Potawatomi doing? Are they really committed to helping disadvantaged tribes? If so, they’ll stop fighting competition. They’ll embrace the Kenosha project and all it would do for a fellow Wisconsin tribe and for Wisconsin as a whole.

But we’re not holding our breath.

Promote real support for disadvantaged Tribes by signing our online petition.