Rhode Island: Screwing the Narragansett Indians since the 1600's [Update at bottom]
A local story has been making some national splash, so I'll comment on it to give site readers from outside Rhode Island a better understanding of what's going on. If you are not familiar with Rhode Island politics, then consider yourself lucky.

The Narragansett Indian Tribe in Rhode Island wants to do what many other tribes in many other states already do: open up a tax free shop that sells smokes. Well, Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri didn't think this was a good idea, so he sent a goon squad of state troopers to the smoke shop and a melee ensued which sent a few tribe members to the hospital.

The Narragansetts have been trying to open a casino in Rhode Island, and who can blame them when you look at the profits that closeby Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun have brought in to their respective tribes? Back in the early 90's when we had a Democrat governor, he was cooperating with the tribe to bring a casino to Rhode Island. But since he he lost his reelection bid, we have had nothing but Republican governors who have been opposed to a casino in Rhode Island.

Or, I should say, a casino built by indians. We have a couple of gaming outlets who have just been cleared to add video slots. One, Newport Grand, just dropped Jai Alai games entriely. They started their business by letting pople bet on Jal Alai games that they hosted, but now Jai Alai is gone and all theyhave are video slots. Can somebody please explain to me how they are not a casino?

The Narragansetts were trying to push a bill through the General Assembly to get a ballot initiative to simply ask Rhode Island voters if they wanted a casino. Gov. Carcieri would have vetoed a bill for a simple vote if it came to his desk. Anybody starting to wonder why the tribe is frustrated?

A smaller thing the tribe wanted to open was a smoke shop. The governor also disapproved of this, and the state wanted to set up a police check point for residents leaving the Indian reservation after purchasing smokes so they could be charged Rhode Island's tax, which is $20 per carton in some cases.

Against the wishes of the state, the Narragansett Indians opened up their smoke shop on their tribal land sunday. By monday, it was doing a lot of business, and that's when state troopers raided it. Basically, they sent a bunch of state troopers to tribal lands, and afterthe tribalpolice told the state troopers that they could not enter they did anyway and proceeded to start a lot of fights with tribal members. The state troopers and the governor paint a different picture and blame the melee on the tribe, but in my opinion they are wrong and just trying to save face.

TV stations were there, and the shocking footage has been allover the news. The governor defends the actions of the police saying that they had the right to do this because the tribe was breaking state law. The tribe says that they are a sovereign nation, much like many tribes around the country, and they are not subject to state regulation on their land. The state disagrees with this, because back in the 70's the tribe signed a document, in the process of geting the land for their reservation, which bonded them to Rhode Island law. However, federal law could override this. We will have to find out in court.

Either way, the governor was wrong to send in the goon squad to raid the smoke shop. They had a search warrant, but never showed it to tribe members until after the raid happened and those who were jailed were out on bail. In essence, what happened was that the staties marched in and started fights. Some tribe members also started fights,but as far as I'm concerned, that's not the point, and if the state handled this correctly a melee would have never happened.

What the state troopers should have done is send in a detective and two troopers. Not 10-15 troopers to run onto the land with a dog to bite tribe mebers while they are handcuffed and on the ground. You send a detecive and two troopers. When they are met at the property by a tribal police officer, they say, "Hi, we're from the Rhode Island State Troopers and we have a search warrant (show the warrant). Please let us see the chief." That's it! Instead of having troopers running onto tribal land and pushing people around and not showed anybody their warrant, this could have been done peaceful, without the chief later acknowledging that the, "only thing missing were firehoses."

To add insult to injury (actual injuries, not just using a cliche here), the Providence Journal, our local rag, runs advertisments from a tribe in New York who run a mail order business selling smokes for cheap. So, in this state, we allow out of state tribes to sell cigarettes to state residents, but not an in-state tribe.

This state, particually the Republican governors, have been giving the Narragansett Indians the shaft for years. Not like they haven't been given the shaft for the past few centuries from us white European settlers. The raid that happened monday crossed the line, and I'm hoping that this state will get reamed by the courts for their illegal and unjust actions. They deserve it.

[Update: To be fair, I found out today that State Troopers claimed to have undercover agents in in the smoke shop and they were the ones who served the search warrant. They claim that things started to get violent inside the shop, and that's when the raid started. I'm skeptical to this, because I have only heaqrd one tribe member say that he was issued a warrant, and that was the Chief. He said that he saw the warrant after he was released on bail.
In the interest of full disclousure, I should point out that 1/32 of my lineage is from the Abenaki tribe. I believe representatives from that tribe on are Narragansett lands right now in support of their cause. If they are not there already, then they will probably be there for the rally this thursday night. If I am also at that rally, it will be the first time I have had any contact with my tribe.]