I dont speak up very often on this BB, Usually someone else says it for me, and before I can get it out... I guess I dont type fast enough.
I'm really happy for the Puyallup people. The Casino is finally doing what it was intended to do. I'm guessing that they are not even disbursing the principal, only interest on their deposits. And for just a moment take the time to think about how much money is really going to an individual tribal member... It amounts to only about $24,000 per year. For a household with only one tribal member, that's not a lot. Two or more in a household, however, the amount begins to get a little nicer.
The Puyallup have cut off tribal enrollment of new members, based on a blood quota of (I think) 1/8 or so, maybe 1/16. So unless both parents of a newborn are from the tribe, their kid wont be eligible for enrollment, or benefits, if I have it right. SO the disbursement is probably a finite matter, and wont continue too far into the future.
It may serve to reduce the tribal commercial fishery, in all but the most plentiful of seasons. Hopefully they will continue to fish for subsistence, I'd hate to see them forget how to fish to feed their families. It's a heritage thing... But if anyone thinks this will solve the problem of reduced runs, well, you're living in a vacuum.
The United States government did not honor the treaties of 1854, and that's precisely why there is a tribal commercial fishery at the present. By 1865 the tribes were living in complete squalor as the result of shifted government spending priorities, due to the Civil War. The (then) Superintendent of the territorial Bureau of Indian Affairs advised the tribes to begin commercial fishing, as the only apparent viable way to support themselves. When Boldt made his decision in 1974(?) he also had to consider that the tribes had traditionally potlatched fish in the ancient world, and that evolved to become a commercial harvest in the modern world.
Enough said on the topic for now, I dont want to see another round of Indian bashing begin on this BB.