Miwok Casino Wealth and Myth

 

Miwok Casino Wealth and Myth

R. Taylor 11.26.2023

The Miwok people have survived the many historical wrongs perpetrated by migrants to California and pernicious government policy, such as the very first California Governor who said, “... a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected” and then proceeded to authorize $1.29 million in 1850's dollars to subsidize militia campaigns (men with guns) towards that goal (State of California, 2019).

Having survived and even thrived since those vicious times we are now on the precipice of individual financial security from gaming revenue. Let us take a moment as a native people, as we do before a hunt or fishing a river or contemplating a serious thought, in order to get in the right frame of mind that recognizes our situation and our surroundings. 

Let us pause a moment as the Miwok do and imagine the potential of this new wealth. One might think it commonsense that our lot will naturally and automatically improve with money. On an individual level this may very well be true for the majority of us who will see increases in rates of home ownership, car ownership, and health indicators. It is easy to think things can automatically be solved with money. But what of tribal health, the Miwok, as a people? Will we in some natural or automatic sense be more cohesive, closer in friendship and in spirit on a cultural level because of this new wealth? Perhaps redundant, will we Miwok establish greater appreciation for our culture, will we come to develop cultural strength as a native people because of a few golden coins? Will positive cultural achievements and success occur naturally? To be clear then, the position here is that it is a dangerous myth that more money alone builds cultural strength for our or any native people.

Just think about it, positive things don’t just automatically happen and it is a dangerous myth for tribal leaders and members and us native elders to think so. Pause to ponder this. As humans we are easily susceptible to lazy thought and going along with the crowd. Just a few examples which would make you think like in the old days when adults would caution us, “don’t believe everything that you read”. 

Ten Percent Brain Myth

There is a popular myth alleging us humans only use ten percent of our brain, the myth has been called, “a myth that just won't die” (Jarett, 2014). Unfortunately or rather perhaps fortunately, it is just not true, according to neurologist Barry Gordon at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, “the 10 percent myth is so wrong it is almost laughable” (Boyd, 2008), he contends we use most of our brain capacity. The point here with the other points below is that myth pervades all levels of education. By the way, despite the myth being incorrect there is a fantastic 2014 action movie directed by Luc Besson titled “Lucy” (Besson, 2014) starring Scarlett Johansson on this exact topic. 

Cautionary Tales

Back to the point, witness the Bill Maher interview with Mayim Bialik (CRP, 2023) who holds a P.h.D in neuroscience sharing her thoughts on “Little Mermaid” (Andersen, 1837) story by Hans Christian Andersen where she has turned it into an anti feminist plot rather than the cautionary tale that it is, see Martin (2018). Of course, as you know, this is similar to viewing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare, n.d.) as a romance rather than a tragedy, the view may be that the young lovers are just naive or if like Antonini (2022) who blames the adults, regardless it’s not a love story, it’s a pathetic, sad, tragedy.

Population “Bomb”

You will meet people today who strongly believe this. A persistent myth is the so-called “population bomb”, in essence too many people for planet earth. Paul Erlich, a Stanford University professor advocated that position in his book “The Population Bomb” (Erlich, 1971) turns out to have totally been wrong, here are some links in case you might be interested in reviewing that debunks the scare tactic further. And politicians, academics, and business leaders wonder why people look at the experts and the media with a cautious eye.

• Population Bomb: The Overpopulation Theory That Fell Flat, (2019). 
• There never was a “population bomb”, (2021). 
• The Population Bomb? (2015). (luxury taxes on diapers, mass sterilization, sometime in the next 15 years…). Dare I say think about the source of climate change?

Being a young adult or an elder, it is likely you’ve heard of nasty vindictive emotional and perhaps physical fights among family members over inheritances? Now thinking on a tribal level, imagine the millions and millions of casino dollars that are on the table. There is great potential for the profits (of what you might know about) and the “dry powder” (Daltorio, 2023) to be internal tribal family battles over. Legitimate and perhaps not, concerns about the flow, use, and decisions about who can and cannot have access to these funds, requires fair and visionary leadership, if the valuing of tribal cohesion and strength is thought worthwhile.

The suggestion here is, it is simply a myth that the Miwok will be stronger culturally as a tribe because of money. What is the framework for building and strengthening tribal relationships and perpetuating its culture? I would suggest as a start it should be started without academic buzzwords like “decolonize”. One author who is a proponent of the concept but is critical of it lackadaisical use, “At a conference on educational research, it is not uncommon to hear speakers refer, almost casually, to the need to “decolonize our schools,” or use “decolonizing methods,” or “decolonize student thinking” (Tuck and Yang, 2012). 

It is suggested here that tribal leaders undertake simple practical means that don’t require much in the way of resources, to strengthen the bonds among individual tribal members and thus the tribe itself. In the next writing there will be some of the proposed practical suggestions.

References

Anderson, H.C. (1837). The Little Mermaid. H.C. Andersen Centre. https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheLittleMermaid_e.html 

Antonini, J. (2022). The real tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. CUInsight. https://www.cuinsight.com/the-real-tragedy-of-romeo-and-juliet/ 

Besson, L. (2014). Lucy. IMDB. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872732

Boyd, R. (2008). Do People Only Use 10 Percent of Their Brains? Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerichttps://clas.osu.edu/sites/clas.osu.edu/files/Tuck%20and%20Yang%202012%20Decolonization%20is%20not%20a%20metaphor.pdfan.com/article/do-people-only-use-10-percent-of-their-brains 

Club Random Podcast (CRP). (2023). Mayim Bialik Explains the Little Mermaid to Bill Maher. [Club Random with Bill Maher]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7EpYBx6EiQ 

Daltorio, T. (2023). Dry Powder in the Financial World? Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/dry-powder.asp 

Ehrlich, P. R. (1971). The population bomb. Rev. ed. New York, Intext.

Jarrett, C. (2014). All You Need To Know About the 10 Percent Brain Myth, in 60 Seconds. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2014/07/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-10-brain-myth-explained-in-60-seconds 

Martine, A. (2018). Morality Through the Ages: A Comparative Essay on the Little Mermaid and its Adaptation. Maelstrom. https://www.maelllstrom.com/filmtheatre/2018/1/8/morality-through-the-ages-a-comparative-essay-on-the-little-mermaid-and-its-adaptationpages

Shakespeare, W. (n.d.) Much Ado About Nothing (B. Mowat, P. Werstine, M. Poston, and R. Niles, eds.). The Folger Shakespeare. https://folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/much-ado-about-nothing 

State of California. (2019). Governor Newsom Issues Apology to Native Americans for State’s Historical Wrongdoings, Establishes Truth and Healing Council. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2019/06/18/governor-newsom-issues-apology-to-native-americans-for-states-historical-wrongdoings-establishes-truth-and-healing-council 

Tuck, E. & Yang, K. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1-40. https://clas.osu.edu/sites/clas.osu.edu/files/Tuck%20and%20Yang%202012%20Decolonization%20is%20not%20a%20metaphor.pdf