It's really too bad that the Inkameep reserve - the ones who set up various tourism initiatives and a winery and have made their reserve into a profitable business venture - isn't a more influential model. I sure there are other reserves that are trying similar honest endeavours with various degrees of success, but with many of the reserves there seems to be a tendency to confuse assertive business ventures with a strategy of entitlement. I have mixed feelings about native claims that they should be compensated for changes forced upon them that affect their way of life... but cell-phone signals are well outside that: you can't hear them, you can't see them, you really have no way of knowing that they're there. They don't affect the migration patterns of geese and they don't increase violent behaviour in reservation youth. This claim simply reflects poorly on all natives, and I'm sure these Inkameep reserve guys are pissed that the unmotivated, free-loading native stereotype (regardless of whether it's true or not) is front and center in the media again.
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