There are 460 Native American gambling casinos run by 240 tribes. From Milwaukee’s Potawatomie to Lone Butte in Chandler, Arizona, (1) round and round you go in an air conditioned tourist bus placing bets and….
What if the Iroquois Confederacy really did have a big influence on the American Constitution? The five nation peace is an attractive legacy, especially to those who don’t mind surrendering their ears to a megaphone’s play by play of the passing scenery.
It would be like the Real Bronx Tours (2) parading through American ghettos where all that exciting crime takes place. Apparently, Europeans and Australians had been buying tickets in bunches until they discontinued the activity. (2) Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz called the tour “the biggest fool on the planet….disgusting.”
Can you imagine how much those same European and Australian tourists would dig a look around American Indian Reservations with gambling hoe downs each and every night? The politically correct crowd concerned over exploitation and arrogance and what not could be soothed over by the educational potential of the activity, not to mention the financial kickbacks for Native American Tribes. PBS could even get involved.
There could be simulated pow wows, corn bread, music, public readings of “Ceremony,” and “Black Elk Speaks” with all 240 tribes participating. Think of the stories tourists could tell their friends. They could even write historic fiction and who knows? Hundreds of Native American languages might revive.
The Reservation could change its name to New Beginning System. The American flag might add different colors, the national anthem drum beats. A real Wampum Belt lifting route 66 into a river sky.
Endnotes
(1) National Indian Gaming Commission; Gaming Tribe Report
(2) Washington Times, “Real Bronx Tours.”
broken bats splinter 
I’m from the near-dead town of Bridgeport, CT. My uncle, who escaped the area back in the early ’70’s, once stated that they should just put a huge rope around the place, then have tourists come and pay money to see this dying husk of the Industrial Revolution. The people could also dress in period costumes (which they were already wearing), and the city could reap the financial windfall, replacing the cash that left with the jobs.
Surprisingly, no one took him up on it. Maybe he was just too far ahead of his time.
thanks William. i think your uncle had a great idea and could extend into just about anything. i wouldn’t mind if they put a rope up around my living space and parents came with their kids and said “now this is an example of how not to live.”
it could be like 25 cents or whatever they wanted to donate.
“What if the Iroquois Confederacy really did have a big influence on the American Constitution?” I seem to remember that it did, at one remove. Surely there were aspects of the 6-nations’ governance which William Penn incorporated into the constitution ‘Peaceable Kingdom’ of the Commonwealth Pennsylvania, which in turn influenced the drafting of the Constitution of the US.
As for your basic idea, everywhere in the world is already a heritage themepark for someone else. You only have to live in Scotland to realise this. All it takes is for some bright spark to sell tickets.
i can’t remember what happened last night or last year, but yeh, popcorn vendors and diplomats both agree on the confederacy influence.
it’s the ivory tower types and their over serious talk debating over how much influence.
i think we can stuff them into a bullet proof motorcade water ride and let them study the ocean for a year or two.
Oh, by the way. This is a true story. There’s a ‘plain dressed’ Quaker* somewhere in rural Michigan who takes a walk every morning. One day, in the woods, he passed about ten yards a way from a bunch of tourists on a conducted ramble. He distinctly heard the tourist guide say “… and there he is!”
*There are still some of these around, if you know where to look.
so many stories and maybe even more.
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casino, culture, gambling, it could be fun, it could make some money, native americans, pow wow, tourism