I feel like curling up into a ball and dying when I think about what the pilgrims and the first few generations of settlers thereafter did to native Americans. Providing them with diseased blankets and president Lincoln breaking countless land treaties. And then, once they learned the painful truth that the white settlers wanted to be considered an enemy, they were destroyed with bullets. A few hundred years later and Caucasians are the overwhelming majority in america. In modern times, there is a sense of tolerance of other cultures and an acceptance that we’ve made mistakes in the past. And so, to compensate for taking their country and for killing them by the thousands, they are granted ownership of casinos. This reality probably makes perfect sense to a sadistic man who enjoys, among other things, peeling the skin off a baked potato before drowning it in ketchup, but it makes no sense to me. All I can come up with is that Caucasians ignorantly believe that what they, stereotypically, consider most important: financial success, is also what Native Americans consider most important. I can see the well-to-do businessman handing over the rights to the gambler’s heaven. He says, “I’m very sorry about having killed your family and taking your land. I hope you’ll accept this casino as our compensation gift to you and that it will symbolize the beginning of a sincere friendship.”