Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Rapid City, SD - Good heavens! We (Indians) have heard it so many times in our lives. A white man or woman approaches (this usually happens after I have given a speech) and says, "My great- grandmother was a Cherokee princess."

Never a Cherokee prince, but always a princess. I suppose that is because none of these descendants of royalty wish to admit that their great grandmothers had an affair with a Cherokee male. Heaven forbid that a nice young white lady would ever cast an eye about at an Indian man.

The people most offended and embarrassed by this are the Cherokee. I recall joking about this with Wilma Mankiller when she was principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. "Every time I hear somebody say this I want to just choke them," she said with a half-smile, half-scowl. And believe me, you don't want to be on the wrong side of a Mankiller.

But all of this happened before the advent of the Indian casinos, or I should say "Gaming Palaces." Well, not way out in South Dakota where our best customers are cows and tumbleweeds. Out here we do not have "Gaming Palaces." We have "Gaming Tents." Not tepees! Tents!

That brings us to the delicate question: Were there kings, queens, princesses and princes in Indian country before the invasion? The settlers in New England named one chief King Phillip. Was he really a king? Probably not.

I suppose one could say there was royal blood among the Incas and Aztecs of South and Central America, at least royal blood in the eyes of the white settlers. It's hard to distinguish what is fact or fiction because of the huge disparity in cultures that existed in the 16th century between the Europeans and the indigenous population.

So that brings us to the year 2000 and the glittering Gaming Palaces of some of the wealthy Indian tribes of America.

I do believe we now have several pseudo kings and queens in Indian country crowned by the sudden explosion of wealth that has gone to an anointed few. Isn't it strange how the almighty dollar can make royalty out of computer nerds as well as Indian chiefs?

In December 1998, I was visiting the Oneida Nation in Verona, N.Y. It was at their fabulously rich Turning Stone Casino that I was first introduced to royalty. An Oneida named Keller George, known as the Show Pony by many Lakota because he is wheeled out for public display whenever his tribe wants to show that there are real Indians working for them, in the company of several Turning Stone employees, took me to the office of Ray Halbritter, their newly crowned and obviously royal leader.

King Halbritter was seated on his throne acting kingly. After a short visit I actually thought that his loyal subjects were going to genuflect to the man and kiss his ring. Not sure of what to do, I just acted like an everyday Lakota visitor.

You see, we (Lakota) do not hold truck with royalty. To us, all people are truly created equal. Those who saw the movie "Anna and the King of Siam" can picture King Halbritter's subjects backing out of his royal headquarters, bowing with every backward step. Of course, I - as an uncouth and uncultured Lakota man - I just walked out as normally as I could under the circumstances. Luckily I didn't step on his Royal Highness' robe or upon the hands of his obsequious subjects as we departed.

Among those Indian tribes where instant wealth has fallen like manna from heaven the leadership is becoming extremely impressed with its own image. They have retreated to their ivory towers accessible only to their white lawyers and white accountants. I can almost picture a counting room in their royal chambers where they fondle the piles of gold coins.

Yes, folks, there is royalty in Indian country. You can find it in Minnesota, Arizona, New Mexico, New York and Connecticut, to name a few of the more prosperous places where "Gaming Palaces" have sprung up.

The Lakota people are not as fortunate, or as unfortunate as the case may be. We still go about our business secure in our traditions, culture, language and spirituality. But more than that, we are proud in the face of our poverty. And what is more, we do not bow or curtsy to the new-born royalty in Indian country.

Perhaps the next generation of wannabes will say, "My great-grandmother was an Oneida princess." That would sure come as a relief to the people of the long-suffering Cherokee Nation.