Tribal capitalists earning the ire of environmentalists

Not all modern-day tribal revenue comes out of slot ma­chines. Apaches make decent money from their logging op­erations, especially since law­suits ostensibly intended to save the habitat of the Mexi­can spotted owl shut down their competitors off-reserva­tion. (Side note: According to the Arizona Game and Fish De­partment, about 30 percent of spotted owl habitat in Arizona has been wiped out in the last 12 years by the mega-fires sweeping through timber-­choked forests that greenies fight to the death against be­ing commercially logged. Just sayin'.) Navajos, meanwhile, oper­ate coal mines that fuel power plants that energy firms lease on Navajo lands. And a rather bold tribe in British Columbia, Canada, appears to have hit the salmon-fishing jackpot with "open-sea mariculture" that has produced a bounty of salmon in their region. And a bounty of hostility from green groups. In all these cases — by har­vesting pine trees regardless of diameter; by mining coal; and by seeding a portion of the ocean floor with iron sulfate in order to stimulate a food source for young salmon — the tribes have incurred the wrath of the environmental left, which would be happy to keep the tribes on the federal dole rather than earning filthy lucre on their own...more