Deflection

The trailer park controversy continues, this time with the intent of the US court to shut it down as uninhabitable, unsanitary, unsafe, and illegal -- reasonable concerns by reasonable people. The legal war has been ongoing for at least a decade, with little progress made other than the recent tear-down of the shanties attached to the travel trailers that constitute the official park, an action that created more problems than it solved.

Basically, the math of 300 travel trailers accommodating the needs of 3500-6000 residents does not compute. The additional lack of sewers, running water, electricity and other basic utilities exacerbates the unacceptable, dangerous living conditions, especially for the perhaps thousands of children living in the community. However, the legal proceedings have taken yet another turn: what about the other three illegal, uninhabitable, unsanitary, and unsafe trailer parks in proximity to Duroville? The question is being asked: why is the government targeting one trailer park when there are others just as bad about which they do nothing?

If the United States' court system finally deals with one of these itinerant trailer camps, it will deal with all of them, and that's not a situation the landowners want to happen because all of this takes place on an Indian reservation land, which ups the ante of what can versus what will not be done to solve the problem.

The Indian Nations are sovereign, a fact that I experienced first-hand when I fell at a bowling alley on Indian reservation land and was refused medical transport to an emergency room when the ambulance occupant sent to evaluate my condition determined that I was not injured. If the Indians refuse to acknowledge the injury, it does not exist, and if it does not exist, they have no medical responsibility and, more importantly, no legal obligation. Forget doing the right thing: the Indians have deep pockets, thanks to the numerous casinos in the valley, but I had no right to force the casino to pay for my medical expenses because their ambulance occupant determined that there was no injury. Of course, that finding was disputed once I arrived at the ER, but once you voluntarily remove yourself from Indian land, you are on your own. That it was the only way I was going to receive medical treatment is irrelevant -- and that's the beauty of the stonewalling.

Ditto Duroville.

The trailer parks are on Indian land; therefore, if the sovereign nation landowners do not acknowledge that conditions are uninhabitable, unsanitary, unsafe, and illegal, it's okay not to deal with the (alleged) problem or the people who inhabit the trailers. Why solve something that is not a problem? If the United States court system is allowed to establish legal precedence by ruling on the issue, the Indians lose their sovereign status right to make their own decisions about this situation on their reservation land.

If they are forced to deal with one of these itinerant worker camps, they have to deal with all of them, and that's not going to happen.

There is doing the right thing simply because it's the right thing to do, and then there is using the legal system to allow these kinds of situations to continue year after year. Meanwhile, it is the people who live in the camps who have developed health issues that are common in Third World nations, but no longer active medical problems in the US -- until now. The drain on the social services in the valley is astounding, providing in this one area of the valley services to populations that swell to 20,000-25,000 itinerant workers at these four travel trailer camps. And there are more camps throughout the valley.

If the Indians continue to stonewall solutions for these itinerant travel trailer camps, the least they can do is provide and pay for the social services required for these residents whose health is compromised by the Indian Nation's refusal to deal with the living conditions that cause them.