tribes

Two Tribes was the well-backed winner of the Stewards’ Cup at Glorious Goodwood as he claimed his second victory in a week.

The 11-2 chance, ridden by David Egan for trainer Richard Spencer, had been as big as 18-1 on Friday.

Named after the Frankie Goes to Hollywood 1980s hit by owner Phil Cunningham, Two Tribes had won the International Handicap at Ascot seven days earlier.

Drawn 25 of the 27 runners at Goodwood, he swept clear to triumph by two and a half lengths from Strike Red, with Jakajaro in third.

“He actually did it easier there than he did in the International. Not many horses can do a quick double like that,” said Egan, who punched the air after crossing the finishing line.

Spencer also had the fourth and fifth-placed finishers – Run Boy Run and Twilight Calls.

Earlier, Callum Rodriguez rode the Owen Burrows-trained filly Waardah to victory in the Lillie Langtry Stakes.

It was a good end to the five-day meeting for Rodriguez, who was one of five jockeys to miss rides on Thursday after a private plane taking them to Goodwood had to make an emergency landing.

“It was a messy start to the week, but we made sure that we were on four wheels today,” said Rodriguez.

Oisin Murphy was the five-day meeting’s leading jockey with six wins.

Re “Tribe Risks Rejection, Pushes Plan for Casino Near Capital,” Dec. 20: Native American gaming on nonreservation land would set a dangerous precedent and absolutely should not be allowed. Granting permission to even one such tribe places us on a slippery slope that could quickly turn into a landslide of applications for similar treatment by the many tribes that are suddenly appearing from seemingly out of nowhere. I am against any and all tribal gaming, as I believe it is inherently unfair to allow them to profit in an untaxed manner while other Californians, by virtue of their ethnic roots, are not allowed the same privilege. This is a very clear example of an “uneven playing field.”

In an extremely short period of time since approval of the 2000 ballot proposal that guaranteed tribes this unfair business advantage, Native American tribes have parlayed huge gaming profits into tremendous political clout. As political contributions and lobbying from tribal windfalls continue to increase, Californians can only expect to see more perks and political favors go inequitably to these “impoverished” tribes and their wealthy financial backers. This nonsense needs to stop now.

Philip W. Luebben

Cypress

Two tribal nations filed a lawsuit saying that the federal government used the trust fund money of tribes to pay for boarding schools where generations of Native children were systematically abused.

In the lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the Wichita Tribe and the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California said that by the U.S. government’s own admission, the schools were funded using money raised by forcing tribal nations into treaties to cede their lands. That money was to be held in trust for the collective benefit of tribes.

“The United States Government, the trustee over Native children’s education and these funds, has never accounted for the funds that it took, or detailed how, or even whether, those funds were ultimately expended. It has failed to identify any funds that remain,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed against Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education. A spokesperson for the Interior declined to comment on pending litigation.

In 2022, the Department of the Interior, under the direction of Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to run the agency, released a scathing report on the legacy of the boarding school era, in which Native children were stolen from their homes, forced to assimilate, and in many cases physically, sexually and mentally abused. Countless children died at the schools, many of whom were buried in unmarked graves at the institutions.

That report detailed the U.S. government’s intentions of using the boarding schools as a way to both strip Native children of their culture and dispossess their tribal nations of land.

The tribes are asking the court to make the U.S. account for the estimated $23.3 billion it appropriated for the boarding school program, detail how that money was invested, and list the remaining funds that were taken by the U.S. and allocated for the education of Native children.

Last year, President Biden issued a formal apology for the government’s boarding school policy, calling it “a sin on our soul” and “one of the most horrific chapters” in American history. But in April, the administration of President Trump cut $1.6 million from projects meant to capture and digitize stories of boarding school survivors.

Brewer writes for the Associated Press.