It appears that two Wisconsin tribes may be building casinos in New York State, as part of a settlement with the state over outstanding land claims dating to the 18th century. The Oneida (along with the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans) were driven from their ancestral home in a bogus treaty, and eventually ended up in their current location in Wisconsin.
They’ve been in Wisconsin for 180 years, during which time they’ve had major struggles with their new neighbors (primarily Menominee); with federal, state and county governments and agencies; and with their old kin in New York.
In other words, the Oneida are homeless in several ways: robbed of their homelands, rejected in their new country, and alienated from half of their tribe. They’ve been in Wisconsin longer than most Whites, but they remain an in-between group – not fully “native”, but still suffering from all the injustice Wisconsin could muster against them (in addition to stonewalling by New York State).
This gets to the heart of what I want this blog to be about: a discussion of home and its implications for the soul: ethnically, spiritually, legally and beyond. When does a place become a home? And how? What can diaspora peoples offer the world, and what is the relationship between our eternal home and our temporal home?
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