Another Stereotype of the Month entry:
Another Stereotype of the Month entry:
From the Associated Press via Yahoo:
Colo. Gov. Apologizes for 'Natives' Remark
Fri Apr 1, 6:56 AM ET
DENVER -- Colorado Gov. Bill Owens apologized for saying "the natives are getting restless" during a conference on tribal gambling.
Owens made the remark at the Western Governors' Association Summit after a participant's microphone wouldn't work and he urged it be fixed quickly. Some attendees told the Rocky Mountain News the audience fell silent, then groaned and chuckled.
"It was an inadvertent comment that the governor regrets," Owens' spokesman Dan Hopkins said Thursday. "He apologizes to anyone who was offended."
Sheila Morago of the Arizona Indian Gaming Association said Owens laughed when he said it and so did the people with her.
"I don't think he meant it in any derogatory way at all," she said.
Richard Milanovich of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs, Calif., said he "couldn't imagine" any person of stature making that kind of remark.
Owens "went out of his way to call this conference, and then more or less made fun of the people who were there," Milanovich said.
Rob's comment
"The natives are getting restless" refers to how Indians were supposed to become meek and tame after being herded onto reservations. If they agitated for the treaty rights they were due, people considered them malcontents and troublemakers. These people feared the Indians would revert to their natural state, which they presumed to be wild, savage, and uncontrollable.
Also worth noting is that the Indians who heard Owens groaned or chuckled rather than getting upset, leaving in a huff, or calling for boycotts or demonstrations. Right-wingers accuse left-wingers of being politically correct" far more than it actually happens.
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