Current Issues

Current Issues

Soc 205 A
May 17,2011
Current Issues Paper

The current issue that I am going to cover in my paper that affects Native Americans is the constant battle of cigarette tax and how the state is now banning Native Americans from selling these cigarettes without sales tax. A big part of the Native Americans living on their reservations is that they are supposed to be free from tax and allowed to sell items free of this tax from the federal government. Now the government is starting to pass laws to ban the Native Americans from selling their cigarettes tax free. One group of Native Americans that is being severely affected is the Shinnecock Indians and the Native Americans living in the state of New York.
The Shinnecock Nation is a federally recognized Indian Nation, located on the East End of Long Island adjacent to the Town of Southampton. Federal recognition was achieved October 1, 2010, after thousands of years of documented history on Long Island, and 32 years of struggle with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As the 565th federal tribe, their banner has taken its place among other tribal flags at the U.S. Department of the Interior, BIA, Hall of Flags, Washington, D.C.
The Shinnecock Indian nation just took a huge blow to their livelihood with the new ban on tax free cigarettes. Until now the U.S. government did not tax cigarettes sold on the Shinnecock Indian reservation. The new law now in place has essentially put the road side smoke shops at the reservation just outside of Southampton completely out of business and took a huge hit on their culture and way of making money.
The new ban, which was confirmed May 11th of this year, will undoubtedly send a shock through a lot of families on the Shinnecock reservation. Selling cigarettes cheap by the Shinnecock Indians is like farming to some families in Sagaponack and commercial fishing to some people in Montauk. It is at the soul of their community, as disgusting a habit is as cigarette smoking, a lot of local...