When Racial Preference Bars You From Hunting Your Own Land

I live in America, land of the free and home of the brave. The American dream is to prosper and to pursue happiness. There was once in America a level at which a man was judged on his success, wealth and social standing by whether he owned land. The ultimate dream of course was to have a home, some land and the freedom to use your land as you saw fit.

We are all aware that this freedom is being pared down bit by bit. Our right to use our land is being taken away and government has at times stepped in a taken our land away “for the good of the people” through eminent domain. Where will this stop or will it?

Men fought and died so that you and I had the freedom to choose to what extent we wished to prosper. Many years ago when the west was opened up to homesteaders, lives were lost, battles fought and murders committed over land. That is how much it meant to people. It was considered to be the most valuable asset one could possess.

Let’s say you owned 1,500 acres of land someplace in Montana. Being more specific, let’s say the land you owned happened to be surrounded by reservation land owned by the Crow Indian Tribe. And because your land is surrounded by theirs, you are prohibited by law from hunting on it. How can this be?

Well, that is a good question and one that I am afraid I am not scholarly enough to explain to you. William Perry Pendley at Town Hall makes a much more eloquent stab at it than I could.

There is such a case and it is going to be heard in the courts and perhaps ultimately the Supreme Court. It might just be worth your time to read about it. It is hard to believe that this can happen in America.

Tom Remington