Muskegon's Chamber of Commerce President Cindy Larsen has apologised for the wording of a memo on the subject of a proposed Indian casino, which tribal leaders had considered to be offensive.
In the memo, Larsen expressed concern that the Indian casino could attract organized crime that threatened the area's “small town values” and that operators would play by different rules than other businesses.
She also made the statement that “some of the folks in these Indian casinos have names like Luciani”. Larsen stressed that this was simply meant to warn the board that her research had found that casinos owned by Indians are frequently infiltrated by organized crime figures.
The tribal leaders felt that the email amounted to “racially charged stereotyping” that “degrades American Indians and Italian-Americans”.
In her apology Larsen said that she was guilty of using clumsy language to warn her board that Indian tribes operating as federally recognized sovereign nations, are allowed to make their own laws, and that this can make it difficult to work with them at first.
Larson said that she did not intend to insult Italian-Americans, or suggest that the average Italian or Indian has ties to organized crime.
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