In an effort to drum up support for propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared that Native Americans still have much to pay back for their attempted slaughter of the white man during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
"Until something like a hundred years ago Indians were trying to stop the progress of America by slaughtering white men, scalping them, stealing babies and shooting at us usually with bows and arrows but sometimes guns", Schwarzenegger declared from his office in Sacramento.
Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97 would give California an unprecedented 30% of Native Americans gaming revenues to help support services, improve roads, develop schools and "pay back the white man for all the bad things Indians did", the governor stated.
Some opponents of the propositions claimed that it was the white man who was responsible for stealing the land and raping the native American women. Schwarzenegger dismissed those complaints.
"Don't you guys ever watch old movies?" Schwarzenegger asked. "If it were not for the white man there would be no California and the west would be nothing but a bunch of savages living in teepees! We transformed them into millionaires living in houses! 30% of their revenue looks pretty cheap to me!"
