We just can't stop sticking it to the Indians, can we?

We Europeans showed up - uninvited - and killed what Indians we could, stuck the rest on land so bad that nobody else wanted it (and that the Indians couldn't possibly feed themselves off of), and then placated our consciences by telling ourselves that the Indians were now sovereign nations.

Only we don't really treat the reservations as their own countries, do we?

For decades, the U.S. government dictated that schools on Indian reservations couldn't teach their own languages in their own schools.

And we've always reserved the right to overrule Indians' own decisions on how best to run their lands, their supposedly independent nations.

Locally, a three-judge panel has overruled the trial judge and decided that a lawsuit claiming local gaming tribes haven't paid the state enough money (tinyurl.com/26523c) can go forward after all - this despite the fact that the tribes and the state are in agreement that the payments have been honest and aboveboard. But one non-Indian didn't like the amount the Indians are paying and sued, and so now the case is headed back to trial.

Yes, the payment schedule was included in a deal the tribes signed with the state.

But that agreement itself was coercive, with the federal government telling the tribes they couldn't host casinos on their own "sovereign" lands unless they agreed to the deal with the state.

It may not be quite as offensive as the government telling the Makah nation they can't hunt whales any longer, but it's still an impressive display of hypocrisy, double-dealing and plain old dishonesty.

If the tribes are sovereign nations, then they get to set their own rules and too bad what their neighbors think. We don't get to tell Mexico to shut down its casinos - why should we get to tell the Indians what to do?

By treaty, the tribes own their reservations without, well, reservation. By our Constitution (tinyurl.com/9rqso), a treaty is the law of the land - so long as it does not violate the Constitution.

I do not believe anyone has successfully argued in court that the treaties with the various Indian nations granting them sovereignty over their lands violate the Constitution.

Rather, we simply act as if these treaties do not exist. Or at least that they exist only so far as they don't inconvenience us. Beyond that, we seem to feel free to ignore them. Practicality and all that, don't you know.

The tribes ought to be allowed to do anything they want on their lands. Period, end of argument. We stole this land from them, and any of us who aren't Indian have no right whatsoever to complain about the casinos, whale hunts or anything else the Indians do. They want to put nuclear waste dumps on their reservations, that's their business.

You don't like the casinos, don't go to them. Don't like the hunting of non-endangered species, don't eat the meat.

But at least have the honor to respect the legally granted right of the Indians to run their own nations.

Contact columnist Jim Trageser at (760) 631-6628 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.