What did they, the native Americans, expect from these folks. To be treated as humans and equal?

Let's have reality therapy folks.  Somebody needs to tell these Indian tribal leaders that they are getting just the kind of government that they supported and voted for. I shoud add that this message goes ditto for folks in West Virginia moaning about the relaxation of mine safety standards. West Virginians voted twice for George Bush and he appointed a former mining industry official to head up the department that oversees the country's mines.  This is precisley what happens when you vote against your own economic interests.

The head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Dave Anderson, is a Native American who is also a life long Republican and an avowed believer in George Bush's agenda. He and the people who he works for don't see any contradiction in cutting money that should have been used for Native American programs to pay lawyers.

Why would any of these folks believe that Republicans wouldn't act like Republicans? To date, African Americans voters are the only members of the American polity who continue to resist in significant numbers the entreaties of the GOP.  Everybody else is acting as if they are going to a banquet but they don't recognize until it is too late that they are the meal.