By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — Native American leaders rallied at City Hall Monday to demand that Mayor Michael Bloomberg apologize for “racist” comments they described as "a promotion of violence" against their tribes.
On an August 13 radio show, the mayor joked that Gov. David Paterson should get himself “a cowboy hat and a shotgun” to prevent Native Americans from selling untaxed cigarettes from their reservations.
Bloomberg’s word choice has drawn outrage from Native American groups who said the comments were deeply insensitive, especially at a time when the mayor has become a national symbol for tolerance for his stalwart defense of the controversial mosque and community center near Ground Zero.
"I think it's appalling. I think it's downright racist what this mayor has said," said Lance Gumbs, vice chairman of the Shinnecock Indian Nation and a vice president of the National Congress of American Indians.
"In one breath you're talking about social tolerance and the Muslims being able to do this at Ground Zero, and in the next he's attacking the native people," he added.
George Stonefish, 52, a Delaware Chippewa who grew up on the Upper East Side and now lives in Brooklyn, said that Bloomberg should follow Paterson's lead and sit down with the group to discuss their concerns.
"Mayor Bloomberg, you must smother the embers of violence and ignorance," he said.
The mayor's office declined to comment on the racism charges or offer an apology.
Instead, spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti said in a statement that “[t]he Supreme Court has ruled several times that Tribes simply have no right to hurt competing small businesses and taxpayers by ignoring taxes owed on cigarettes sold to others."
Hours before the rally, Bloomberg announced that a federal appeals court had denied a series of requests by the Long Island's Poospatuck Indian reservation to resume its cigarette sales.
While Native Americans are permitted to purchase and sell tax-free cigarettes for their own use on reservations, they are not permitted to sell them outside.
But Kandice Watson, 44, from Oneida, N.Y., said the rally had nothing to do with cigarettes or taxes.
"This is about our future," she said, as fellow protesters waved red and white signs reading “Respect Our People.”
"It is about sovereignty, and we will stand to defend that."
