MPR: Native Americans Disagree over Manufacture of Cigarettes

Native Americans Disagree over Manufacture of Cigarettes
By Mark Steil
July 13, 1998

The big tobacco companies are being challenged again, but this time it's by a tribe in Nebraska. And it's not after damages, but cigarette business. The Omaha Nation Tobacco Company began manufacturing cigarettes about a year ago with the goal of capturing 1 percent of the U.S. market. Most are sold to Native Americans. Critics say the company is cashing in on high levels of cigarette addiction among Natives.

A PACKAGE OF OMAHA CIGARETTES bears a picture of an Indian chief, complete with feathered headpiece. Thousands are pumped out each day by a dozen workers at the tribe's manufacturing plant near Macy, Nebraska.

The tribe patched together the production line from equipment cast off by the big tobacco companies. Plant manager Jerry Montour says it took quite a bit of tinkering to get everything working, but he believes the plant proves a theory of his.

Montour: The untapped potential of Native American people throughout the United States is unbelievable.

Montour grew up a member of an Indian tribe in Canada where he helped run a tribally owned cigarette plant. He says the goal of the Omaha factory is to prove Indians can successfully operate a manufacturing business.

Montour: It isn't one of those Indian projects where you walk in and see two Indians and 30 non-Indians working. This is our own people to work in the community here. You walked in, you saw Native American people working in a factory, and they're very proud of what they do.

Mountour says part of the reason the cigarette plant has been successful is because it fits well with Native culture. He says the Omaha tribe is reclaiming an Indian tradition.

Montour: We were the ones that introduced it to the rest of the world. Well, just like so many other things, the proceeds were robbed from our people. But Native Americans being in it isn't nothing new. We were the originators of the industry.

Not all Natives agree with that statement. It angers Kristine Rhodes, health educator at the Fond du Lac reservation in northern Minnesota.

Rhodes: Cigarette use is not a traditional use of tobacco.

A member of Wisconsin's Bad River band of Ojibway, Rhodes says it's true Indians introduced tobacco to the world. But she says using that to justify a cigarette manufacturing plant is a stretch.

Rhodes: Tobacco was given to us by the creator as a way to pray. If we burn the tobacco, it's believed the smoke carries our prayers up to the creator.

She says the recreational use of tobacco in cigarettes cannot be reconciled with its traditional religious function. Omaha plant manager Montour also makes an economic argument for the cigarette manufacturing business. He says people are going to smoke no matter what the health implications, so they may as well help an economically depressed group while they're lighting up.

Montour: We're not going to sit here and try to tell you that tobacco is or isn't good for you. We're just saying that if you do choose to smoke, we'd appreciate it if you'd give ours a chance because the proceeds from this doesn't go to multinational shareholders. They go to helping improve the Indian community in this Native American area.

Montour says there's a misconception the Omaha tribe launched its cigarette business to take advantage of its sovereign status and its ability to avoid certain taxes. He says the Omaha tobacco company pays all existing state and federal cigarette taxes.

Montour: If we were going to take a true sovereignty stance, we would have said that, "Well, you know, this is our area, it's our jurisdiction. Nobody has jurisdiction but ourselves." We have a federal ATF license here in this facility.

The tribe's goal is to compete on the same tax field as all the other companies while undercutting their prices. Omaha cigarettes sell for about a dollar a pack — half what major brands cost. Montour believes not paying cigarette taxes would create a backlash against the tribe.

Montour: Native Americans have always faced it. For some reason, I've never really understood it. But if we come up with ideas exercising our sovereignty in any way and it brings any kind of economic enhancement, there seems to be resentment and jealousy.

Fond du Lac health educator Kristine Rhodes has little use for the economic argument. Rhodes says Indians have the highest smoking rate of any minority group, almost 40 percent. She says tobacco related disease accounts for 10 percent of Native American deaths.

Rhodes: I think the health implications caused to a tribe far outweigh any revenue that would be gained from tobacco sales.

Omaha officials say if the tribe can capture 1 percent of the market, it would mean several million dollars in profits a year for the tribe.

	Sign up to receive e-mail newsletters

	Audio help

	Text: Sm : Md : Lg