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| New Netherland Institute: Minuit's Deal with the Lenape |
So the story goes that in 1626 Peter Minuit, the third Director of New Netherland, a Dutch colony in the New World, purchased Manhattan Island from the Lenape tribe for merchandise said to be worth 60 guilders, almost 24 U.S. dollars.
No money was actually exchanged.
The locals got roughly 24 bucks worth of "duffel cloth, axe heads, wampum, drilling awls, hoes and Jew's harps."
The Lenape likely had no clue what the transaction was about since, in their culture, land, air and water were not commodities that could be sold, bought or owned by anyone, but were available to all.
It's doubtful Mr. Minuit spoke Unami or Munsee, languages of the Lenape people, but one can visualize him pointing to the "land" and asking if everyone understood.
Anyway, in Minuit's mind, a purchase was made.
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| Manhattan Island Today |
As for the Lenape, they may have simply thought that a crazy white man gave them a bunch of shit for free, although, according to the history books I read growing up, the indigenous people made a laughable, foolish deal.
However the deal is assessed, the Lenape lost a place to pitch their tents and a hunting ground for a mere pittance to a European slickster.
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| SpaceX Violates Signed Memorandum on Beach Closures |
Flash forward to 9/1/2013 when a Memorandum of Agreement was created and eventually signed by five governmental agencies and the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation calling for restricting the use of Boca Chica Beach by local citizens.
The agreement limited beach closures to only 15 hours per month, an agreement SpaceX has grossly violated.
Underhandedly, SpaceX circumvented the agreement by going directly to the Federal Aviation Agency and having allowable beach closures raised to 300 hours per year or 25 hours per month.
That action in itself was a breach of the Memorandum of Agreement that clearly stated:
“Anything not otherwise specifically addressed in this Agreement is not authorized or otherwise approved by this Agreement."
Without the signatures of the other government agencies who signed the original memorandum, the new beach closing agreement is bogus, unlawful.
Yet, arrogantly, SpaceX violated the new bogus agreement by logging 585 hours of beach closing in the first 5 months of 2021, that is an average of 117 per month or 7.8 times the number of beach closing hours allowed in the memorandum.
Recently, Elon Musk conveyed or bequeathed $35 million to the City of Brownsville, $2 million of which has already been put to use by the BCIC with an award to nine start-up businesses downtown.
Is that the equivalent of $24 of merchandise the Dutch man gave to the Lenape?
In a very real way, Boca Chica Beach is being stolen from the public who actually have little more access than the Lenape tribe does to Manhattan Island.
Never forget that Boca Chica has always been the "people's beach," while South Padre Island, in the minds of many locals is for tourists and the rich.
Not only that, but Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino has threatened the use of "eminent domain" to evict the current residents of Boca Chica Village so Elon Musk can build his high-end Starbase settlement.
Carlos Cascos indicates some of this will be an issue in the upcoming Cameron County Judge's race:
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