Freedmen vs Cherokee Nation

Prince: We're imitating the enemy Posted: May 16, 2008 by: Shannon Prince ...pseudo-scientific belief that ''one drop'' of black blood negated all others - a fact that shows the nonsense of the claim that the removal of the freedmen from the Cherokee Nation is based on the desire to allow only those with Indian blood to be Indians. .. (Freedmen requirements would be all those who speak Cherokee can be citizens - dropping the citizenship down to a few hand fulls) While these scholars have brilliantly argued that the removal of the freedmen from the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is illegal by the nation's own laws, I argue that beyond being illegal, the removal of the freedmen is also unethical. (emphasis added) Those who support freedmen removal are irresponsible heirs of Cherokee history and have internalized colonial expressions of sovereignty. (Cherokees had sovereignty long before the colonials came - we adapted, now she wants us to go back? what next!) (Added...

Backlogs bring Dorgan thunder down on BIA Posted: May 30, 2008 by: Jerry Reynolds Indian Country Today http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417383 WASHINGTON - In Carl Artman's final appearance before Congress as head of the BIA, Sen. Byron Dorgan treated him to a controlled explosion of anger at the bureau. He didn't exempt Artman either, reminding him that it took a roll call vote of the Senate to get him confirmed as Interior's assistant secretary for Indian Affairs. ''But we got it done.'' By contrast, Artman, who greeted his confirmation with distinctly high spirits in a speech on the occasion, resigned from his brief tenure with a great deal undone - as just about anyone in the position would, judging from various testimonials May 22 to the backlog at the Interior Department and its subsidiary agency, the BIA, of applications for everything from probating estates to land appraisal and leases, from fee land acquisitions to environmental impac...

Banished Snoqualmie file civil-rights lawsuit By Lynda V. Mapes Seattle Times staff reporter http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004449414_snoq31m.html Nine banished members of the Snoqualmie tribe have filed a federal lawsuit in the latest round of an ongoing fight for control of the tribe, poised to open one of the state's most lucrative gambling casinos this fall. Tossed out in April, the banished members, including the tribal chairman, several council members and a minister of the Indian Shaker Church, filed suit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, claiming violation of their civil rights. Named in the suit are the Snoqualmie council members who banished them, stripping them of their tribal identity; barring them from tribal lands, and cutting them off from any tribal benefits, including health-care services. "This is a sad, sad time," said banished tribal member Lois Sweet Dorman. "This was supposed to be a time to celebrate together; the pr...

Well this is a welcome site: Breaking News! Nation-wide Study of Law Enforcement under Public Law 280 Published Final Report: Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Under Public Law 280 Professors Carole Goldberg and Duane Champagne are co-principal investigators for a research grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct the first nationwide study of law enforcement under Public Law 280. This two-year, $300,000 grant collected crime and victimization data, and carried out more than 300 intensive interviews with law enforcement officers, tribal officials, criminal justice personnel, and tribal members at 16 different reservation sites in Public Law 280 and non-Public Law 280 states. This report analyzes positive and negative aspects of state criminal jurisdiction in Indian country, and recommends strategies for improving law enforcement for reservations currently subject to Public Law 280. Much more info there on CA Tribal Sovereignty as well: http://www.law.ucla.edu/home/index....

Cherokee Nation News Release (918) 453-5378 FAX (918) 458-6181 Cherokee Nation Director of Communications@cherokee.org © Cherokee Nation - All Rights Reserved Cherokee Nation to Host Cultural Camp in Vinita VINITA, OK — The Cherokee Nation will host a Cultural Camp from Monday, June 2 to Friday, June 6, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.., at Cowboy Junction in Vinita. The camp will be hosted by the Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center and is open to 100 students who attended Kindergarten through eighth grade during the 2007-2008 school year. Participants will receive instruction on how to make baskets, corn husk dolls, miniature stickball sticks, key rings and how to work with clay. Traditional games will also be taught and will include: marbles, stickball and blow guns. Instruction and art supplies will be provided by the Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center. For more information about the camp, call (918) 453-5151.

Cherokee Nation News Release (918) 453-5378 FAX (918) 458-6181 Cherokee Nation Director of Communications@cherokee.org © Cherokee Nation - All Rights Reserved Cherokee Nation Helping Recruit for U.S. Border Patrol TAHLEQUAH, OK — The Cherokee Nation will be hosting a recruitment event for the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency on Monday, June 9, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., in the conference room of Talking Leaves Job Corps, located at 5700 Bald Hill Road, south of Tahlequah. The event is being hosted by the Cherokee Nation Career Services Group, whose mission is to develop and encourage individuals to achieve and maintain work habits and skills that promote employability and self-sufficiency through programs that encompass education, training, rehabilitation and supportive services. Applicants for the U.S. Border Patrol must be a U.S. citizen and have been a resident of the United States for the past three years, be between the ages of 18 and 39, and be able...

Cherokee Nation News Release (918) 453-5378 FAX (918) 458-6181 Cherokee Nation Director of Communications@cherokee.org © Cherokee Nation - All Rights Reserved Cherokee Nation Contributes Funds for Car Seats Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith presents a check to Lynne McAllister of the Cherokee County Safe Kids organization. The group will use the funds from the tribe to purchase car seats for low income families. TAHLEQUAH, OK — The Cherokee Nation recently contributed $5,000 to the Safe Kids Chapter of Cherokee County to purchase car seats for low income families. “In the spirit of ga du gi, we want to work with other local organizations to ensure the safety of all children,” said Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. “This is a way we can work together to help community members in need.” The local Safe Kids organization was originated in June of 2002 by community citizens with an interest in health safety, education and child advocacy. Accord...

Confront Black Caucus http://www.tahlequahdailypress.com/letters/local_story_149093147.html Editor, Daily Press: At last, a true American has stepped up to confront and challenge the Black Caucus regarding their ambition to force the Cherokee Nation to accept all Freedmen – who have no Cherokee blood quantum – as citizens. Representative Tom Cole, of Oklahoma, reacted and called the plan “legislative blackmail” in reply to statements made by the chairman of the House Finance Committee, Barney Franks. Chairman Franks told a Washington newspaper he would not take the bill to the house floor again without the provisions that required the Cherokee Nation’s acceptance of all Freedmen, with or without blood quantum. At issue is language added to the house bill last September, which in essence, states that unless the Cherokee Nation accepts all Cherokee Freedmen as citizens, the Cherokees would be denied federal funding in all areas. The Black Caucus want to make all Freedmen citizens of an I...

This is the way the Cherokee Nation Government Works: 1. A legislative branch which passes laws; the Cherokee Council; 2. A judicial branch; our court system - which by the way is very sophisticated for a Native American Court system; 3. A Chief - same as the US President, only he's called a Chief; Hmmm, surprise, surprise, works just like the US Government; including trying to blame the Chief for that which the Cherokee People via a democratic vote asked for *that we be a Tribe of Cherokees who can trace our family back to a Cherokee Ancestor on the Cherokee Base Dawes Roll* So quit vilifying our Chief, Chad Smith, he's done an excellent job in pursuing this matter, for something the Cherokee people VOTED for. Hmmm, I guess there is one difference - our Government listens to it's people.

This is the way the US Government Works: 1. Congress makes the laws; in some cases the law isn't clear; in some cases congress' intent isn't clear; in some cases subsequent laws are passed that modify prior congressional laws; 2. The Courts are suppose to interpret those laws; in some cases judges get into social engineering; sometimes they get into legislating by finding things in the laws that aren't expressly stated; 3. The President - I'm not sure exactly what he does - enforce the laws is a good guess; leader of the Free World etc... These THREE branches of the US government are INTERDEPENDENT, and are suppose to work together as the federal unit of 50 states, the ties that bind, so to speak - the major problem with all three branches is: they seem to think that they are the MOST IMPORTANT BRANCH - three branches makes us a democracy - one branch acting alone makes us a dictatorship. The Cherokee Nation disagrees with the way the Freedmen are trying to interpre...

Warne: Tribes' healthcare coming up short By DONALD WARNE Progressive Media Project http://www.star-telegram.com/245/story/667387.html How long you live should not depend on how rich you are. But recent studies show that the richer you are, the longer you live. For American Indians, this is not news. Nearly a third of our people live in poverty, compared with 12 percent of the rest of the country, and we suffer alarming gaps in life expectancy. In Arizona, where I live, the average age at death is 72.2 years for the general population and 54.7 years for American Indians. Even people in Bangladesh and Ghana live longer. Death rates from preventable causes such as diabetes, alcoholism and mental illness are dramatically higher among American Indians than in the rest of the population. Despite this gross inequality, American Indians are the only population born with a legal right to healthcare in this country. The treaties between the tribal nations and the federal government involved...

The word adoption like reservation is a white man's word. This is a term and concept unfamiliar to the Cherokees. The only time I've seen that term used is on the Dawes Roll. Whites who were married to Cherokee spouses were Cherokee by Intermarriage and the Dawes Commission considered them *adopted* apparently because that term was then stamped on the enrollment card. These white terms apparently conferred on them the right to obtain land allotments in their own name prior to about 1870, after 1870 the Commissioner decided intermarried could not obtain land allotments in their own names. Whites intermarried with Cherokees were "accepted" so to speak but it is only in the white literature you will find any terms like adoption or that whites not intermarried were *adopted* by Indians.

Presidential candidate wrong on freedmen Muskogee Phoenix Muskogee, OK 05/22/2008 On the same day that African American voters went to the polls to cast their ballots in North Carolina and Indiana, descendants of the former slaves of the Cherokee Nation (known as freedmen) fought in the federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to enforce their treaty rights guaranteeing (again she reads more into that treaty than is there ) them equality and voting rights in the tribe. Attorneys representing the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma have filed to have the case dismissed on the grounds that only U.S. Congress can enforce the treaty because the Cherokees have sovereign immunity (Supreme Court has ruled tribes have sovereign control over their membership - sorry, now who appears to be NOT following the law - Watson argues apparently that the Freedmen don't have to follow this ruling) . Yet the Cherokee Nation on that same day held a conference in the U.S. Capitol on why the freedme...

Why Freedmen Descendants Without an Indian Ancestor Listed on the Base Rolls Are Not Eligible for Citizenship in the Cherokee Nation http://www.meetthecherokee.org/

Cherokee Nation response to Watson Dated May 22, 2008: http://www.jalagi.org/watsonletter.pdf (this link is from the United Cherokee Nation website - a faction within the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and not recognized as a separate entity by any one outside their group)

Multiracial Americans surge in number, voice Obama candidacy focuses new attention on their quest for understanding By Mike Stuckey Senior news editor MSNBC updated 4:46 a.m. CT, Wed., May. 28, 2008 If you want a good glimpse of the multiracial experience in America, get inside Louie Gong’s skin. “I’m Nooksack, I’m Chinese, I’m French and I’m Scottish,” Gong tells viewers of a multimedia piece he placed on YouTube to help spark discussion of multiracial issues. “... When I was a kid, I drank my Ovaltine with real milk, and my cousins and I liked our fried rice with salmon.” At the same time that the nation’s growing diversity and changing social attitudes are helping to swell the ranks of multiracial Americans at 10 times the rate of the white population, the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, son of a black man and a white woman, has brought new attention, curiosity and discussion to their experiences. for the rest of the story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24542138

Trail of Tears was trail of betrayal By Mark Anthony Rolo, May 22, 2008 for the entire story: http://www.progressive.org/?q=node/6463 The Trail of Tears began 170 years ago this week. We should recall it not as an aberration but as a logical outgrowth of an inhumane policy. And we should insist, in its memory, that Indian treaties and Indian sovereignty be honored. . . . Cherokee homes were raided, crops ransacked, livestock and land stolen. At gunpoint, nearly 15,000 Cherokees were forced into concentration camps to await final orders to trek, mostly on foot, for nearly 1,000 miles. While many would die on that trail through snow and mountains, others would never even make the journey. Sordid conditions in the camps left many, especially the elderly and children, vulnerable to exposure, disease and starvation. . . . Years before the Cherokee were forced out, Congress paved the way for land theft with the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Other tribes such as the Chickasaw, Ch...

For a Preview of: Older than America: http://olderthanamerica.com/

New IHS director shares his vision Posted: May 21, 2008 by: Rob Capriccioso http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417297 WASHINGTON - Robert McSwain, who was sworn in as director of the IHS May 7, begins his reign at a difficult time. Budget cuts are having immediate impacts, new health issues in Indian country are on the rise, and the federal climate in which he's trying to make his goals a reality is as complicated as ever. And still, McSwain, a member of the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California, feels more than up to the job. Now in his 22nd year with IHS, he shared his vision with Indian Country Today. Indian Country Today: What are your immediate challenges? Robert McSwain: I think the main challenge is much the same as what we've been dealing with, which is certainly a very limited budget outlook because of the president's vision about the deficit reduction budgets ... and of course that means that the discretionary programs are very, very limi...

Some lofty promises here - however, will he follow through, no one will know, unless he is president and then it's too late. I didn't hear any specifics here either - he's going to get to the bottom of the Indian Trust Accounts, however, he doesn't say how and the DOI and Courts have been working on this issue, with no resolution, for over 10 years now...this by the way is the Obama YouTube site, so there are other videos here as well...he also told a group in SFO, CA that in the mid west folks during hard times *cling* to their religion and guns...which was a serious disconnect from them...so does this translate to Native Americans *cling* to their culture?

TEMECULA: City questions transfer of federal land to Pechanga Bill handing over the property is making its way through Congress By NICOLE SACK - Staff Writer Tuesday, May 20, 2008 10:24 PM PDT Dale Neugebauer, chief of staff for Issa, said Temecula had not previously expressed concerns about the legislation, and the extent of the issues raised in the letter were jarring. "This legislation has been around for four years. It has been written about extensively by the media. And its goal is to transfer undevelopable, steep and surplus land from the (Bureau of Land Management) to the Pechanga," Neugebauer said. "Given that, it is surprising to hear concerns that are this extensive at this late of an hour." He added, "With that being said we take the city's concerns seriously and I will be meeting with city officials next week and address the concerns that they have raised." Neugebauer said the two main concerns raised by the city, the restrictions on the u...

North County Times Escondido, CA 05/18/2008 I have always been and will always be, against Obama for Pres. Any Native American with a thread of Intelligence will be against Obama, for he is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Native Americans across the country are getting fed up with the double talk coming from Barack Obama saying he supports the sovereign status of tribal governments while supporting the Congressional Black Caucus on several bills that include terminating federal recognition of the Oklahoma Cherokee Nation. The CBC Caucus members are beating their chest on capitol hill demanding that Congress and Senate members back them in denying federal health care, school and housing funds for citizens of the Cherokee Nation. The CBC Caucus is upset over Cherokee citizens voting to reinstate its' Cherokee blood quantum heritage as a requirement to be a citizen of their Indian Nation. (not exactly blood quantum as in an amount, only that you have a Cherokee Ancestor on...

Ruling could mean transformation for region Experts debate impact of trust decision By ELIZABETH COOPER Observer-Dispatch Posted May 21, 2008 @ 09:17 AM Last update May 21, 2008 @ 09:39 AM But Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said the loss of tax revenues and the jurisdictional checkerboarding of Indian and non-Indian parcels would harm local communities.“It could literally hinder the ability of governance,” he said. The case is likely headed back to the courts that spawned it. The land-into-trust effort stemmed from a suggestion in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2005 over Sherrill's efforts to tax Oneida Nation businesses. . . . The Cherokee Nation has more than 45,000 acres of trust land in Oklahoma, some for more than 100 years. It is thriving, a tribal leader says. Linda Donelson, the tribe's director of real estate services, said the Cherokee didn't have any problem getting along with local and state government officials. “Cherokee is one of the largest employ...

Native Truth By Sara Hoklotubbe, 5/20/2008 10:11:37 AM http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?ea506470-6e54-4a64-ae5e-90107d66dbd8 James Dellinger and Phil Brand must believe if they tell a lie long enough, people will believe them. In their article, "Don’t Free Hawaii!" they have used erroneous information to bolster their argument against not only the Native people of Hawaii, but Native people everywhere. It may come as a shock to these two writers, but not everyone in the world wants to be a white American. The American Indians led the fight against terrorism in 1492. They were driven by force to give up their homelands to satisfy the greed of the encroaching white settlers. The tribal governments eventually had to enter into treaties with the United States, but their tribal sovereignty remained intact. That government-to-government relationship still endures today. The Hawaiians weren’t so lucky. If Dellinger and Brand really believe that the Hawaiians welcomed the over...

Time Magazine Snubs Indians Again Posted May 19, 2008 06:19 PM (EST) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/emtimeem-magazine-snubs-i_b_102529.html Every Native American can probably name 10 Indians that deserve to be on Time's list of most influential people. The problem is nobody asks them. Out of sight out of mind does not lead to a cohesive means of communications. White and black editors see who is around them in their own little world and Native Americans are not a part of their world. I could name a hundred influential Indians, but because of space I will name just a few. For every century there comes a man or woman that is in the right place at the right time. Ernie Stevens, Jr., Wisconsin Oneida, is such a man. As head of the National Indian Gaming Association he has come along at a time when Indian gaming is bringing in billions of dollars in revenues to many once impoverished Indian tribes. As a strong willed and powerful spokesman for the interests of the gaming tribe...

Watson writes: Imagine yourself as an African American and resident of the State of Alabama in 1964, the year that President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the historic Civil Rights Act. And again imagine in 1964 that Alabama Governor George Wallace, in an act of defiance that not even he considered, introduced legislation to expel all African Americans from Alabama. Now fast forward to the year 2007, over four decades later, when the citizens of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma voted last March to expel their black citizens in a manner that equaled if not surpassed the most vitriolic attacks against African Americans in the once segregated South. for the rest of her comments: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-diane-watson/jim-crow-in-indian-countr_b_69927.html (Big difference here between the United States and the Cherokee Nation - first of all the US is indeed a melting pot of immigrants, the Cherokee Nation is made up of Cherokees with set membership requirements, which is among the ...

In 1770, 5,000 American militiamen rode through the Cherokee Nation burning villages and crops to the ground driving thousands of Cherokees, young, old and infirm, into the mountains. Today, Congresswoman Diane Watson attempts to repeat history with another scorched-earth policy aimed at hurting the most vulnerable Cherokee Indians: the young, old and infirm. Congresswoman Watson's blog entry ( "Jim Crow in Indian Country," October 25, 2007) misled readers about the Cherokee Nation's March vote to limit citizenship in the tribe to those with Indian ancestry on the federal base rolls of our people. For the rest of Watson's misleading comments set straight: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chad-smith/scorchedearth-policy-aga_b_70670.html?load=1&page=2

WEB Commentary Contributor Author: Mike Graham, Cherokee Nation member and Native American Army Vet Bio: Mike Graham Date: May 19, 2008 CBC Demands U.S. Government Commit Another Wounded Knee Against Indians Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has joined with Watson and CBC members stating no federal funding going to any Indian Nation will come out of his house committee without wording blocking Cherokee funding. Oklahoma U.S. Representative Tom Cole calls Barney Frank's statements "legislative blackmail" by threatening to keep an Indian housing bill from a final vote. Congresswoman Watson of California, (a member of the Congressional Black Caucus that excludes non Black U.S. House members), also supported with tax payers dollars is crying foul play "Civil right's violation" over the Cherokee Nation citizenship vote last March, 2007 to require Cherokee Blood quantum proof to the nations roll books before anyone regardless of race can become a citizen of their India...

Obama Upholds Rights of Cherokees, All Native American Tribes (well not yet, he's just put some rain on the CBC's party - this helped to stop the bleeding of funds from the Cherokee but by no means has resolved the issue.) By First Americans Advocate, 5/16/2008 6:21:57 AM http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?0d444060-ef5f-4700-a695-3f0d10d116f8 Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) has stated his opposition to H.R. 2824, an attempt by his fellow Congressional Black Caucus member Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA) to sever government-to-government relations with the Cherokee Nation of (it's *in*, CN has nothing to do with Oklahoma except it resides inside it's boarders) Oklahoma because of an on-going dispute between the tribe and the "Cherokee Freedmen (non Cherokees) ." In a March 13, 2008 Letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, members of the Congressional Black Caucus stated that "members of the CBC will not support, and will actively oppose passage of NAHASDA...

Facts on Citizenship The United States government through its courts has held time and again that Indian tribes have the right to determine their own citizenship. Today Cherokee Nation’s citizenry is bound together by having in common at least one documented Indian ancestor, regardless of what other heritage they may have. Cherokee Nation citizenship is based upon family ties, not color. http://www.cherokeenationfacts.org/ The Cherokee Nation is the second largest Indian tribe in the United States, the largest in Oklahoma. As a federally recognized Indian tribe, the Cherokee Nation has the sovereign right to self-determination: to determine citizenship, and to exercise control and development over tribal assets. These rights are guaranteed in existing Cherokee, federal and international law. The Cherokee Nation employs more than 6,500 and is a leader in education, health care, vocational training, business and economic development. http://www.meetthecherokee.org/

Smith claims that robbing the freedmen of their citizenship is a sovereign act, but Indian removal was also a sovereign act. Sovereign acts and moral acts are two very different things. Smith claims that the Congressional Black Caucus is challenging the Cherokee Nation's sovereignty. Actually, what the CBC is doing is showing that sovereignty has consequences, and that when nations make refugees of their people by revoking their citizenship, they risk facing economic sanctions. Backlash against a nation's sovereign decision is not denial of that nation's sovereignty. Being sovereign means you can make decisions freely - it doesn't mean others have to agree with those decisions. for the rest of the story: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417307 (What she fails to understand is: we live and are ruled ultimately by the US Congress - but we have a small group, the Congressional Black Caucus, who is a group within Congress that will allow no other members to j...

Sen. Barack Obama and the Cherokee Freedmen: Politics as usual By Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) Posted: 05/13/08 05:29 PM [ET] http://thehill.com/op-eds/sen.-barack-obama-and-the-cherokee-freedmen-politics-as-usual-2008-05-13.html On the same day that African American voters went to the polls to cast their ballots in North Carolina and Indiana, descendants of the former slaves of the Cherokee Nation (known as Freedmen) fought in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to enforce their treaty rights guaranteeing them equality and voting rights in the tribe. Attorneys representing the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma have filed to have the case dismissed on the grounds that only Congress can enforce the treaty because the Cherokees have sovereign immunity. (no the Cherokee Nation said, it should not be a party to the action the Freedmen have filed against the department of the Interior and the BIA - you see Congress already set these rules up, but the Freedmen just don't...