Skip to main content

Basic US Government Lesson for Rep Watson

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 interpret the 1866 treaty - so the Freedmen sued, let's not forget who brought this suit by the way - then the Freedmen enlisted Rep Watson, from whom the CBC got into the act - so now we have one view from the Freedmen, which has been adopted by Rep Watson and the CBC and another view from the Cherokee Nation; so that's why we have courts, to settle these types of disputes.

So let's stick with the US Constitution and let the Courts have their say on interpreting the laws which gives the Cherokee Nation their due process rights or is the CBC going to circumvent that Constitutional provision as well?

Popular posts from this blog

Americanization of Native Americans

Americanization can refer to the policies of the United States government and public opinion that there is a standard set of cultural values that should be held in common by all citizens. Education was and is viewed as the primary method in the acculturation process. These opinions were harshly applied when it came to Americanization of Native Americans compared to immigrant populations who arrived with their "non-American traditions". The Americanization policies said that when indigenous people learned American customs and values they would soon merge tribal traditions with European-American culture and peacefully melt into the greater society. For example in the 1800s and early 1900s, traditional religious ceremonies were outlawed and it was mandatory for children to attend English speaking boarding schools where native languages and cultural traditions were forbidden. The Dawes Act of 1887 , which allotted tribal lands to individuals and resulted in an estimated total o...

Indian Boarding Schools - the US Solution to the Indian Problem

American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many by Charla Bear This is the first in a two-part report. For the photos with this piece and the rest of the story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865 May 13, 2008 Col. Richard H. Pratt founded the first of the off-reservation Native American boarding schools based on the philosophy that, according to a speech he made in 1892, "all the Indian there is in the race should be dead." CORBIS 'Kill the Indian...Save the Man' According to Col. Richard Pratt's speech in 1892: "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." From Need to 'National Tragedy' Early in the history of American Indian boarding schools, the...

UKB and Cherokee Nation Today

Hello, everyone – I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and didn’t overdo too much. It was a foodfest in my neighborhood and it was really fun! In this installment we will bring the story of the UKB and the Cherokee Nation to the present. As the Cherokee Nation began to recover its sovereign powers in the 1970s, after having being squelched for most of the twentieth century by the “bureaucratic imperialism” of the BIA as the judge in the Harjo case described it, the UKB was dwindling. As the Cherokee Nation elected its first Chief since statehood, developed a superseding Constitution, reinstated its citizens, reconstituted its Tribal Council (also a result of the Harjo case), established Cherokee Nation Industries and investigated other economic development enterprises, the UKB receded and was basically defunct by the end of the 1970s. But in 1979, there was a particularly nasty runoff in the Principal Chief’s race between incumbent Ross Swimmer and his opponent, Jim Gordon. Swi...