Cherokee Indians Say they Will Not be Dictated to by the US.....

[MMC]

http://news.yahoo.com/cherokee-indians-not-dictated-u-010110913.html
Reuters – 8 hrs ago.....

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - The nation's second-largest Indian tribe said on Tuesday that it would not be dictated to by the U.S. government over its move to banish 2,800 African Americans from its citizenship rolls.

The reaction follows a letter the tribe received on Monday from BIA Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk, who warned that the results of the September 24 Cherokee election for principal chief will not be recognized by the U.S. government if the ousted members, known to some as "Cherokee Freedmen," are not allowed to vote.

The dispute stems from the fact that some wealthy Cherokee owned black slaves who worked on their plantations in the South. By the 1830s, most of the tribe was forced to relocate to present-day Oklahoma, and many took their slaves with them. The so-called Freedmen are descendants of those slaves.

After the Civil War, in which the Cherokee fought for the South, a treaty was signed in 1866 guaranteeing tribal citizenship for the freed slaves.

The U.S. government said that the 1866 treaty between the Cherokee tribe and the U.S. government guaranteed that the slaves were tribal citizens, whether or not they had a Cherokee blood relation.

The change meant that Cherokee Freedmen who could not prove they have a Cherokee blood relation were no longer citizens, making them ineligible to vote in tribal elections or receive benefits.

Besides pressure from the BIA to accept the 1866 Treaty as the law of the land, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is withholding a $33 million disbursement to the tribe over the Freedmen controversy.....snip~

Here we have a politcal game being played by the Tribal Elders to prevent votes going against them. By those who they want out. Then the US is going to go by the Treaty Law. Despite whatever arguments the Indians give. Thoughts?

[Mister D]

This must be causing some ideological confusion for the liberals. Only white people are by a priori wrong. Now we have two oppressed groups. What to do!? ???

[Conley]

That is some straight up wild stuff.

Cherokee need to stick to the treaty :)

[MMC]

This must be causing some ideological confusion for the liberals. Only white people are by a priori wrong. Now we have two oppressed groups. What to do!? ???


Don't forget the Muslims.....they are oppressed to. Well According to the left. Still you never here the left talkin to much about taking care of those that were here in the first place.

Just how do you discover something that already exits?

[Mister D]

This must be causing some ideological confusion for the liberals. Only white people are by a priori wrong. Now we have two oppressed groups. What to do!? ???


Don't forget the Muslims.....they are oppressed to. Well According to the left. Still you never here the left talkin to much about taking care of those that were here in the first place.

Just how do you discover something that already exits?


I'm not sure what you mean. Discover what?

[MMC]

This must be causing some ideological confusion for the liberals. Only white people are by a priori wrong. Now we have two oppressed groups. What to do!? ???


Don't forget the Muslims.....they are oppressed to. Well According to the left. Still you never here the left talkin to much about taking care of those that were here in the first place.

Just how do you discover something that already exits?


I'm not sure what you mean. Discover what?


Indians and that they were here the whole time. I was just playing on the words, D. :D Still it is like I said....the left likes to stick it's hands in the til for other races but never for this one.

[Conley]

This must be causing some ideological confusion for the liberals. Only white people are by a priori wrong. Now we have two oppressed groups. What to do!? ???


Don't forget the Muslims.....they are oppressed to. Well According to the left. Still you never here the left talkin to much about taking care of those that were here in the first place.

Just how do you discover something that already exits?


I'm not sure what you mean. Discover what?


The discovery of the New World, sucka.


O0

edit: Don't worry, I speak jive

[Mister D]

This must be causing some ideological confusion for the liberals. Only white people are by a priori wrong. Now we have two oppressed groups. What to do!? ???


Don't forget the Muslims.....they are oppressed to. Well According to the left. Still you never here the left talkin to much about taking care of those that were here in the first place.

Just how do you discover something that already exits?


I'm not sure what you mean. Discover what?


The discovery of the New World, sucka.


O0

edit: Don't worry, I speak jive


I'm the only one who doesn't apparently. ;D

[wingrider]

isn't the cherokee nation a soveriegn state and not subject to the whims of the government... I need to check this out but i think they are

I did find this '

Every Indian citizen today is entitled to constitutional guarantees, immunities, and prerogatives as well the rights to Self-Determination (25 U.S. Code 450) and it is the duty of the Southern Cherokee Nation to protect and defend the Southern Cherokee Nation membership in their Federal Tribal and State Rights against usurpation of their Tribal Rights they retain-Retained Rights of Indians which predate the existence of the Unites States and predated the Treaties made. Treaty Rights of Indians were not granted by the Treaties but refer to preexisting retained rights. (U.S. v. Winnans, and Winters Doctrine-etc;)

this is taken from the cherokee tribal website. I think according to this they have the right to decide who is a member and who isn't of the cherokee tribe.

[Conley]

But what about the treaty that they signed?

[Mister D]

White liberal speak with forked tongue! >:D

[wingrider]

But what about the treaty that they signed?


ummm.. how many treaties did the white man sign and then broke?

[Conley]

But what about the treaty that they signed?


ummm.. how many treaties did the white man sign and then broke?


:D

Most of them I'm sure. I just mean if they have held to the terms of the treaty for 150 years can they just suddenly decide nope!

I am not defending the Settlers' treatment of the Natives here, just noting that maybe the Cherokee Nation isn't operating with a whole lot of leverage here. I could be wrong...wouldn't be the first time

[MMC]

I figure the US will use whatever means to follow the Law fully and at cost. Despite Old Treaties. The US will then talk that NWO deal forcing the Indians to adopt to the 21st Century.

Still I cannot say this Tribal Chief is right in what he is doing. If the freed ones were always part of them and then had votes and members who ran for Tribal Council and or Leaders. Then This Certain Sect of the Tribe is attempting to usurp contol of the tribe. Attempting to consolidate power and making a political move as well as a Legal one.

Moreover they could have lived their whole lives with the Nation and never had any written documents from that time. Or anything that would have distinguished them as anything else other than Indian.

[wingrider]

if the freedman can show that they are indeed BLOOD indians by their ancestors having intermarried into the tribe and have had children that are by definition of indian blood then the tribal council will have to back off on this. I believe the rule is 1/8 indian blood you are admitted..

my wife is 1/16th and does not qualify

[MMC]

if the freedman can show that they are indeed BLOOD indians by their ancestors having intermarried into the tribe and have had children that are by definition of indian blood then the tribal council will have to back off on this. I believe the rule is 1/8 indian blood you are admitted..

my wife is 1/16th and does not qualify


Yeah my one buddy of mine has been married to the same woman for over 20 yrs.....common law. His Wife is from the Blackfeet. Same type of deal. But she is Mixed with white. So while her family is part of the tribe. They have no vote.