The Act of stripping the Cherokee Freedmen
descendents of
their Citizenship was done by Chief Ross O. Swimmer, and done with out
hint of
law as basis; swimmer and his appointed registrar put together a set of
rules
in 1983 that began the dastardly deed!
Following are some words that makes for a clear picture of the
fraud by
CNO and what they do to this a class of Cherokee Citizens.
The Rules written by Swimmer and his registrar, Dora Mae Watie at the
time actually a Freedmen in denial her self, the traits did not show,
but her grandfather was a freedmen Thes BOGUS RULES can be SEEN HERE
In 1988 Mankiller realized this was being perpetrated upon
this
class of Cherokee People with out basis of law, so she had her Council
pass a
resolution, you can seen IT HERE
Then in 1992, Mankiller finally realize
resolution is
not actual law, she had her council pass legislative Act, which made
the set of
rules, and the BOGUS Resolution in to Cherokee law, so for 9
years the Freedmen were denied their
citizenship
rights by blatant fraud. you can see the 1992 ACT HERE
The Following Article was posted on John's Place, with no authors
name
to give
credit, but I believe it to be a very accurate account of the continued
fraud
upon the Cherokee Freedmen descendents up to and including Chief Smith.
It begins with: Wilma Mankiller later passed an Act
requiring that all tribal members
be able
to provide a Certificate of Indian blood Card (CDIB), based strictly on
the
Degree of blood listed on the Dawes Rolls for themselves or their
ancestor.
Since that roll did not list a degree of blood for Freedmen tribal
members,
this effectively removed all Freedmen and their descendants from tribal
membership, even though a large number if not the majority could
provide a
degree of Indian blood from their Dawes testimony, Guion Miller payment
roll
testimony, Henderson payment Roll, death and heir ship documents of the
US government,
etc. This action of blocking the freedmen from tribal membership was
not done
under the direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), for BIA
Muskogee
officials Dennis Springwater and Joe Parker had met with tribal
officials in
1983, and emphasized that the Cherokee constitution as well as the
treaty of
1866 granted citizenship to the Cherokee Freedmen and their
Descendants. The
tribe was told the Freedmen should be allowed to vote. Affidavits of
the
longstanding BIA position are a part of the Nero case file. See also:
BIA’s
Solicitor’s Opinion, October
1, 1941,
1 Op. Sol. On Indian Affairs 1076 (U.S.D.I. 1979), where the BIA
reaffirmed
that the Cherokee Freedmen voting and membership rights were fixed by
treaty
and formal tribal actions.
The press took note of these matters,
especially when a Reverend Nero
and
several other Freedmen filed a lawsuit against the Cherokee nation and
the BIA
in 1984. Then Chief Swimmer stated in the Oklahoma Eagle newspaper that
it was
“easier for the registration department to process tribal memberships
of people
with CDIB cards (at that time, the tribe did not have a contract with
the BIA
to process CDIB cards), which must raise the question of why Cherokee
citizens
must be deprived of their rights in order to make the job of
registration
easier for tribal employees on salary. The Baltimore son reported on
July 29,
1984 that then Deputy Chief Wilma Mankiller told the Baltimore Sun that
Cherokee Freedmen should not have tribal membership since such
membership
should be for “people with Cherokee blood”- words which must clearly be
seen as
an effort to prejudice the Cherokee people as well as the general
American
people that people with African blood cannot document Cherokee blood
and are
not Cherokee Indian people, and perpetrating those old “one drop of
blood”
standards that people with African blood have no other blood and must
be kept
as a people completely apart unlike any other people. Cherokee nation
attorney
Wilcoxen during the Nero case appears to have clearly attempted to
prejudice
the judge against the Cherokee freedmen plaintiffs by wrongly
proclaiming that
the “Freedmen did not have Cherokee blood”, and that the 1975
constitution only
allowed “Cherokees, Delaware,
and
Shawnee” to be tribal
members”;
although the Constitution does not say that. (Bands of Delaware and
Shawnee
Indians were adopted into the Cherokee nation after 1866, whose
individuals are
not required to also have “Cherokee blood” to be Cherokee citizens).
The Nero
lawsuit was dismissed by the judge in 1989 over jurisdictional issues;
that for
example the case should have been tried in the court of claims due to
the
amount of dollars the plaintiffs were requesting.
In 1998, the Cherokee nation justices
heard a citizenship case by a
descendant
of Cherokee Freedmen, Bernice Riggs. (Bernice Riggs versus Lela
Ummerteskee,
Acting Registrar of the Cheorkee Nation (JAT 97-03-K) In 2001, The
tribal
justices ruled that the testimony and records provided that Mrs. Riggs
indeed
had Cherokee blood. However, they held that this Cherokee ancestor, a
man named
Rogers was deceased at the time of the Dawes enrollment; - had he been
alive at
the time of the Dawes enrollment, she would have been able to become a
Cherokee
citizen based on his degree of Cherokee blood but that since his
descendents
were listed as Freedmen by the Dawes Commission, she did not have an
ancestor
with a Dawes Final Roll number from whom she could obtain a CDIB card.
The
tribal justices determined that the Cherokee nation is a sovereign
nation and
could grant membership to whomever they wished. (It must be noted that
individuals with Caucasian mothers and dead Cherokee fathers were not
excluded
from being enrolled as “citizens by blood by the Dawes Commission” and
that the
descendants of such individuals are not barred from Cherokee membership
today.).
In 1999, the Cherokee nation prepared
a new constitution to submit for
BIA
approval. The BIA, under Kevin Gover, rejected the new constitution,
partially
under the grounds that the Cherokee nation would not allow Cherokee
Freedmen to
vote on it, and that the new constitution would not allow Cherokee
freedmen to
hold office. According to the official Cherokee Phoenix tribal
newspaper (Spring
2001), the CNO attempted to take the new constitution directly to
president
Clinton, but he would not sign it either. According to the tribal
newspaper,
they determined to request instead that the BIA agree to remove
requirements of
federal government approval of constitutional amendments and new
constitutions.
A decision was made to wait for a “friendlier administration”, in the
words of
the Cherokee Phoenix tribal newspaper. The same tribal newspaper
article also
carried a statement from Attorney And Cherokee citizen Ralph Keen, that
it is
not the tribal constitution which bars freedmen and their descendants
from
voting on the constitution but a tribal statute.
In 2002, BIA head Neal McCaleb was
approached with a request to allow a
referendum by Cherokee voters on a constitutional amendment removing
federal
approval. Neal McCaleb wrote a letter in March 2002, stating that the
Freedmen
must be allowed to vote on the amendment and that no amendment of the
Constitution could eliminate the Freedmen from tribal membership. In
April
2002, another letter, with Neal McCaleb's signature said he did not
write the
first letter; the second letter did not say anything about the Freedmen
being
required to vote on the constitutional amendment. Note that this second
letter
was completely opposite of all BIA policy since the 1940s. The Cherokee
nation
government, under Chief Smith, held various meetings around the
Cherokee
nation, encouraging people to approve the referendum and also the
proposed
constitution, which has no provision for federal approval of
constitutional
amendments and did not make the Cherokee nation government subject to US
law.
In May 2003, a referendum was held
regarding the constitutional
amendment, and
a vote was held in July 2003 on the proposed new constitution. Both
were passed
by those individuals who were allowed to vote. Descendants of Cherokee
freedmen
who tried to participate as voters were not given voting cards, or
absentee
ballots, and were given “challenged ballots” at the polls if they tried
to vote
in person.
In June, 2003; several descendants of
Cherokee Freedmen, through the
law firm
Velie and Velie; contacted the Department of the Interior, challenging
the 2003
elections, based on the rights of the freedmen in the 1866 treaty, the
1975
constitution, and the Seminole nation versus Norton cases of 2001 and
2002
where Judge Kolar Kotelly had upheld the treaties of 1866 for the
Seminole
freedmen and their voting and membership rights in the Seminole nation.
Several
prominent Cherokee nation individuals such as then Deputy Chief
Hastings Shade
also sent a letter to the BIA questioning the validity of an election
when the
Cherokee freedmen were not allowed to vote. Various letters went from
Chief
Smith to the BIA accusing the BIA officials of “having a bias against
the self
government rights of the Cherokee nation”.
In late July 2003, the Muskogee BIA
director wrote a letter,
temporarily
recognizing Chief Smith, but still withholding approval of the
constitutional
amendment, citing the Seminole nation cases. About 1 week later,
another
letter, written by the same Muskogee BIA official recognized Chief
Smith as
principal chief, but still did not approve the constitutional
amendment. This letter and all that have been sent an received
since demonstrates the most important part of the whole mess is Chad
Smith will abide by the 1866 treaty SEE THE LETTER HERE
On August 11,
2003,
descendants of Cherokee Freedmen, thru the Velie and Velie law firm
filed the
lawsuit Vann et al Versus Norton ((1:03
CV01711) in the District
of Columbia
district court. After the initial complaint was filed, various stays
have been
granted by Judge Kennedy for the parties to attempt a resolution.
During this
time period, Cherokee nation officials made statements to the press
such as the
following to the Fort Smith Times on August 8, 2003, “Freedmen had never voted for
officials of the Cherokee
nation (made by tribal spokesman Mike Miller). This is an untrue
statement as
such men as Freedmen Councilman Stick Ross even now have several
streets,
companies, etc named after him and there is even a plaque with his name
on the
grounds of the council house in Tahlequah.). The Muskogee Phoenix
newspaper on September 13,
2003 interviewed
Principal Chief Smith, an attorney, who reportedly stated that “the
Cherokee
constitution requires CDIB cards”. SEE FEDERAL CASE
In March of 2006 the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court issued a
rulling that found the 1992 act by Mankiller to be
unconstitutional, and it was struck down SEE THE DECISION HERE Right away Smith set out to overturn the
supreme law of CNOT land by BOGUS claims and a election process,
including the petition process of obtaining signatures which was proven
in court beyond a resonable doubt, as commented on as such by the
judges
to be illegal, and a crime against the Cherokee People, but ignored and
allwed to continue, while Smith an cohorts passed law to protect the
perpetrators of the criminal act of obtaining the BOGUS Petition See
the COURT RULING
HERE on the petition. A must read to see the blatant
disregard for Cherokee Law by Chad's court of Cherokee
Nation of Oklahoma (Traitors) CNOT!!
Then finally folks a report from the DC panel of the Black
Caucus Held Friday rge 28th of September 2007 as reported By
Eli
Grayson A creek Indian of the Creek Nation Organization of California.
Eli Said:
Tom Downey of Downey McGrath
group has
graciously taken on this issue and is currently working with
Congresswoman Watson and Chairman Barney Frank. They are taking this
issue to the next level.
One thing is becoming clear, that this is not a Indian issue but a
Cherokee issue along with a few other OK tribes, and Congress is
beginning to understand that the Lakota, Navaho and the other 500 plus
federally recognized tribes have NOTHING to do with this...every
congressional staff person or every Congressmen that I spoke with were
shocked to even learn of slavery of among these particular Oklahoma
tribes. The fact that the Cherokees are hypocritically screaming
termination while terminating their very own slave descendants is
laughingstock to the congressional members. Privately, even Indian
people from other tribes are telling congressional members that
Cherokees are not really Indians but just white folks with a Indian
ancestor five hundred years ago.....this whole thing has gone down a
dangerous path for the Cherokee Nation.....
Again the great news for the Freedmen descendants is that Congressional
members are able to understand this issue because of the United States
very own history with slavery and how American slaves were granted US
citizenship and to all their descendants today. Easily understood by
most reasonable thinking people.
As far as the Prodesta Group it would seem they would work with anyone
on anything. My god, they even had a African American guy from their
lobbying group escorting the Cherokee leadership around congress
selling their new brand of racism......stranger things have never
happen!