You said:
I've changed my mind on the Cherokee defunding issue
After talking to many people both on website comments and on email, I've
changed my mind on the issue of defunding the Chereokee Nation of Oklahoma.
I said!
Well Mr. Branum, I would certainly be interest in who you talked to that could affect an understanding of the issue you seemed to have! BTW, Thanks for the comment on my web site, and I would like to extend an invite to my talk forum, http://www.network54.com/Forum/237458/ you can stop by and read, but to post you must register, and have a working email, this keeps out the supporters of the CNO, with their pure BS, they don't want to discuss any message, just slam the messenger, they don‘t want to be accountable for their babblings so they refuse to register. At this time we are averaging 2500/readers hit’s a day, we have nearly 100 Cherokee members registered to post.
You said:
I still strongly believe that CNO did wrong by voting to exclude the
Freedmen, but I also can understand that at least some of the voters didn't do
so because of racism but because they feel strongly about the need for blood
ties in the nation.
I say!
Yes there are quite a few high blood quantum Cherokee that think as you say, not just with blacks, whites equally so, they are most assuredly in the minority. And the biggest factor in the reasoning for the Vote result is Smith’s group went in to the communities, and fed the elderly and young families with Children, pure CRAP, such as , do you want those N******S sucking up all your services, taking all your commodities, taking all your kids school supplies and clothes, with comments like hide your daughters from these people, a complete Jim Crow Campaign, among the most venerable people back in the sticks, with maybe a TV maybe a computer, most likely not, actually some who speak very little English no newspapers…And I know this has to be true because in the precinct where I voted, there was nothing but elderly and young people with Children in the line to vote at mid-day.
A major issue with the actual vote, most every time you read or hear about the Vote to kick out the Freedmen it will be said a resounding 75% voted in favor, BUT they never say of the people that voted… We have a populace of close to 300,000 Citizens with only 38,000 registered to vote Plus about 13,000 with bad addresses and ineligible to vote.
So with respect to the populace, the actual registered to vote barely measures up to 10%
The total number that voted was 8,000, rounding the populace up to 300,000, the total of the populace that voted was 2.4%, sure the vote was 6,000 Yea 2,000 Ney, And Yes that is 75% in favor, but certainly not truth in fact.
Absolutely CNO did wrong in more than one aspect of the issue, actually it would just about involve writing a book to get it all across, I guess aside from the stripping Cherokee Citizens of their rights, the process to do so would be the next most heinous thing, which would be the petition calling for the amendment, it was totally illegal, and proven so in the Cherokee Court, but the majority of the court is/was owned by Smith.
You can read the dissent of the one judge here http://www.jalagi.org/leedsdissent.pdf that Smith did not control, and words of the balatant lawlessness of the Smith junta will gag a maggot, so just imagine how the majority ruling reads, I did have a copy of it if I can find it, and you are interested.
You said:
I myself don't agree with this perspective as I think culture is more important than blood --- as a brother of 3 adopted siblings and 2 natural-born siblings, I think my adopted siblings are just as much kin as the natural-born ones are. To me the Freedmen are adopted Cherokee and should be treated as such.
I say!
With the Cherokee People, and I dare say the US Citizenship as well, blood is total and completely inconsequential, as I said in another post, The Cherokee in 1827 gave up the concept of tribalism and became a Nation of Nationals, no different than any other Nation, even prior to that with the matrilineal form of government that Ruled/Governed the Cherokee People, blood was inconsequential, a clan mother chose to take under her wing a black, white or purple person, that person was considered a Cherokee Citizen of that Clan, and of the body politic of the Cherokee.
You said:
That said, the issue of threatening to defund the CNO will be seen as a
threat to the survival and continued existence of the nation by many, and will I
think force folks into a corner in trying to defend a bad policy. I also think
it isn't fair, as other tribes have also excluded their Freedmen so to single
out only the CNO isn't right.
I say NOT so Mr Branum, this line of BS is strictly from Smith and supporters, The average Cherokee on the Street not employed by CNO, or has no family employed there will tell you the same thing I say…Cut the FUNDING the sooner the better. As for other Tribes that would be involved with such a concern are the Five so-called civilized tribes who were Slave owners…The Seminole have already been through this very same scereino, they lost all their funding at once none of the piecemeal bit, and that is what needs to happen to CNO, shut them down immediately, and the Watson Bill calls for the loss of their gaming status as well, AGAIN the sooner the better None of these funds are reaching the people they are intended to help, so what difference does it make, the crooks will leave with no funds to steal, then the people can pick up the pieces and set a government of the Cherokee People, by the Cherokee People for the Cherokee People..
You said:
It seems like a better approach is to take the defunding issue off the
table and to return to the negotiating table. There are lots of possible
solutions if folks are creative enough. And I think in the long run the CNO (and
other tribes) will have a richer and fuller culture if they accept the Freedmen
as their adopted kin. But I think this has to be a matter of persuasion not
coercion.
I say!
Your idea would be a valid approach if we were talking about Rational and Caring People with their supposed constituents in their thoughts, we are NOT, and the most important aspect of my reasoning for this statement is, I LIVE HERE I see everyday what goes on how the People are thought of and treated by the CNO powers that be.
And the simple fact is the only solution for the Cherokee People is the called for protection of our civil rights as is guaranteed in the Treaty of 1866.
One final Question Have you read the Watson Bill, line for line, then find corroboration, it can all be found at Cornsilks.com as well as Watson’s Bill at the top of the page.
The only other option for the Cherokee People, is totally illegal!!
Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma member!