Aya Gadoga (I Stand)
I stand because of the corrupt political portrayal of my People by accusations which destroy our culture and identity while encouraging the media and state academia to degrade our name and identity through altering documented history.
I stand because of the continued hostile actions taken by your citizens who have become unprivileged belligerents by creating civil disturbances breaching the Supreme Law of the Land established by your ancestors to stop the desecration and genocide of my ancestors.
I stand because you are told lies about who we are. Aya Tskimagi from Ahmayeli (mist in the water) by Nelhonuh (when the Earth divided). We are Esheeloarchie, Keepers of the Sacred Fire. We speak Erati.
I stand and correct the genocidal lies told to defame and gain profit off the unrelenting wrong perception resulting in a cognitive dissonance of history. Tsiugansii stands, born at Tanase village, not to a nation but a confederacy of villages. His father was Adagalkala of the Nippising, documented by the Champlain Society of Canada; his mother was Niowne Olle, a Natchez. He was Chief of Maloquo at Amoyeli Equa and died at Amagayunyi.
I stand because people make urban legends, monsters and rogues of our People. There is a problem with the myth that David Crockett and his wife Elizabeth Hedge were killed and their sons taken by Dragging Canoe in 1777 at Rodgersville, TN. There was no documentation Tsigansini was there August 19, 1777. A son, James, being deaf, was recovered from the Creek Nation 20 years later. There is no post mortems of the Crocketts to prove who killed them.
I stand because of the contrived misconception of a federally recognized corporation v. a Congressionally recognized Treaty Tribe. Members who belong to a corporation are corporate citizens in the state of incorporation, only through that incorporation, and are not citizens with access to the purposes of the privileges and immunities clause of the United States Constitution. These tribes have been terminated and restructured into corporations falsely claiming sovereignty and tribal rights. On April 26, 1906, Congress of the United States, [34 Stat. 137],codified the Cherokee Nation no longer exists as a distinct political entity. On March 1, 1886, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina had dissolved their connection with the Cherokee Nation and ceased to be a part of it when they refused to remove with the main body at the time of removal.
I stand so the knowledge that no Federal agency has the power to terminate a trust relationship becomes understood. Once Congress has created a trust relationship with an Indian Tribe, only Congress can end it. The Tribe also has the right to terminate the relationship. A trust relationship was created October 30, 1792, when Congress discussed war and peace with the Chickamauga and on November 6, 1792, when President George Washington discussed the Chickamaugas in his Fourth Annual Address which was ratified by Congress. On November 26, 1792, the Secretary of War, Henry Knox, ordered the end of hostilities with the Chickamauga. Earlier, on September 13, 1792, the United States was notified of the divide in the Cherokee Nation when the Chickamauga 5 Lower Towns declared war. In Montoya v. US, 1901 [180 US 261],once a warring faction leave a band of friendly Indians, it is no longer included in the political party of the friendlies.
I stand because we suffer retaliation when we exercise certain powers of press or seek representation. We are told we are extinct or a conquered Nation which violates the Treaty of Canandaigua,1794, ruling that the theory of a conquered Nation cannot be used with the Western Confederacy, of which the Chickamauga are a part of. The people who challenge us also violate Montana v. US, 1982, [450 US 544], stating non-members of a Tribe cannot affect the political integrity or economic security of a Tribe.
I stand because undocumented urban legends and myths become genocidal and profitable for those who desire our demise. Powwows, heritage clubs, non-profit and other incorporations in my home state do not represent our culture or history, yet are consistently upheld by academia and state government causing trauma to our children known as the Founders Effect. There are Indians who have relocated to my state that are trying to claim our history as their own. Their history started when they were incorporated, not when they came from the mist when the land divided and received the First Fire.
I stand for my son who is no longer with us. I stand for my Mother and Father, my Grandparents and Great Grandparents who lived under miscegenation laws and with no representation by having no voting rights. I stand for the women who were unable to bear children after being eugenically sterilized (continuing until the 1980’s, an estimated 25-50% of Indigenous women were sterilized). This is in my lifetime. I stand with the families of the missing and murdered Indigenous women in finding ways to protect and honor them as we have for millennia. I stand with those who respect, honor and protect our home, Mother Earth.
I stand because the prevailing knowledge of who we are is being challenged by omission, erasure, non-inclusion and lack of diversity. The governmental leaders took an oath to stand by and protect the Supreme Law of the Land which gives us our identity and we demand they live up to their sworn oath or be removed from office.
I stand because of Fleming v. Page, 1850, [50 US 9], as the conquest ruling is continually being ignored. I stand because of the hostility of ignoring us which is an unlawful act of conquest.
I stand because of the multitude of generations before me who prayed and stood for our survival. I stand because of the future generations who will need strong roots for their survival. I stand because most everyone has forgotten how to.
~ C. E. Spruell