The Cherokee Nation Inc and Eastern Band of Cherokees Inc Are Terminated and Does Not Exist

‍

Video of Cherokee Tri-Council Meeting June 23, 2022

Transcription provided by the Closed Captioning provided with the video. All misspellings in the transcript are from the Closed Captioning provided.

‍

‍

Call to Order at 10:50 AM

25:46 Tri-Council 2022 Meeting Begins

27:42 Presentation of the Color Guard – Military Unit

30:29 Opening Prayer in Cherokee then in English by UKB Flint District Council Member, Frankie Steele

31:54 Recognition of Presenters
     US Flag Presented by Homony Little Dave – Air Force – Vietnam Combat Veteran
     Eastern Band Flag by Steve Morales – Army – Afghanistan Combat Veteran
     UKB Flag by Ani Christie – Army - Afghanistan Combat Veteran
     Cherokee Nation Flag by Cyrus Prawn – Air Force – Kuwait War Veteran

33:09 Roll Call
Cherokee Nation - Keith Austin, Danny Callison, Julia Coates, Shawn Crittenden, Joe Deer, Mike Dobbins, Rex Jordan, Johnny Kidwell, Daryl Legg, Wes Nofire, Dora Patskowski, Joshua Sam, Mike Shambaugh, Milvin Shophouse, E. O. Smith, Candice Tihi, Victoria Vasquez,

‍

34:03 Eastern Band - Illegible Cherokee Introductions

‍

36:53 UKB – Eddie Sachs, Cliff Wofford, Sonia Gourde, Caleb Grimet, Frankie Steele, Joyce Hawke, Peggy Gurdy, Charles Smoke, Willie Christie, Jeff Wakachi, Levi Catron, Alvin Hicks

‍

37:38 Quorum Present within all three tribes

‍

38:35 Eastern Band Chairman

39:26 “Every Tribe wants to be Cherokee”

39:30 “We can trace our history back and prove who we are”

‍

39:50 Cherokee Nation

39:58 Speaker of the Cherokee Tribal Council

40:51 The attacks on our sovereignty, the attacks on our identities, its not just Oklahoma, It’s not its all over the place.

41:08 We are united with each other in combating those peak types of groups

‍

41:29 UKB

42:08 We talk about sovereignty all the time and we have folks trying to take it from us, steal our identity

46:53 We had a pre-planning meeting yesterday morning  SO the resolutions you see on the agenda is what the three tribes had a consensus to bring forward for a vote today.

47:55 Cherokee Nation, Julia this was yours, do you want to go forward for a vote?  Julia, “I would move to approve

48:13 Motion to approve Resolution 1 is approved

48:36 UKB, Resolution 2 supporting the nomination of Rosalyn Soul as director of Indian Health Services

49:26 Motion to approve Resolution 2 is approved

‍

49:41 EBCI Resolution 3 A resolution opposing federal or state recognition of groups that claim to be tribal nations and seek to avoid or circumvent the Department of Interior’s Office of Federal Acknowledgement Process.

50:46 The resolution take the word congressional out and adds federal or state which makes it not only are we opposed to federal recognition but we are also opposed to state recognition or virtually any recognition.  So it just it just confines it more so.  Uh, there’s a some other words where state has been taken our and it and it just includes all groups just not state recognized.  It’s all groups trying to do this.  So and another thing it does it also Lumbee tribe and the MOWA tribe are listed but also adds a Chickamauga tribe and the Wolf Creek Cherokee tribe.  So I think this just makes it more stringent and it shows our unity in any court that we are against this 

52:39 Why would we not allow the word Congress to remain?

53:04 my understanding we’re trying to make this more specific and and more not just say any federal recognized tribe but also any state.  So we’re actually expanding upon that and not just limiting it to federally recognized but expanding it

53:33 Would it not be I’s sorry would it not be more clear to allow the word congress to remain in there?  Reason I say that because it will not be the tribes what determine whether or not they receive state or federal recognition that would be left up to congress and that’s where the bottleneck is.  Congress some congress chooses to circumvent the process and I think that it just speaking for myself, I’ve I’ve prefer that the word congress or at least something to to have it remain in the legislation.  

54:08 We don’t have a problem with that at all.  Uh congressional federal or state could all stay the same.  

55:11 Ma’am one other thing and your legal might consider is they’re leaving congressional in you really don’t need federal because that is federal.  So if congressional and state are in this is basically the same thing.  So you are just being redundant.  We are being redundant by saying federal and state.  Having

56:07 Julia, Just point out that federalism broader term because there are other ways in which a tribe can be recognized by the judiciary.  It can be recognized by an executive order and if we limit this to congressional, then there there are still other avenues that are left open and I think that’s probably the reason for the change to the word federal because it covers all branches of government not simply the legislative branch.

‍

Break in Meeting -

‍

1:17:55 Meeting Resumes

1:18:48 We will have speaker Mike to read the amended language

1:19:03 The Amended language is as follows: A resolution opposing federal or state recognition of groups that claim to be tribal nations and seek to avoid or circumvent the Department of the Interior’s Office of Federal Acknowledgement Process.

Now, therefore be it resolved the tri-council of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes does hereby oppose the federal or state recognition of the Lumbee tribe, the Chickamauga tribe, MOWA Band of Choctaw, Wolf Creek Cherokee tribe and any other recognition effort from a group claiming Cherokee identity, that seeks to avoid or circumvent the Department of Interior’s Office of Federal Acknowledgement Process.

We have spoken with the legals from all three sides and they are good with that

1:20:20 Motion to accept all proposed amendments

1:21:12 The federal or state recognition of these groups would undermine the integrity

1:22:16 Resolution 3 is approved

‍

1:23:32 Self Introductions from Eastern Band – The “homeland” of the Cherokee
Teresa McCoy

1:24:06 Adam Machacha

1:24:44 Boyd Owl

1:25:22 Bucky Brown

1:25:51 T. W. Sanute

1:26:43 David Wolf

1:27:06 Doc Sneed

1:27:27 Beau Crum

1:28:41 Bill Taylor

1:30:22 Albert Rose there is a war on our identities right now and just us having to DC and educate our senators and congressman about who we are but this is going to be huge that we’ve done today.

1:31:16 Richard French Chairman Eastern Band – This last resolution Think it’s going to carry a lot of weight.  We’ve like said yesterday we’ve met with a lot of federally recognized tribes that feel the same way we do.  But to see our three tribes come together and sign, get this signed and I hope we can get a clean copy and get this signed today so that we’ll have it.  Uh it’s going to mean a lot because you know, like I said yesterday when we asked these tribes to step in and help us and they want to know what the three Cherokee tribes where they’re at with it and get this resolution passes unanimous and get it signed, its going to it’s going to be a lot of weight for us and helping us you know not only are they trying to steal our identity they are trying to steal OUR identity.

‍

1:32:30 Cherokee Nation

1:32:37 Joe Deere

1:22:58 Danny Callison

1:34:31 Johnny Kidwell

1:35:20 Julia Coates – 2/3 live outside the 14 counties

1:37:05 Male Vinyl Shop Pouch

1:38:09 Kandessa Tehe

1:39:54 Joshua Sam

1:40:50 Wes NoFire GGGGF 1817 rolls of the Keetoowah in Arkansas

1:41:54 Keith Austin

1:43:29 Mike Dobbins

1:43:59 Dora Petskowski

1:44:155:080 Victoria Vasquez

1:44:56 Mike Shambaugh

‍

1:47:00 UKB

1:47:22 Cliff Wofford

1:47:47 Sonia Gourde

1:48:13 Caleb Grimmon

1:49:19 Peg Guardian

1:50:30 Jim Okachi folks are out there trying to steal our identity

1:53:17 Charles Smoke

1:54:00 Willie Christie

1:54: 36 Alvin Higgs

1:55:08

1:56:13 Eddie Saches

‍

2:01:53 Introducing Chiefs

2:02:06 Eastern Band Chief Sneed – now more than ever there are groups across the country but more so in the southeast and east of the Mississippi who are claiming tribal identity.  This issue that we have delt with with the so-called Lumbee tribe of North Carolina is not new.  This is not a new fight.  This is a fight that Eastern Band has been fighting for almost a century now.  Un and so the idea that that anyone person or any one tribe or any one council is going to stop this.  This is reoccurring.  An I I testify before Congress on this right before the pandemic.  And got into a pretty heated debate with congressman G.K. Butterfield.  And at the end of that we left myself and several members of council who are very faithful to make the trip to DC to fight this year in and year out.  Uh after that, that particular congressional meeting, I said to my fellow elected officials and to our lobbyist Wilson Pipestem, it cannot be just us fighting this fight.  It’s too easy for the members of congress to to dismiss us as well, this is about money.  That was always the argument coming back from congress.  This is about money.  Money being about gaming and as I said to mister Butterfiled in my comments to him, I said it is about oney, but not about the money you are talking about.  I said, the Lumbees are so removed from the Eastern Band if they open the casino today, it would have zero impact on us.  However, there are 573 federally recognized tribes in this country.  Many are not as fortunate as the Eastern Band,  We’re a very tribe, we’re a gaming tribe.  

2:05:18 We’ve got to build a coalition and after that and I thank our tribal council members for getting on board with that and we begin to just that and I am grateful for this. . .  We have built a coalition of almost 60 tribes, but there was one piece missing, That one piece missing is resolution #3 that just passed today.  

2:06:36 The enemy is all around us now.

‍

2:07:10 Cherokee Nation Chief Hoskins –

2:08:34 – The final resolution is of course of great importance to all of us. The Specter, the issue of organizations posing as tribes, eroding Cherokee identity, and trying to step into roles as actual tribes is a great threat to every federally recognized tribe in this country.  And it is of I think the greatest threat to the Cherokee tribes, because I think has been mentioned before, a lot of these organizations want to be Cherokee.  They want to be Cherokee, and they spin a false narrative that fools a lot of people in this country.  And it is damaging enough when it fools localities, museums, and schools and things of that nature but when it starts to federal officials, when it starts to fool members of Congress then the threat becomes even more serious.  So, speaking out on that issue is of great importance, I know to the council of the Cherokee Nation and it’s important to my administration.  The Lumbee issue in particular has been something we have been engaged on.  That is the reason that in 2019 we wrote the congress and said that congressional recognition of the Lumbee tribe should be a non-starter and that’s the reason that late last ear in November we also spoke out to congress.  We will continue to advocate against congressional recognition of tribes, not just Lumbee, but we think and I think collectively we have spoken today that that is not an appropriate process for recognition, state recognition is also inappropriate and not in line with the government-to-government relationship between the tribes of this country and the government of the United States.  I think all of that demonstrates that our three tribes can identify those issues which are of great importance and focus on those issues at this gathering.  Those resolutions are more than just something written on a piece of paper.  I can tell you and I know everyone here has the experience.  When you take those to federal officials, when you take those to members of Congress it means something when those three seals are at the top of a resolution.  It means something.  When this body has spoken out, then it ought to mean something.  It ought to command the respect of federal leaders and I believe that it will.  SO I think that we should continue in that spirit, in this gathering.

2:12:00 But as Chief Sneed said the real enemy is the external enemy.  Sometimes the external enemy sometimes the enemies of sovereignty will use our own people against us.  Sometimes even our own leaders against us.  It is breathtaking the time we are living in the time we’re living in in which our respective nations are gaining strength and yet the threats against us are as strong now as they have ever been.

‍

2:15:10 UKB Chief Bunch

‍