They Have Never Been Re-Recognized by the Congress of the United States
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, we wish to thank you for all you have contributed to this wealth of knowledge and information as we searched for the incidents of genocide and ethnic cleansing of our people in the past and in the present.
This section is the most troubling for The Chickamauga Nation. Why have tribes which have been Congressionally Terminated and never Re-Reognized by Congress been allowed to be placed on the List of Indian tribes or groups which are federally recognized and eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) when The Chickamauga Nation, which has never been terminated is not on the List?
The cherokees make claims that they have been re-recognized by the United States government. There is NO legislation from the Congress of the United States to back up their claims. They falsely claim the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act as their re-recognition, or the 1936 Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, or the 1970 Chief Act. Why is this a false claim?
Indian Reorganization Act.
Section 13: The provisions of this Act shall not apply to any of the Territories, colonies, or insular possessions of the United States, except that sections 9, 10, 11, 12, and 16 shall apply to the Territory of Alaska: Provided That Sections 2, 4, 7, 16, 17, and 18 of this Act shall not apply to the following-names Indian Tribes, the number of such Indian tribes, together with members of other tribes affiliated with such named tribes located in the State of Oklahoma, as follows: Cheyenne, Arapaho, Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, Caddo, Delaware, Wichita, Osage, Kaw, Otoe, Tonkawa, Pawnee, Ponca, Shawnee, Ottawa, Quapaw, Seneca, Wyandotte, Iowa, Sac and Fox, Kickapoo, Pottawatomi, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. Section 4 of this Act shall not apply to the Indians of the Klamath Reservation in Oregon.
This Act strictly FORBIDS the cherokee from the benefits of this ACT. Under no reasonable construct of legal interpretation can this Act even remotely be considered as an ACT re-recognizing the cherokee nation as a distinct political entity. The legislative arguments for this particular act is that these tribes in Oklahoma had already assimilated and there was no reason for them to slide backward into reservation living.
Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936. 25 USC Ch. 45A
§5203. Organization of tribes or bands; constitution; charter; right to participate in revolving credit fund. Any recognized tribe or band of Indians residing in Oklahoma shall have the right to organize for its common welfare and to adopt a constitution and bylaws, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe. The Secretary of the Interior may issue to any such organized group a charter of incorporation, which shall become operative when ratified by a majority vote of the adult members of the organization voting: Provided, however, That such election shall be void unless the total vote cast be at least 30 per centum of those entitled to vote. Such charter may convey to the incorporated group, in addition to any powers which may properly be vested in a body corporate under the laws of the State of Oklahoma, the right to participate in the revolving credit fund and to enjoy any other rights or privileges secured to an organized Indian tribe under the Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984) [25 U.S.C. 5101 et seq.]: Provided, That the corporate funds of any such chartered group may be deposited in any national bank within the State of Oklahoma or otherwise invested, utilized, or disbursed in accordance with the terms of the corporate charter. (June 26, 1936, ch. 831, §3, 49 Stat. 1967.)
In Muscogee (creek) Nation, a Federally Recognized Indian Tribe, Appellant v. Donald Hodel, Secretary, U.S. Department of Interior, 851 F.2d 1439 (D.C. Cir. 1988) the court granted the Muscogee Nation Federal Recognition Status in Violation of the 1906 Curtis Act. The decision of the court is inviolate in that it misconstrued §5203.
It read into the law that which was clearly impossible to be read the way the court read the code. This code is explicit in that only any “recognized” tribe or band of Indian in Oklahoma shall have the right to organize. Maybe the court was awestruck in that the Muscogee Nation used the words “Federally Recognized” in its filings to describe itself. Again, the construct of this one subsection must be understood in its context of “recognized.” In 1902, the cherokee nation terminated itself. In 1906, the Curtis Act terminated all rights and privileges of the Five Civilized Tribes. The Indian Reorganization Act expressly forbid a list of tribes in Oklahoma from re-organization. In such, how can a District Court read into a statute that a terminated tribe with all of its rights and privileges of a nation to nations and government to government relationship with the Untied States have a “recognized” relationship with the United States? It is wildly inviolate of the context of Congressional Intent of the 1906 and 1934 Acts. It is this fallacy that Justice Gorsuch depended upon to write his McGirt decision. It is evident in the US Statutes and Codes that the Five Civilized Tribes are extinct and do not exist.
Even if the Oklahoma Indian welfare Act applied as the court interpreted §5203 and it applied, then the construction itself expressly forbids the cherokee nation from being included in that as a FOIA request from the BIA expressly states that the cherokee nation does not hold a Federal Charter nor applied for Federal Recognition.
1968 Senate Hearings in Oklahoma
Senator Robert Kennedy commented on the Congressionally Recognized claims of the cherokee nation. On February 19, 1968, at Turn Oak, OK, the Senate Special Subcommittee on Indian Education met to discuss Indian Education. During the meeting, Senator, Robert Kennedy, on page 6, acknowledges Cherokee government was abolished by US Government.
Further testimony on page 21 by Mrs. Ballenger, states, “We have never had an elected chief. That was what came in with statehood.”
On page 23, Mrs. Ballenger of the Cherokee Executive Committee refers to old Cherokee Nation.
Then on pages 26 and 27 she proclaims, the recent government of the Cherokee Nation - The Cherokee had no form of tribal government from 1914 until 1941 when Jessie Milan was appointed Chief.
The appointment of Jessie B. Milan in 1941 was done without Congressional approval and thus illegally began a clandestine government in violation of the laws of the United States of America.
1970 Chief’s Act
Some have even had the audacity to claim the 1970 Chief’s Act was a re-recognition by Congress to provide a distinct political identity to the cherokee nation.
Let’s Examine the text of the 1970 Principal Chiefs Act – Public Law 91-495 October 22, 1970
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled That, notwithstanding any other provisions of law, the principal chiefs of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole Tribes of Oklahoma and the governor Principal chiefs, of the Chickasaw Tribe of Oklahoma shall be popularly selected by the respective tribes in accordance with procedures established by the officially recognized tribal spokesman and or governing entity. Such established procedures shall be subject to approval by the Secretary of the Interior. (This does not say they are officially recognized tribe, it says, “officially recognized tribal spokesman. There is a legal difference)
SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Interior or his representative is hereby authorized to assist, upon request, any of such officially recognized tribal spokesman and/or governing entity in the development and implementation of such procedures.
SEC. 3. A principal officer selected pursuant to section 1 of this Act shall be duly recognized as the principal chief, or in the case of the Chickasaw Tribe, the governor, of that tribe.
SEC. 4. Any principal officer currently holding office at the date of enactment of this Act shall continue to serve for a period not to exceed twelve months or until expiration of his most recent appointment, whichever is shorter, unless an earlier vacancy arises from resignation, disability, or death of the incumbent, in which case the office of principal chief or governor may be filled at the earliest possible date in accordance with section 1 of this Act.
SEC. 5. Nothing in this Act shall prevent any such incumbent referred to in section 4 of this Act from being elected as a principal chief or governor.
Approved October 22, 1970.
Again, the claims of the Congressionally terminated tribes of Oklahoma do NOT have re-recognition since their official group termination in 1906.
June 24, 2009
June 24, 2009, Larry Echohawk of the BIA states ‘historical Cherokee Nation’ no longer exists.
EchoHawk says Cherokee Nation and UKB equal https://www.cherokeephoenix.org/Article/Index/3003
Bureau of Indian Affairs ruling equalizes tribes https://oklahoman.com/article/3380835/bureau-of-indian-affairs-ruling-equalizes-tribes
Why Have We Spent So Much Research On The cherokee nation
The answer is actually quite simple, because the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs demanded it. This question is answered after the discussion of Termination because of the consequences that Termination of the cherokee and Eastern Band of cherokee means for The Chickamauga Nation. One may ask, how does the termination of the cherokee nation of Oklahoma and the Eastern Band of cherokee have any bearing on The Chickamauga Nation? The answer is again found in the requirement of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to have our research academically verified. During the verification process one of the academic verifiers asked the question, “If the cherokee are terminated, who holds the rights in the treaties?” The legal answer is the co-signatories or other signatories on those treaties who are not cherokee. A treaty is nothing more than a contract of which all signatories are participants in the treaty. Since all of the names of the cherokee were removed because their treaty rights were terminated, then who are the remaining signatories of all of the treaties? The Chickamauga Nation remains the sole signatory on all of the treaties of which our ancestors signed. If so, is the current sitting cherokee delegate to Congress from the 1835 New Echota Treaty supposed to be a Citizen of The Chickamauga Nation since all rights of Citizens of the cherokee nation are removed? One always has to ask questions about treaty rights.