AN IMPORTANT NEW MESSAGE FROM THE OUKAH
February 25, 1999
We had a little meeting last weekend. We discussed several people we had heard about who had "served the Cherokee people" for many years. We wondered if that didn't mean that they had played footsie with the baddies like Keeler, Swimmer and Mankiller? Several of them were lawyers, and the questions arose:
As a Cherokee, and a lawyer, did they file suit again the Federal Government to obtain legal elections, sovereign status? (They didn't -- I got it filed). Didn't they realize that for the President to "appoint" these officials was illegal under the USofA constitution? I guess not, for they did nothing about it.
As a Cherokee, and a lawyer, didn't they realize that almost every treaty signed by the Cherokee government stipulated that we would never be under the jurisdiction of a State or Territory? If so, then why did they accept the name "Cherokee Nation OF OKLAHOMA"?
As a Cherokee, and a lawyer, don't they today realize that to have a law passed by the Cherokee government approved by the President before it can BECOME LAW is unconstitutional? There is no provision in the USofA constitution for "wards of the government", third class citizens, or approval of insulting practices indicating that we are too stupid to take care of our own business.
Are they also aware that the President doesn't have to approve the new leaders of the Masonic Lodge, the Elks club, the Baptist church, or any other group of people? Or their laws or bylaws? What gives the President, or the Federal Government, the right to interfere in our business?
Are they aware that the BIA was started by the War Department, without the approval of Congress, and may not even be a legal entity? Have our smart lawyers challenged this?
Are they aware that the USofA constitution states emphatically that the Federal Government shall deal exclusively with Native internal nations? So, why do we have 50 different sets of laws governing these matters? Have any of our smart Cherokee lawyers, or other native lawyers, challenged this?
No, there are too many issues not challenged by our brave, courageious lawyers! Going along with the flow won't work, as the "flow" flowed out for Cherokees a century ago.
I am making these points in the hope that they might, just might, cause some of our blessed lawyers to think, then maybe to act on the big picture.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the full-bloods and others would become Cherokees again instead of "Cherokeets" (descendants of real Cherokees). Instead of "withdrawing", which is a cowardly way of acquiescing, they might get off their dead red asses and help themselves and others. Haven't their Baptist preachers told them about Jesus getting enough of it, and picking up a scourge and driving the money-changers from the temple? Sounds pretty violent to me! And approved of God!
Maybe Polecat Pete is right. Maybe Cherokees have become "chicken". We need some warriors again.
I hope there are some young people with Cherokee blood reading this. They need to know that their "elders" didn't care enough to leave them with something worth having. I urge them to read, to study, and to challenge everything they have ever been told, because most of it is wrong, distorted, warped, and sometimes sick. And that is just the way the BIA and the Federal Government wants it!
OUKAH