"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - NCAI opposes Cherokee Termination Bill

***"(NCIA) National Congress of American Indians"***

TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma – On Nov. 16 at its 64th annual convention in Denver, the National Congress of American Indians unanimously passed a resolution opposing a U.S. House bill that could terminate the Cherokee Nation’s federal funding and sovereignty.

The NCAI resolution states opposition to House Resolution 2824 because it would break the promise of tribal self-government and threaten the right of all Indian tribes to determine and preserve distinctive Indian identities. It also states that H.R. 2824 would create unnecessary mandated Department of Justice and Government Accountability Office studies for the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole nations, as well as call for the termination of the government-to-government relations between the CN and U.S. governments.

“This alarming, inappropriate and unacceptable overreach undermines sovereign tribal governments and sets a dangerous precedent to all Indian tribes and nations … it has been the historic policy of NCAI to object to any legislation or federal action which diminishes, limits or reduces sovereignty of federally recognized tribes or nations,” the NCAI resolution states. “The NCAI hereby opposes H.R. 2824 or any other termination provisions or amendments in legislation that severs the government-to-government relationship between sovereign tribes and the Unites States Federal Government.”

The NCAI resolution followed Principal Chief Chad Smith’s Nov. 13 press conference held at the NCAI convention to garner support opposing H.R. 2824.

“Indian Country sent a strong message today that H.R. 2824 is nothing less than a scorched-earth assault on tribal sovereignty that threatens all Indian nations,” Smith said. “I applaud NCAI President Joe Garcia and other leaders for taking this stand to stop a slippery slope of congressional interference with intra-tribal affairs and the work of the courts.”

Smith said H.R. 2824 retaliates against the Cherokee people for voting to limit CN citizenship to those with Indian ancestors on the 1906 Dawes Rolls, the federal census list of the Cherokee people.

Cherokee voters changed citizenship eligibility in a March 3 special election. About 77 percent of the voters decided one must have Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware blood and have an ancestor on the Dawes Rolls to be a CN citizen. The vote expelled about 2,800 descendants of Freedmen who had been citizens in the tribe for nearly a year following the tribe’s Supreme Court ruling that allowed them citizenship.

U.S. Congresswoman Diane Watson (D-Calif.), who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, introduced H.R. 2824 on June 21. The bill would sever the government-to-government relationship between the CN and the U.S. government, and would cut nearly $300 million in federal funding to Cherokee services such as health care, housing and education that help young, elderly and infirm Cherokees. It would also eliminate about 6,500 jobs in Northeastern Oklahoma.

Litigation concerning Freedmen citizenship issues continues in federal and tribal courts. Until all litigation is resolved, Freedmen descendants who had citizenship before the March 3 vote have been reinstated with full social services and voting rights.

Tribal officials said the CN has launched efforts to rally tribal leaders to tell Congress that the Freedmen’s citizenship status should be decided by the courts and not Congress.

According to its web site, the NCAI was established in 1944 and is the oldest and largest national organization of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments and works to inform the public and Congress on the governmental rights of American Indians and Alaska Natives.