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Rep. Cole touts Native American 'renaissance' |
IndianZ.com
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
As the only Native American in Congress, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) is constantly educating his colleagues about tribes and Indian policy.
Cole, a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, likes to tell fellow members that they swore to uphold tribal sovereignty when they took their oath of office. The U.S. Constitution recognizes tribes in the same clause as states and foreign nations.
"A tribe is not a genealogical association and it's not a fraternal society," Cole said yesterday in a speech at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. "It's a living, breathing entity that exists organically and its purpose is to improve the lives and protect the identity of its members."
But Cole, whose family has been active in politics for generations, said lawmakers of both parties don't always respect tribal sovereignty. Republicans are almost always concerned about gaming while Democrats try to extend federal oversight of tribes, mainly through labor unions, he said.
Both issues have been heavily debated during Cole's time in Congress. Just this year, he broke with his party to support to federal recognition bills -- one for Native Hawaiians and another for six Virginia tribes. In the past, he has co-sponsored bills to shield tribes from federal labor laws.
Despite the challenges, Cole said American Indians and Alaska Natives today are undergoing a cultural and political "renaissance." "It's an extraordinary time that we're living through right now," he told the well-attended forum.
Even that can pose problems for Indian Country. When tribes are at their strongest, the federal government often steps in to do damage, he said.
"My own tribe teaches me that times of great opportunity are times of great danger," he said, recalling the forced removal of tribes during the 1830s.
"They didn't send us from Mississippi to Oklahoma because we were doing badly," Cole continued. "They sent us to Oklahoma because we were doing well. There was a lot of jealousy surrounding us."
With Indian gaming a $25 billion industry and tribes expanding their economic horizons, these are "prosperous times," Cole said. Yet that doesn't always generate support from the American public, Cole warned.
"A lot of people like poor Indians," he said.
Besides having the distinction of being the only Native American in Congress, Cole chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, whose goal is to increase the number of Republicans in Congress. His efforts didn't go so well last year, as Democrats took over the House in addition to the Senate.
Cole also serves as one of five Republican vice chairs of the Congressional Native American Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers that advocates for Indian legislation. The caucus has more than 100 members.
Cole represents Oklahoma's 4th Congressional district. His constituents include a number of tribes in the southwest region of Oklahoma.
Yesterday's speech was the keynote for Native American Heritage Month at the Library of Congress. A number of other events are being held throughout the month.
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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.]
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McElhenie: Andrew and the Indians |
Posted: November 01, 2007
by: Teresa McElhenie
I have a friend who tells me to write of my pain. My friend is a storyteller, an Indian. To people of the white race, a storyteller is just a person who tells stories. To an Indian, a storyteller is a special person, revered by the clan. They hold the past in their heads, and the gift of seeing unseen things.
My mother was born on what is today known as the Poarch Creek Indian Reservation outside of Atmore, Ala. My mother never talked about being an Indian. It was ingrained into her as a child not to let that be known. ''Hide your heritage.'' Her home was not a reservation when she was born there.
The U.S. government said she didn't exist as an Indian.
Why did she not exist as an Indian? Because Andrew Jackson, one of the heroes in every child's history book, said she did not exist as an Indian. That hero, who killed a thousand of my people in only one day at Horseshoe Bend, made this decision. This man, this president, said the American Indian did not deserve to be treated as a human. He stated that they should be herded like sheep or cows and put into pens. My mother's ancestors did not understand his reasoning, and hid out in the dense forest of southern Alabama to escape this indignity. As a consequence, they later suffered the indignity of being denied their heritage, their birthright, and their right to exist as an Indian because they were not listed on the ''proper'' roles.
My mother was made to feel small in school because she knew that she was a ''dirty'' Indian. She learned to deny being what she was. She learned to ''pass.'' When I was a child, she whispered to me that she was an Indian. ''Shh,'' she hummed in my ear, ''don't tell anyone. It's our secret.'' Suddenly, I realized why, during games of Cowboys and Indians, I always wanted to be the Indian, even though it meant I had to be the one who died. We all watched Tom Mix, Roy Rogers, the Lone Ranger and other cowboy heroes. The cowboy was always the good guy wearing the white hat. The Indians were always the stinking coyotes, sneaking up on people and doing dirty deeds to poor, unsuspecting white settlers who were just minding their own business. Here comes Hopalong Cassidy, and he saves the day. Bang, bang! ''You're dead, you dirty Injun.'' Still, it didn't feel right to me to play the cowboy, or even Annie Oakley.
My mother was never allowed to be proud of her heritage, not only as a child, but for most of her adult life. I have an older brother who was born in Alabama. His birth certificate states his race is Indian. I was born later, after my mother moved to Louisiana. No one knew she was Indian. It was easy enough to ''pass'' in Louisiana with so many dark-skinned people there. My birth certificate even denies me my heritage. I am white. My birth certificate says so.
Time moves forward. Views change. Things once hidden are released to the liberal sunlight of acceptance. Your sins will find you out. Genocide, that horrible word associated with Hitler, never happened here in our wonderful land of the free. But it did. Ask the Creek, the Choctaw, the Cherokee and the other two ''civilized'' tribes who adopted the ways of the white man only to be betrayed and murdered by their mentors. Long before the ''death march'' of Bataan, there was the ''Trail of Tears.''
The white man does not understand how I feel about the attempted genocide of my peoples. When I say my peoples, I am not just speaking of my mother's Creeks; I am speaking of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Comanche, Apache, Ute - every tribe that suffered the same indignities. Here in the home of the brave and the land of the free, we were not allowed to be brave or free. This country, founded on religious freedom, took away our most sacred ceremonies and declared them illegal. Yet, they say it happened a long time ago; and ''get over it. You can't expect us to keep making it up to you.'' I feel unsettled when I hear these things. Why is that? They didn't do those things to me personally, and they cannot understand why it affects me. Why do I feel this pain? I have no real answers, but the pain is there. It is real. It hurts.
I recently stood on the steps of the Riverwalk in New Orleans - a beautiful place with lots of ambience. Across the distance there was a bronze statue of a man riding a horse. This man must be a wonderful person for them to raise a statue in his honor, to name a section of the city after him. This man was Andrew Jackson.
I stood in Jackson Square. By my side was my friend, the storyteller. When I looked at him, I saw the same pain written on his face that was on mine. We did not need to speak. Each knew what the other felt.
Teresa McElhenie, Muscogee Nation of Florida, resides in Spring, Texas. Her mother is Muscogee Creek from Atmore, Ala.
© 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.]
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Despite it all, 'we know we exist' |
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The region's tribes still preserve their culture, memories and hopes
By ALAN J. McCOMBS,
The News Journal
Nov. 2, 2007
John Norwood remembers being told in elementary school that he did not exist.
"When I was young and in school, the standard thought [was] Indians were gone and not here," said Norwood, 43, a member of the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape tribe in southern New Jersey, which traces its ancestry to Delaware's Nanticoke and Lenape tribes. "It left me feeling quite delegitimized and wondering if it were something that I could actually claim."
Today, schools might be better informed, but ignorance still is prevalent about the thousands of people of Nanticoke and Lenape descent now living in the region, Norwood said. He and others are working to write the history of the region's indigenous people.
In October, Norwood, of Moorestown, N.J., released a 51-page document about the related indigenous tribes known as the Nanticoke and Lenape people in Delaware, and the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape in southern New Jersey. Norwood said the online report, "We Are Still Here," will form the basis for a book he intends to publish by early next year, alongside a new biography of Chief Marion "Strong Medicine" Gould of the Lenape people of Delaware.
For American Indians, that history has never been dead or lost, Norwood said.
"It was something you talked about quietly with members of the family," he said. "You didn't spend much time proclaiming [it] because of fear of persecution."
At powwows and other community events, that history was discussed more freely. At the Nanticoke Indian Museum in Millsboro, housed in what was formerly a segregated schoolhouse for American Indian children, that history stands on display for visitors.
Certainly, there is a deep and twisting history of American Indians in the region. When European explorers came to Delaware and New Jersey in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, they remarked that the region was heavily populated.
When the Swedes and the Dutch built permanent outposts in the region in the 1600s, relations between the Europeans and the natives ranged from cordial to outright hostile. By the 1700s, disease, discrimination and conflict with the European settlers forced many Nanticoke and Lenape people to leave.
"A lot of our people are not in Delaware," said Assistant Chief of the Nanticoke Larry Jackson, 49, of Milton.." Many moved up into Canada [and] the Ohio area."
Today, the Nanticoke population in Delaware numbers about 1,000, while Chief Dennis Coker of the Lenape people counts about 700 to 800 members.
Some of those who remained in Delaware and southern New Jersey, Norwood said, found themselves in a society in which prejudice refused to acknowledge their presence in the region's history. "I remember my aunts when I was young saying don't ever forget who you are," Norwood said, "but they would say it in hushed tones."
Both the Delaware and New Jersey state governments have acknowledged the region's enduring American Indian population. Since the 1980s, New Jersey has officially recognized the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape people and, in 1903, the Delaware Legislature recognized the Nanticoke people.
However, Delaware does not officially recognize the Lenape people as an American Indian tribe. The Lenapes' last effort to gain official status fell apart in 1993, in part out of concern that the group would build casinos, Coker said.
"It was really an emotional blow to our community to have, in essence, our state not recognize us," Coker said.
None of the American Indians in Delaware and in southern New Jersey are recognized by the federal government, a fact that all three groups say they want to change. Receiving federal recognition is a more tedious and lengthy process than being recognized by state governments, they say.
"The federal government is making it more and more difficult to becoming federally recognized," Coker said.
On paper, receiving federal recognition looks like a two-year process, said Federal Office of Indian Affairs spokesperson Gary Garrison. The government requires groups petitioning for federal recognition to fill out multiple forms proving the continuous existence of the community dating back to at least 1900, as well as other forms detailing the governance of the group, he said. Gathering proof of a group's existence can often extend the process for decades, Garrison said.
"They're just getting around to making decisions on ones that were submitted in 1980," Garrison said.
With a process that lengthy, area tribes say they can wait on getting federal recognition.
"It's something that would be nice to have, but we definitely don't have to have it," Coker said. "We know we exist."
"We have always been here and we will always be here."
Copyright © 2007, The News Journal. http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071102/LIFE/711020308/1005/LIFE
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.]
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Newcomb: California, Florida linked by organic laws |
Posted: October 25, 2007
by: Steven Newcomb / Indigenous Law Institute
In 1877, the U.S. government printing office published the book ''The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the United States.'' Ben Poole, who was then clerk of printing records, compiled the documentation under an order of the U.S. Senate.
Organic laws or fundamental laws form the foundation of a government. Thus, documents such as early colonial charters, the state constitutions and the U.S. Constitution are considered the organic law for the respective states and the United States. The 1787 Northwest Ordinance, for example, is the fundamental organic law for the territories of the United States and lays down the procedures for making the transition from a territory to statehood, details not provided by the federal Constitution. Each territorial act and organic act passed by Congress constitutes part of the fundamental organic laws of the United States.
Organic laws provide the framework, patterns of ideas and guidelines necessary for the regularized functioning of a particular governmental system. Fundamental organic laws also rest upon and embody the values of a system of government, such as the United States and the individual states.
The 1877 book is highly illuminating. It provides an unusual look at the basis for the territories and states of the United States, as well as a significant part of the basis for the relationship between the United States and Indian nations and peoples.
Oddly enough, the organic law of the state of Florida begins with the Royal Prerogatives given to Columbus by the king and queen of Spain. The prerogatives read in part: ''For as much as you Christopher Columbus, are going by our command, with some of our vessels and men, to discover and subdue some Islands and Continent in the ocean, and it is hoped that by God's assistance, some of the said Islands and Continent in the ocean will be discovered and conquered by your means and conduct, therefore it is but just and reasonable, that since you expose yourself to such danger to serves us, you should be rewarded for it'' (emphasis added).
Such language tells us that the fundamental law of Florida is grounded in the European desire to invade, conquer and subdue indigenous peoples and to take their lands. A deeper look reveals that this desire was also cloaked in religious terms. Thus, an editor's note linked to the heading ''Florida'' reads: ''Spain claimed and exercised the right of ultimate dominion over her possessions in America on the rights given by the discovery under this commission, and the grant of Pope Alexander [VI].'' The concept of ''dominion'' is rooted in conceptions and behaviors of domination.
In keeping with the editor's note, the next document listed as part of the organic law of Florida is the ''Bull of Pope Alexander [VI] Conceding America to Spain.'' The Vatican document of May 4, 1493, the bull Inter Caetera, is reprinted in its original Latin text, including that part of the document by which the pope called for ''barbarous nations'' to be ''subjugated,'' and ''reduced'' to the ''Catholic faith and Christian religion.'' Listed next are two other documents, a 1795 treaty between Spain and the United States, and an 1819 U.S. treaty with Spain ceding Florida to the United States.
The organic law of California is also quite fascinating. It is partly explained by a note accompanying the heading ''California.'' The note reads: ''California was first discovered by the Spaniards in 1542, and they began to establish missions there in 1769. After the Mexican revolution, in 1924, it [California] formed a province of that republic until 1846, when the inhabitants and emigrants from the United States established an independent government. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brought it [California] within the limits of the United States ...''
Thus, in the 1877 book published under order of the U.S. Senate, the states of Florida and California are linked by the fact that both states are historically traced to the Royal Prerogatives issued to Columbus (Cristobal Colon) and to the Inter Caetera papal bull of 1493. This connection between the state of California, the Royal Prerogatives of Columbus and the Vatican papal bull is found in the editor's comment that ''California was first discovered by Spaniards in 1542.'' However, the connection seems slightly less obvious in the case of California only because of Mexico's successful revolution against Spain. As a result of Mexico's victory, the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was made between the United States and Mexico rather than between the United States and Spain.
Based on the information found in the 1877 book, other states that are also historically linked to the Royal Prerogatives of Columbus and the papal bull of 1493 include Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and a significant portion of Colorado.
The abovementioned organic law documents are made sense of in the context of the Europeans' desire to subjugate, subdue and conquer the original indigenous peoples of the hemisphere, and the desire to monetarily benefit from their lands and resources. The Spanish Catholic missions established in Baja and Alta California were also designed to carry out this intention to conquer and subdue indigenous peoples and their lands.
To acknowledge that certain fundamental laws form the foundation of a given society is to acknowledge the kinds of ideas, cultural values, knowledge and social practices that form the permanent basis upon which a social order has been built. The concepts of empire, domination, subjugation and conquest found in the Royal Prerogatives issued to Columbus and in the Inter Caetera papal bull of 1493 tell us something about the kinds of ideas that have become a hidden part of the fabric of the United States, and why our respective Indian nations and peoples have suffered the trauma of genocide and severe losses at the hands of the society of the United States. This legacy also constitutes an integral part of the fundamental and organic laws of the United States.
Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape, is the indigenous law research coordinator at Kumeyaay Community College and the Sycuan Education Department of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and a columnist for Indian Country Today.
© 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.]
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