Fund threat: Civil rights or ‘scorched earth' plan?
Fund threat: Civil rights or ‘scorched earth' plan?
By John Greiner
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Published: August 22, 2007
A congresswoman and the Cherokee Nation's principal chief waged a news conference war Tuesday at the state Capitol over a March 3 tribal vote that stripped some freedmen of tribal citizenship.
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
New management
The Lucky Star Casino at Concho will be run by a new company, federal regulators decided.
The casino, owned by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, has been managed by Minnesota-based Southwest Casino Corp. for more than a decade.
Late Friday, the National Indian Gaming Commission voided a two-year contract extension approved in April by the two tribes' legislature. The contract was to pay Southwest 10 percent of the casino's first $28 million in annual revenue and 15 percent of anything over that threshold.
Lifetime ban
The former manager of the Quapaw Tribe's casino at Miami, OK, has been hit with a $10 million fine and a lifetime ban from the tribal gaming industry.
The fine was among the largest imposed by the National Indian Gaming Commission, agency spokesman Shawn Pensoneau said.
Marc Dunn was punished for managing the casino from January 2001 through April 2005 without a federally approved contract.
The Quapaw Tribe cut ties with Dunn in 2005 and later paid a $50,000 fine for its association with him.
From Staff and Wire Reports
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The congresswoman
Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., who has a bill to cut $300 million a year in federal funding for the tribe, said the tribal vote disenfranchised 2,800 freedmen.
She said people cannot "use public dollars to discriminate.”
Freedmen are descendants of freed black slaves once owned by Cherokees.
Watson said the vote was a violation of the Cherokee Nation treaty with the United States in 1866 and the Cherokee Constitution.
Watson said Congress is involved in policy, and this is a policy issue. She said her bill has support of 23 members of the U.S. House.
If the government gives the tribe $300 million, it cannot arbitrarily disenfranchise a protected class, she added.
Watson's bill would suspend any gaming funds until the tribe is in compliance with all treaty and other obligations with the United States.
The Cherokee chief
In an earlier news conference at the state Capitol, Chad Smith, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, urged Watson and Congress to withhold action on the legislation until the issue involving freedmen is settled in court.
He said Watson's bill would hurt Cherokees, including the elderly who use nutritional centers and those who need cancer treatments.
"Why enforce and proceed with a scorched-earth policy?” Smith asked.
Smith said those freedmen who can prove they have a Cherokee ancestor can be a member of the tribe.
Right now, the freedmen in question retain their rights and benefits from the Cherokee Nation, he said. He said the tribe's attorney general is going to ask the federal court where one lawsuit is filed to delay any action on the 2,800 freedmen until a decision is made in court.
Related Topics:
U.S. State Government, U.S. Government, Political Policy, Special Interest Groups, Politics, Diplomacy, Native American Issues, International Relations, Treaties
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I wonder how he treats his other set of children you never see them?
He should be charged with Bigamy.
He like to spend Cherokee Cash like it was his he spen A Million to try to kick out the Black Cherokee so far.
Oklahoma state government would be hit with a social economic melt down with passage of Congresswoman Watson's bill H.R. 2824, to include Freedmen that are citizens of the Cherokee Nation. The Oklahoma state government would be over run with ten's of thousands of people that will lose jobs, business, health care, their homes plus closing of schools. Watson's bill would create a health care crisis that Oklahoma state agencies are in no way prepared to operate in any manner.
Cherokee Nation Fact Sheet:
http://www.cherokee.org/pressroom/story.aspx?ID=4D0DyhfT7Og=