Cherokee Nation chief encourages Americans to learn about ‘great atrocities’ on Native Americans

It is Native American month , and not surprisingly, I havent seen it getting a lot of attention on the tv shows, not when compared to some of the other ethnic "months" that we see every year. That is not right. 

The "recognition", I surmise, will never come forward from the U. S. government.

Treaty, as defined by the U. S. Constitution, can be found in Article VI and it states that treaties “are the supreme law of the land.” Treaties between Indian tribes and the United States confirm each nation's rights and privileges.

The U. S. goernment wrote and ratified 368 treaties between the Native American Nations/Tribes and BROKE EVERY ONE OF THEM. 

Chief Hoskins is quite correct. The right to a non-voting delegate to Congress was promised to the Cherokee by the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785 (affirmed in 1835's Treaty of New Echota) and to the Choctaw under the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, "whenever Congress shall make provision for a delegate".  'Course, those three treaties have been busted, so why should the U. S. government go against its established practice of screwing over the Native Americans and even "attempt" to follow what has been established as "the supreme law of the land">

The U.S. government is embarrassed and has been caught with gun-in-hand over their inability to follow their written words, regardless of the intent of the words and actions necessary to honor such steps.

The Cherokee, Choctaw, Delaware, Chickasaw and other tribes have realized the two-tongued governance in Washington will never come forth - but, we can still hope.

Sadly John, during yours and my lifetimes, it ain't gonna happen.  The U.S. doesn't have the cajones to live up to its words.

Thanks for the thread - and please pardon the negative.  I have worked for the government and the nations/tribes and what is said is based on personal experience.

Have a Super Holiday up in Ol' Chi-town.

Who usually does the most work to educate people on these topics? I think it's usually members of that group who are interested in getting their stories out there. Maybe it's not actually a priority for enough native people.

Wrote you a beautiful response and the damn thing disappeared.

The Nations/Tribes are doing the best they can with education, but are being fought down by state governments from getting the messages out.  Unfortunately, as you know, the media will follow the bucks and, even though the Nations/Tribes have plenty of "bucks" ( ), it's the green stuff that gets their attention.

If you get the opportunity, check out 25CFR - Indians - it contains all the current regulations that the Nations/Tribes have to concur with.  Notice, I said "the Nations/Tribes" have to - not the U.S. government.  As such, the vast majority of Nations/Tribes are fighting strongly to ensure those regulations are followed or modified to assist the Nations/Tribes, so, no, education of the public falls behind attempting to educate the government.

Excellent questions though.

Personally I think dedicating months to any group of people is retarded.

Thrawn, the thinking behind a month for certain identity groups and 'problem' conditions is to provide space for the FOCUS  of the minds of the entire citizenry on those people—repeatedly. Because they otherwise go unnoticed, unplanned for (assistance/aid/betterment/increase), and never get farther along in society. Just my thoughts.

Honestly, I have come to realize that I may be beyond race as an aspect of humanity. 

I am beyond race too. That is, as much as society will let me be so. I am not allowed to ignore that some conservatives keep race separation alive as an issue. And use "ingenuous" ways to do so. 

Some conservatives use varying forms of 'masking' which does not mention race but their 'solutions' to local and state problems-effectively impacts minorities more so that White conservatives and that by design.

Lee Atwater:  You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff.  You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] Blacks get hurt worse than Whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger."

Lee Atwater, 1981 interview with Lee Atwater, Republican strategist and senior aide to Reagan and George H. W. Bush, which includes racist language.

And so references by some conservatives to stand for economic issues (for instance, asking congress to give more to our defense department by removing money from social programs which help minorities), states rights, and "law and order" plus are racially-coded words and encompass stealthy and diabolical practices in use today!

So there is a lot of "abstract" verbiage being used to accomplish the same racially dismissive treatment of what some perceive as a bygone era. 

Should help all. . . but never do. . . because some conservatives want to make government small enough to drown it in a bath tub. Some conservatives want to do this by overhyping support for constitution-driven values - while ignoring and dismissing the values of real (existing) citizens and their poor financial and health circumstances. Does that sound familiar at all to you?

Law and Order should be universally popular and make everyone feel safe and secure. . . but minorities (particularly Black males) for unspecified reasons end up getting shot multiple times and even in the back! Oh, and LEOs have been caught giving "rough rides" to arrestees not seat-belted in the back of a 'paddy wagon,' and well, we all know what happened to George Floyd by now.

You have no idea 'bout code words- . . . If your Google is not broken -you should use it. 

Here is a freebie code word/expression: Welfare Queen. (To get you started.)

Yeah, all you have is pretty much snark. Contact me when you have something less snarky to add to the discussion. Bye. 

Oh, "welfare queen" was a starter but again you've got snark for company. 

Blah. It's all the same because this is not the topic, anyway.

Ignoring the combative nature of all your comments. I move to end this thread, for me anyway,  with this revelation:

In his new book "The Queen," author Josh Levin tells the story of Linda Taylor , a woman who became infamous as a welfare cheat. She was a woman who went by many names, was accused of many crimes, and whose image as a Cadillac-driving welfare recipient has lived on. 

The stereotype of the so-called 'welfare queen' has been used to demonize those on public assistance for decades. It's a politically potent image, depicting an undeserving aid recipient getting rich on the backs of taxpayers.

Politicians, including former President Ronald Reagan, have been accused of exploiting this image as a kind of racist dog whistle.

Meanwhile, the original "welfare queen" that Reagan used as the basis for his caricature was based on a real person.

Ronald Reagan Campaign Speech, 1976: In Chicago, they found a woman who holds the record. She used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans' benefits for four nonexistent deceased veterans husbands. Her tax-free cash income, alone, has been running $150,000 a year

. . . .

In the 70s, she was kind of coded as being black, people perceived welfare recipients at that point as being black but some of the first stories about her noted that she could change her identity by changing a wig that she could be black or white or Latina or Filipina and this was seen as just another example of her deviousness.

But as I found in my research her history with race is far more complicated and in many ways sad. She was born in the Deep South and was rejected by her white relatives due to, you know, her mixed-race identity. She was somebody who was forced to pass because of the way growing up as a black person in a white family in the south it was illegal for her to be black in certain circumstances. It's just a very complicated and fraught history for her.

pbs

So the term "welfare queen" applied to a woman. A single woman. Not women. But some conservatives were not happy with a mixed race woman being a villain. They wanted to make her a by-word and pretend that 'everybody' on welfare were corrupt, seeking to get over on the system, and Black.

 It is what it is.

Whose "responsibility" is it to bring this "month" to the attention of the public?  Let's get on "them" to get on the job: Next year! 

The government established their "responsibility" with their designation - and, no, they won't do their job - next year or any year after that.

Why don't Native Americans 'appear' (better) at advocating for themselves? It's a serious question and I really don't understand why N/As don't engage the public more. I know to do so will open up all sorts of passive and active aggressions from supporters and critics alike. But, the benefits of having a month loses its value and is ineffective if the proponents don't appear to agree/service it. 

Make the government observant of our native peoples. Native American identity does matter. Ask the media to be observant of the month.  Because it could 'fade out' gracelessly and . . . be replaced by another national identity group.

The media needs to promote it more. The media and social media control what Americans are interested in. 

Having a rep in Congress is part of a treaty that is considered the highest law in the land. But the avoidance of the US in living up to promises seems to be something that they have a difficult time understanding. 

As far as Native American Heritage Month, most Indians celebrate with various Pow Wows and gatherings to which everyone, Indian and Non Indian is invited. Being a minority within a minority limits the media attention no matter how much we promote it. If you want to understand this see when they have demographics by race, in the majority even though NA are a separate race, not like Hispanics who are white nonwhite, etc we are a race but are left out of studies done. 

Much of our time and money are used fighting to keep our rights especially in voting issues and in land control. 

I have no choice but to accept what you say on this matter, because you have shown yourself to be knowledgeable about these matters of your people-Native Americans. However, the occasion of a Native American month celebrated largely 'in-house' is insular, yes? And it leaves out the rest of the world who may not even know a celebration is being 'had'—outside looking in (as best we can). The focus of the month is draw attention to people who are 'insulated' with the monotony of my other dynamics competing for their time, interest, and yes government policy prescriptions. That is, being 'vocal' during Native American Month has an effect of causing the INFORMED OBSERVER to think what s/he can do to help make life better for an otherwise 'absent' people in the larger scheme of our/national "performance."

The operative word in the paragraph above is: FOCUS.

Just my thoughts. 

CB, a hundred years ago there were only 250,000 NAs left alive in America. Since then we have slowly increased in population. In 1920 there were 10.5 million blacks, we are a very small population so getting attention is limited. That simply is a fact we have a lot of out reach and in CA there are plenty of choices for you to look up when you can learn and interact with NAs.

Just to continue this a little farther, I must say that I do not encounter Native Americans in my everyday experience and I find that extraordinary. You are a big influence on me in the Native American "experience." I don't SEE many NAs 'walking' around. And I don't understand why. I really don't—especially because this is California!

I can count the NA's I have met in the real world on my ten fingers for the entirety of my life. Sadly, the most I know of NAs comes from the defunct and 'old' Cowboy and Indians movies of the 60's-70's before being casted off as racist propaganda shows. (No matter how we, the public, did not process them as such.)

As always much respect to NAs. A lovely and from what I have encountered here and in a few other cases - a PLAIN-SPOKEN people.

BTW, I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to you and other NAs, but am not sure how it would be received!

CB, I'm not surprised that you don't encounter NAs in your everyday life, the other thing is if you did see one would know he/she is NA? We no longer wear feathers and buckskin in public.

The population of CA is a little over 39 million and the NA population of CA is 750,000. See why you don't see many NAs?

There a plenty of Pow Wows and other types of gatherings in CA for NA and everyone is invited. Pow Wows in CA for 2024 or Pow Wows.com they will give time place type and what to expect and what is expected of vistors.

Most Indians don't celebrate Thanksgiving for obvious reason but we are thankfull for other things. Thank you for the thought, CB and a very happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

I'm not surprised that you don't encounter NAs in your everyday life, the other thing is if you did see one would know he/she is NA?

Kavika! That is a great question. You know. . . how I guess/tell a Native American person (and I know it is not precise) - it's the hair. Native Americans have outstandingly long 'manes.' I appreciate looking at it. Though, I never ask about their hair or their heritage. I feel that would be insensitive for some reason: to ask. Would it?  I really don't know.

Incidentally, if you ever read me mentioning "Indians" that I know in my diverse neighborhood, it is Asian Pacific people from India and Pakistan. Not our wonderful Native American 'variety.' 

Thank you for the mention of Pow Wows. I have never heard they were open to the public. That's nice. I don't know if I dare, but that's really nice and interesting!

That is one way but not all Indians wear their hair long, CB. The one thing is you never touch our hair, and to ask questions is fine some Indians will enjoy the telling of the history and reasoning for long hair some won't. 

Click on the two links I gave you for more information on the Pow Wows. 

Thank you, Kavika. You're always so patient with my lack of Native American culture. It is so helpful to have a virtual friend to bounce some of my N/A questions, thoughts, and topic related ideas. You are helping to make it happen!     And I don't ever want to abuse that!

You are so right about not all N/As wearing their hair long. . . and yes, I do want to touch it. Thankfully, I understand how important it is to keep my hands to myself and not on another person's head!

You wrote about history. . . there is history to why NA wear their hair long?

Here is an excellent article on long hair, CB.

whitewolfpack

I wear my hair long just past my shoulder blades, sometimes loose and at times I will braid it in a single braid.

Over the years I can remember seeing your hair once in a pic you shared. It was a very nice picture too! Thank you for the article on hair it is long but I am reading and watching the vids on it too!