Indian Self-Determination Threatened

by: Ojibwa

Wed Nov 24, 2010 at 07:54:22 AM PST

photo credit: Aaron Huey

During the twentieth century, American Indian government policies with regard to American Indian nations changed radically several times. In the 1970s the government adopted a policy of self-determination which has proven to be the most successful approach for dealing with the wide variety of problems found on Indian reservations. Recently, however, Stephen Cornell and Joseph P. Kalt, in a recent working paper entitled "American Indian Self-Determination: The Political Economy of a Policy that Works," have concluded:

Analysis of thousands of sponsorships of federal legislation over 1970-present, however, finds the equilibrium under challenge. In particular, since the late 1990s, Republican congressional support for policies of self-determination has fallen off sharply and has not returned. The recent change in the party control of Congress calls into question the sustainability of self-determination through self-governance as a central principle of federal Indian policy.

Source: http://web.hks.harvard.edu/pub...

"Hope For American Indians Starts With Peltier's Freedom:" Tribal Sovereignty In The Energy Crisis

by: winter rabbit

Fri Jun 26, 2009 at 12:16:54 PM PDT

Why might "Change and Hope for American Indians start with Peltier's Freedom?"

Congressional Black Caucus (and Barney Frank) Continue Assault on Tribal Sovreignty (Cherokee)

by: angry liberaltarian

Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 11:57:41 AM PDT

I just received an email from a fellow tribal attorney in regards to the ongoing Congressional Black Caucus - Cherokee Nation dispute.  Apparently Barney Frank has appointed his conferees to the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act conference committee.

The Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act is being used as a vehicle to further the dispute between the Congressional Black Caucus and the Cherokee Nation.  The CBC has promised to hold up funds because the Cherokee Nation has voted, twice, to remove the Freedmen, who cannot prove they are descendents of tribal members.

While I am not a fan of the decision by the tribe, http://thehill.com/... control over membership is an aspect of the inherent sovereignty tribes enjoy because of their status as PRE-EXISTING SOVEREIGNS.  

The Supreme Court has affirmed this in the case of Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, where a Pueblo restricted tribal membership to essentially patrilineal descendents.

http://www.utulsa.edu/...

Senator Obama, our Presidential Candidate and a constitutional law scholar, has indicated he disagrees with Watson and supports the Cherokee Nation's sovereignty, while disagreeing with the decision.

http://thehill.com/...

Rep. Dianne Watson has been laboring under the misapprehension that the Cherokee's sovereignty stems from a post-Civil War Treaty.

http://thehill.com/...

Congresswoman Watson has united the CBC and caused unnecessary tension within the Obama coalition, by attacking not only the Cherokee Nation, but also holding up funding for all tribes and undermining tribal sovereignty across a broad front.  Now is a time for building coalitions, not fracturing them.

Congressman Frank is exacerbating the problem.

"Last week the Chairman of the Financial Services Committee (Barney Frank) appointed the House NAHASDA conferees. It appears as if only one conferee, Congressmen Pearce (R-NM), has a federally recognized Tribe in his district. The remaining Majority conferees are predominately Members from the Congressional Black Caucus. Chairman Frank announced on the House floor that he made his conference appointments in order to ensure the Cherokee issue would be addressed."

Once again, racial politics in America is pitting one minority group's interests against the interests of another.  This is not change we can believe in.  This is an unnecessary attack on tribal sovereignty and poor strategy by Democrats in the months before a critical and historic national election.  

Once again, Nancy Pelosi has failed to lead the House and keep Democrats united under one tent.  

Indian Country is not unanimous in supporting the effects of the ouster of the Freedmen.  But we are united in defending tribal sovereignty.  

Pelosi should know better.  Watson should know better.  Barney Frank should know better.