Crossing the (Party) Line

Yesterday we talked about the quick response of Chief Baker to a disgusting stereotypical sports chant some Republican campaign staffers used to mock Democrat Elizabeth Warren.

What wasn’t clear is Baker’s involvement in the Democratic Party and what it means to the Cherokee Nation.  Thankfully, the Cherokee Phoenix, just 20 days after the closing of the Democratic National convention, has given us this update on what Baker was up to in North Carolina.  

Chief Baker at DNC

Baker was a delegate and got to speak on TV and to the entire convention.  Besides saying that Obama was the best president ever, Baker got to show off his awesome ribbon shirt and ability to read, in halting English, what was written on the card in front of him.  He said, “To stand on a national stage as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and cast my delegate vote for President Obama on behalf of the state of Oklahoma helped shine the national spotlight on the Cherokee Nation.”

Reading between the lines, what really happened here is that the national spotlight showed the Cherokee Nation endorsing Obama.  Who happens to be the least popular politician in Oklahoma right now.  In a state where our state house of representatives is overwhelmingly Republican, our state Senate is overwhelmingly Republican, our Governor is Republican, both our U.S. Senators are Republican and every Congressman is Republican except for the one who is retiring and who might be replaced by a Republican Cherokee Nation citizen who calls Obama a socialist. 

Baker tells the Cherokee Phoenix that Obama’s “collaboration with tribes is unprecedented and shows that he truly values the Indian perspective and respects our sovereignty.”

Well, Obama's BIA and Department of Interior leaders definitely respect the UKB’s sovereignty, letting them take land into trust inside Cherokee Nation's jurisdiction when every other president (Democrat & Republican) has preserved the Cherokee Nation’s territory.  And Obama definitely supports the Freedmen’s sovereignty, when every other president has agreed that the Cherokee Nation has the right to determine their own citizenship. 

So what is it that makes Mr. Baker say Obama is the best president ever?  Could it be that they gave Baker a microphone and a spotlight?  Because it doesn’t seem like the Cherokee Nation as a whole is getting much out of this deal.

So the Cherokee Nation is now officially taking sides in U.S. partisan politics, and Baker is actively and publicly choosing the side that has exactly zero power with our state or possibly ANY of our federal representatives.  But hey, it makes our Chief feel good. And it only cost us $10,000 worth of dentures and eyeglass money for him to go, so that’s a good thing. 

How the Freedmen Deal Went Down Part IV: Are You Okay With Being Lied To By Your Government?

Over the last week or so (in parts I-III), we’ve established that the Cherokee people are being lied to about how the Freedmen miraculously became citizens just days before last fall’s elections.  Joe Crittenden was asked to supply all the communications he had with the BIA and the Freedmen as he negotiated a deal to make them citizens, but all Crittenden turned over were a bunch of all-employee emails which appears someone else wrote and signed his name to, and receipts for this trip to DC so he could get paid some cash money for going to our Nation’s capital and selling HIS Nation’s constitution down the river.

So, what are you, the Cherokee citizens, going to do about it?  You’ve been lied to, and there is a cover-up going on!  Documents that exist have not been turned over as required by law, and no explanation has been given as to why.

On this blog, we only care about the TRUTH.  And nothing makes us madder than when people lie to the Cherokee people.  Crittenden will get away with the lie and his noncompliance with the law if the Cherokee people let them.

So here’s what you all need to do.  Get out a sharp pencil, a dull crayon, an old IBM Selectric or the writing utensil of your choice and send a Freedom of Information Act Request to Bill John Baker, Cherokee Nation, PO BOX 948, Tahlequah, OK 74464.

Write something like this:

Dear Chief Baker,

One of the pillars of your campaign and pledged hallmarks of your administration was transparency.  In the interest of the Cherokee people’s understanding of how people with no Cherokee blood became citizens of the Cherokee Nation just before September’s election, even though our Tribal Supreme Court had ruled they were not citizens.

Please provide ALL written emails, letters and phone call notes, travel, meeting dates and topics Acting Chief Joe Crittenden, and ANY of his staff, liaisons, contractors or other types of representatives have had with Larry Echo Hawk, Echo Hawk’s staff, BIA officials, DOI officials, Marilyn Vann, Jon Velie (attorney for Freedmen), any other Freedmen plaintiffs or representatives and DOJ concerning the Freedmen, citizenship for the Freedmen, pending Court cases, Judge Kennedy and anyone else associated with this important case for the past six months.  Please include the materials left out by Joe Crittenden in a previous FOIA request, including the letter(s) he sent to the BIA that the BIA acknowledges receiving but that Crittenden refused to disclose earlier.

Please respond to this request as required by LA 25-01, Cherokee Nation’s  Freedom of Information Act."

Or something like that.

Better yet, ask him to put the documents on the web.  Pester the folks at the Cherokee Phoenix about why they are ignoring the story and it’s coverup. 

Write your council members demanding to know what happened.

Write the Attorney General and point out Crittenden’s noncompliance.  It’s AG Todd Hembree's duty to make sure EVERYONE follows the law, including and ESPECIALLY elected leaders.  If our Constitution is ignored, supposedly for the greater good, we have a right to know how that happened.  We have a right not to be lied to and then have the TRUTH covered up.

Do it.  And if no one else will publicize what you find, rest assured we will always stand for the CHEROKEE TRUTH.

How the Freedmen Deal Went Down Part III: Save Your Reciepts

For the last couple of days we’ve been trying to figure out what happened in September when freedmen suddenly became citizens.  Read the intro blog from earlier this week as well as the amazing telepathic communications blog if you haven’t already to catch up.  The short version:  Acting Principal Chief S. Joe Crittenden is hiding SOMETHING, we just don’t know if it’s his ignorance or something more sinister.  He didn’t turn over any documentation of how the decisions were made.

Here are some examples.  On page 12 of the 94-pager, the BIA thanks APCSJC for submitting a letter and the election code to them for review.  WHOOPS!  APCSJC didn’t include that actual letter in the correspondence.  So obviously he was communicating with the BIA, but he won’t tell us what he sent them.  Thanks for being “truthful and transparent” APCSJC!  

On page 82, there is a letter to all employees signed by APCSJC but written and emailed by someone named Sedelta Oosahwee.   There is no reply from him, or nothing saying he got the email, or approved the email.  Maybe this person just had carte blanche to sign APCSJC’s name to any ol’ thing about our sovereignty.  

Finally, were just a few carefully maintained, hand-written documents that APCSJC managed to find that could shed some light on how the freedmen got to be citizens.  Scroll all the way down to page 94… that’s where you see he managed to save his receipts so he could get reimbursed his cab ride and parking for his trip to DC.  You know the one where he single-handedly made the freedmen citizens again, but can’t find any documents or communications to show how it happened.  All we really know is it costs $15 bucks or so to get to the hotel from the airport, and that when it comes to keeping track of pieces of paper so he can get paid, APCSJC is top notch.  When it comes to keeping track of documents that show why he gave away the Cherokee Nation’s sovereignty, he’s not so good.  More tomorrow.

How The Freedmen Deal Went Down Part II: "Transparent and Truthful"

Yesterday we laid out the preview for today’s blog.  If you didn’t read it you need to.  Take some time and click here before continuing.

There.  That’s better.  Because you need that background to understand where we are today:  diving into a 94 page document that is supposed to be a “transparent and truthful” accounting of how the freedmen got to vote in the election.  Aside from the fact that S. Joe Crittenden (APCSJC) wanted them to because they “voted in June and voted in July and they may have helped put me in office. I believe they are entitled to vote again…” for his buddy Bill John Baker.

During this time, on September 13, APCSJC tells us that he is “pursuing political remedies that are in the best interest of the Cherokee Nation.”

The election is coming up on September 24.  There is a federal court hearing on September 20, when a judge is going to rule on whether the election can even happen, since the freedmen aren’t citizens anymore.  But when September 20 rolls around, Crittenden cuts a deal with the BIA and Freedmen that changes the rules of the elections and lets the Freedmen in.  So obviously that was a busy week for him, between the 13^th when he tells us he is ‘pursuing political remedies’ and the 20^th when those remedies come to fruition.  He even tells us that he is involved in the final nitty gritty of the deal making process: “We are still working out the final details, to be agreed upon among all the parties…” 

So when asked for all the documents, notes, emails, etc. about this deal, and given that he has promised to be transparent and truthful, what does APCSJC give us?  A big stinking pile of jack squat.

In the 94 page response seen here, there are emails and notes from all kinds of people, staff members and the attorney general.  But very few from APCSJC himself.  There are no emails from him to the BIA.  There are no notes of any conversations he had with the BIA.  There is no copy of any correspondence whatsoever between him and the BIA.  There is no correspondence between him and the freedmen of any kind, even though APCSJC himself tells us “we are working out the final details to be agreed upon among all parties…”  Did they communicate telepathically?  Use one of those secret languages only twins understand?  Or did APCSJC lie to us and hide documents?  Or did he never actually do anything at all, but only farm out the work to heaven knows who?

There’s a lot of evidence pointing to the fact that ACPSJC didn’t do anything himself.  For instance, there are several all-employee communications about the freedmen issue, (see pages 38, 39 and 40).  They were all sent by someone other than APCSJC, but they are signed with his name.  But there is no correspondence from APCSJC to those people showing that he actually wrote it!  If this is all the correspondence then someone wrote all the letters for APCSJC and then sent them out with his name on it.  There’s not even an email from APCSJC saying, yes, I approve of this draft you wrote!

But regardless, APCSJC is either hiding documents explaining why he decided to single-handedly agree to let freedmen be citizens even though our Constitution and Supreme Court say they can’t, or he didn’t make that decision himself at all and refuses to divulge who did actually make the decision.

To sum up, here's a short version of the TRUTH:  APCSJC was asked for every scrap of information and documentation.  He did not turn over any information or documentation about why he made the decision, even though he vowed to be truthful and transparent.  He did not even explain why he didn't turn over the information. 

Wow.  More on this tomorrow, but if this is “truthful and transparent” we are in for a long four years.

How the Freedmen Deal went Down, Part I

In a September whirlwind, Acting Principal Chief S. Joe Crittenden (APCSJC) was in the middle of a political firestorm that was more than he bargained for.  The CN Supreme Court kicked freedmen out of the tribe on his eighth day as APC.

A couple of weeks later the BIA told him they weren’t going to recognize PC2011 Election 2.0 if the freedmen couldn’t vote.  And they couldn’t, because they weren’t citizens.

APCSJC immediately sprung into action, working with the BIA, freedmen and everyone else to make a deal so the election could happen and he could become DCSJC, which is what he always wanted.  

In the process, he sold out the Cherokee Nation Constitution by single-handedly agreeing that the freedmen could be citizens even though a vote of the Cherokee people and the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court said they couldn’t be citizens.

A lot of us wanted to know what the hell happened.  How did we get here, as a Nation?  Who talked to whom, how was this deal made and was it really necessary? 

Someone was smart enough to request the documents as part of our open government here at Cherokee Nation.  What they actually asked for was this:  “Please provide all written emails, letters and phone call notes, travel, meeting dates and topics Acting Chief Joe Crittenden and ANY of his staff, liaisons, contractors or other types of representatives have had with Larry Echo Hawk, Echo Hawk’s staff, BIA officials, DOI officials, Marilyn Vann, Velie (attorney for Freedmen), any other Freedmen plaintiffs or representatives and DOJ concerning the Freedmen, citizenship for the Freedmen, pending Court cases, Judge Kennedy and anyone else associated with this important case for the past six months.”

This request came less than a week after the federal court agreement by APCSJC, and less than two weeks after APCSJC himself said this about how he was going to fix the freedmen situation:  “I hereby re-pledge to the Cherokee People that I will be transparent and truthful.”

So what did we end up with?  A 94 page document responding to this public records request that is ASPSJC’s version of being “transparent and truthful.”  Surely this will finally tell us how we got non-citizens changed back into citizens just hours before our do-over Principal Chief election.  And for those of you who think this isn’t relevant, just remember: this citizenship compromise that APCSJC came up with in his 67 days as Acting Principal Chief is still with us now and may be for the rest of our lives.  So how did it happen?  Find out what the public record documents show in tomorrow’s Cherokee Truth.

Joe Byrd and the Terminator

We talked a lil’ bit about Joe Byrd filing to run for a tribal council seat.  The Tulsa World pointed out that Byrd’s years in office were marked by controversy and scandal and that he was acquitted of charges of wiretapping.

He beat the rap, because, according to the World, Byrd pinned the blame on his own handpicked Housing Authority Director, Joel Thompson, who at the time of Byrd’s trial in 1997 was “serving time in prison on a conviction of embezzling federal funds.”

So, there’s that.

Diane Watson, aka the Cherokee Terminator

Byrd also has taken a very public pro-freedmen stance.  In 2007, when people in Congress were trying to kill off the Cherokee Nation, take our funding away, shut down Hastings and the clinics, what did Byrd do?  He sat down with the folks who were trying to shut us down, and, as former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation he… agreed completely with the folks who were trying to kill the Cherokee Nation.  Yep.  He sat down with the Congressional Black Caucus, Diane Watson and a whole group of people who think Cherokees are racist, and… agreed with them again.  Completely: “In this time where I thought that type of treatment was gone, we’re resurfacing some racism here,” Byrd said.

Just to be clear, Byrd spelled it out for the Tulsa World, too, saying “We can go home and leave the freedmen as they are, part of the Cherokee nation.”

Whether freedmen should be citizens or not is one thing.  Whether a former chief should side with the Congressmen who are trying to shut down the Cherokee Nation is another thing.  And whether Cherokees think that kind of behavior by a former chief is what they are looking for in a Tribal Council candidate is another thing as well.

The Price of Sovereignty: Part "Tali" (That's Cherokee for "2")

In the discussion about the HUD funding being restored, we neglected one more retroactive and inaccurate statement.

While Baker was busy taking credit for selling our sovereignty for roughly $40 million pieces of silver, he also took a shot at Smith, by saying he was getting the money restored that was “withheld from the Nation and the previous administration.”

Either Baker is taking a shot at APCSJC, or he forgot that Smith wasn’t Chief when the ruling came down on August 22.

August 22 is the day that the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court issued the ruling saying the freedmen weren’t citizens any more, and threw everything sideways.  Until that happened, HUD was giving us our money.

Remember--Smith left office on August 14th, and Joe Crittenden was sworn in as Acting Principal Chief, a week before all this hit the fan.

Baker was there; he ought to know that his buddy Joe Crittenden was in office when the Supreme Court issued their ruling and got the ball rolling on this.

Not that its Crittenden’s fault… the Chief doesn’t control the timing or the content of Supreme Court decisions. That goes for Chief Smith, Chief Crittenden and now, Chief Baker.

So, if Baker wants someone to blame for HUD withholding housing funding, he really should start with HUD.  They withheld the money even though there was no law that said they should.  Or he could start with the Cherokee people, for changing the Constitution.

Baker should learn that he doesn’t necessarily look better when he tries to make Smith look worse, especially when he does so by ignoring the Truth.

The Price of Sovereignty

Mt. Rushmore, Black Hills of South Dakota

Depending on your point of view, Friday was either a really good day for the Cherokee Nation, or a really bad day for the Cherokee Nation.

The good news?  HUD agreed to release the housing funds it had been holding pending itsinterpretation of the Cherokee freedmen issue.  

They didn’t decide we were right, though.  They decided to dole out the money because we had caved in.  Specifically, they decided that as long as we ignore our own Supreme Court ruling, we can have housing money, no questions asked.

Baker thinks whatever deal we made is a feather in his cap.  “We are pleased that in the second week of our term we’ve managed to work with the Federal Government to have this money released.”

The bad news?  We now know the price of our sovereignty, and it’s about $40 million depending on which news story you believe.

Why?  Well, our Constitution says that you have to be Indian to be in our Indian tribe.  We voted for it to be that way, our Supreme Court said the Constitution was right, and that’s it.  If we are a sovereign Nation, we decide our own citizenship.  You don’t have to like the citizenship policy, but we voted on it.  If it is against a treaty, we should have a court tell us that it is (which is what the whole Cherokee Nation v. Nash case is about).  If it isn’t against a treaty, and we are ignoring our own law for cash, should we be happy about that?

Well, let’s put it in perspective.  The Sioux tribes in South Dakota say that they own the Black Hills.  And did you know that the federal government is willing to give it back to them--on certain terms.  As of last year, there was more than $1BILLION (with a B) in a settlement account.  

That account has been growing every year since the 80s, and the Sioux haven’t touched a penny.  Not one.  Why? Because they are fighting for their treaty rights.  And their tribal sovereignty is more important to them than a billion dollars.

 

It’s okay to want housing funding for our people.  It’s also okay to fight the federal government for it.  We can fight the feds and win.  We just did, in fact, on this very issue (Vann v. Kempthorne).  It is possible to set our own citizenship criteria AND have housing funding, but to do that we have to actually follow our own laws AND fight for our own Constitution.

Or we could just take the $40 million.  For us, it appears our sovereignty is worth $40 million or less.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 19: Freedmen Say They Want this to “All be Over.”

Now that Bill John Baker has been certified the winner, his supporters appear to be lining up.  Notably, the freedmen, who told reporters now that Baker is elected they are “confident in him until he shows me different…. I’m just hoping and praying this will all be over with.”

When they say “all be over with,” we get the unsettling feeling that they are talking about our Constitutional amendment.  As we pointed out yesterday, APCSJC did what he could to make this “all over with,” by single-handedly reversing the Cherokee Nation’s Supreme Court, much to their dismay.  Should we expect the same flagrant disregard for the Constitution from Baker?

The freedmen seem to think so.  Their attorney, Ralph Keen, said, “The freedmen remain in a good position to continue to assert their rights.  My hope is the freedmen and the Cherokee Nation will meet and reconcile.”

There certainly are ways for the Cherokee Nation and the freedmen to reconcile:  we could have a new constitutional amendment to allow them to have citizenship.  Or a court, somewhere, (the federal Nash case maybe) could rule that the Cherokee Nation is currently in violation of the treaty of 1866 in relation to the freedmen.  If a court has ever done so (and not been overturned when the Cherokee Nation fought for its rights), we don’t know about it.

Otherwise, the Chief can’t ‘reconcile’ our Constitution.  The Tribal Council can’t ‘reconcile’ our Constitution.  Only the Cherokee people can do it.  

Or we could lose in federal court.  And don’t get us started on Cherokees who want the Cherokee Nation to lose in federal court!  Remember, the freedmen have asked repeatedly to have the Cherokee Nation terminated as a tribe.  So if you are a Cherokee who thinks the freedmen cause is just, by all means talk to your council member or start a petition to change the Constitution.  Because only Cherokees should decide who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

So what does Baker say about all this?  "I'm pleased it's now in an Oklahoma court…and I will simply wait and see what the ruling is."

We hope he does, rather than try to ‘reconcile’ our Constitution.  But that’s not what the freedmen think.  They are “upbeat about Baker as chief.  ‘Bill John Baker has got a new regime and hopefully he'll start off in a better direction... I believe we will get a better shake.’”

You can get a better shake from your favorite old-timey malt shop.  We just hope that Baker, unlike Crittenden, remembers he is not a soda jerk.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 18: Supreme Court Flips the Bird

Lots happening in the last couple of days, so there is a lot to analyze.  Initially, we thought it would be 48 hours before the election commission certified the results, and we could talk about the CN’s Supreme Court ruling.  But the Election Commission finished up today instead, and the results look a lot like they did before.  The totals ended up being 10,703 to 9128.  No big surprise there.  

The Cherokee Nation also released information about timelines for appeals, and it looks like October 24 would bethe earliest date for an inauguration. That would be after the timelines for recount and appeal.  If there is an appeal, it would be after that.

Why would there be an appeal?  Well, as we alluded to yesterday, the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court gave a big middle finger to APCSJC by issuing an order saying Crittenden “entered into an agreement… that contained terms that were in direct violation of the Constitution and an order of this court….”.  The order also said that APCSJC “had no authority under the Constitution to bind the Cherokee People to an agreement without their consent when such agreement would violate a provision of the Cherokee Nation Constitution.” 

That agreement, FYI, was the agreement that made Freedmen citizens again, right before the federal judge was about to rule that they weren’t.

  

The Justices are basically telling everyone that the election, where hundreds of Freedmen voted and hundreds of late votes were counted in Baker’s home town, should have ended on September 24, because that is what Cherokee Nation’s laws said to do.  But it’s not what S. John Crittenbaker wanted, so it’s not the deal they made with the freedmen and BIA.  The deal they made broke tribal law, and the Supreme Court sat up, took notice, and made said metaphorical gesture.

 

So how will this all shake out? Baker will want the freedmen votes to count, because he won.  Smith would probably want the election thrown out, because it was done in violation of tribal law (and he lost).  The Cherokee people probably just want it all to be over.