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.

Election Limbo Part Two, Day THE LAST: Baker Swears, Hugs

Photo Courtesy KTUL: Baker takes the oath on the Courthouse steps

Bill John Baker is Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.  

The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court threw out the election appeal filed by Smith, and Baker hurried down to the courthouse tonight, where he was sworn in by Justice Jim Wilcoxen.

Baker told the Daily Oklahoman:

“It is time to bring our Cherokee family together and move our nation from good to great. I deeply appreciate the Cherokee people for placing their faith in my leadership.”

Channel 8’s online story included a statement from Smith as well, which read in part:  “I acknowledge that Bill John Baker has been elected to the Office of Principal Chief and offer him any help I may provide in building the Nation I so love, and have been honored to serve for the past 12 years.”

Fox 23 already has video of Baker up on their web site, and he declares his first order of business is to hug every single person he possibly can.

So election limbo is over.  APCSJC gets to ease into his preferred job of Deputy Chief, Meredith Frailey heads back over to the Council House and Bill John Baker is Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 22: Opposite Directions

We took a few days off (because we have real lives, after all) and when we sat down tonight to decide what to write about, we found out that Smith and Baker have two different ideas about what the next step is with our election, which isn’t surprising.  

Baker sent out an announcement today, setting the time and date for his inauguration.  Just in case you don’t get an engraved personal invitation, the Cherokee Phoenix was kind enough to tell us that it is at the Sequoyah Gym in Tahlequah at 2 pm on November 6.  According to the Phoenix “Former Oklahoma Governor David Walters will serve as master of ceremonies and the chiefs of all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes will be present.”  So the UKB is trying to get along with Baker. They banished Smith for opposing “efforts by the UKB to have Keetoowah land put in trust by the Cherokee County Commissioners.”

Cherokee Truth's cat?

Putting aside the fact the Cherokee County Commissioners can’t put land into trust any more than Cherokee Truth’s cat, Baker and the UKB are certainly more chummy than Smith and the UKB were.

 

And what Smith up to today while Baker was making party plans?  Well, he was trying to get the whole election thrown out, or stopped, or at least keep Baker from getting sworn in.  Smith filed an appeal with the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, which one of our readers forwarded on to us, and you can read for yourself.

Basically he asks that the Cherokee court stop Baker from being sworn in until the federal court decides whether freedmen should be citizens or not.  Or, as he puts it: “If non-Indian Freedmen have citizenship  rights based on the treaty, then Bill John Baker should be chief.  If they don’t, then the court would have to order yet another election, because the acting chief disregarded the Cherokee Nation Constitution.” 

Baker’s response?  Poppycock! (Or the Cherokee version of that).  He put out a statement tonight saying he is “not going to let this baseless lawsuit keep me from moving forward.”  He didn’t address the freedmen issue at all.

The question for a few days was whether Smith would ask for a recount or not.  It looks like he skipped that and went straight to court at the same time Baker was heading for an inauguration.

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.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 14: John Blutarsky Edition

The voting is over right?  Please tell us the voting is over right?  That’s what the schedule says, that’s what the calendar says, but if there’s anything we’ve learned from this election, it’s that we should never say it’s over.   

We thought it was going to be over June 25.  Then we thought Baker won on the 26^th.  Then we thought Smith won on the 27^th.  Then we thought it would be over after the recount.  After the Election Commission botched that one, we thought it would be over after the court hearing, and their own personal recount.  We bet Smith hoped so too, because he was ahead then.  But was it over any of those times?   

Nope.  A new election was scheduled.  So we thought it would be over on September 24.  But then S. John Crittenbaker decided to extend the election two weeks for the freedmen, and then, AFTER ELECTION DAY, they decided SOME Cherokees could still vote, as long as, heaven forbid, they didn’t mail in their absentee ballots.  The Election Commission then decided that Cherokees who voted by mail deserved just as much an opportunity to vote as the ones who live in Tahlequah.  But it’s still not over.  Not even today.  Or tomorrow.

When will it be over?  Well, to quote an American icon:  “Nothing’s over until we decide it is!  Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”

Ummmm…. No.  

We’re putting the over-under for the inauguration as Halloween.  Which side is the smart money on?

Stayed tuned: tomorrow we get unofficial, semi-formal, partial results from the election commission.

Cherokee Truth will tell you what the numbers mean tomorrow night.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 8: Faulty Reasoning

Our readers are having a spirited debate over whose ‘fault’ it is we are in the situation we are in, after Kennedy’s court ruling on Friday.

 

Using the facts at hand, let’s figure out if Smith is at fault, if Baker is at fault, or, quite frankly, if there is anything to be at fault for, when, as the Attorney General says, we got everything we asked for.  And if there is credit, to whom is that due?

Let’s start, say, in the disco era.  Back in the 70s, when Ross Swimmer was representing our Nation while wearing leisure suits (we’re guessing), there was some debate over whether freedmen could be citizens if they weren’t also Indians. There was a federal court case, called Nero v. Cherokee Nation, which the Cherokee Nation won.  In that case, the federal government basically said the Cherokee Nation can determine its own citizenship. 

So… freedmen were not citizens prior to 1995 (when Baker got on the council), nor were they citizens prior to 1999 (when Smith was elected).  So we have to look at what happened when they (Baker & Smith) were in office.

In 1999, Smith was elected without freedmen votes.  He beat Joe Byrd, and Smith’s running mate, the late Hastings Shade, beat Bill John Baker for Deputy Chief.  Again, no freedmen votes. Why? Because they weren't citizens.

In 2003, Smith was elected again, and Baker won a council seat after John Ketcher retired.  No freedmen voted.  But, losing candidates in that election complained that freedmen weren’t able to vote, and that eventually turned into the case Vann v. Salazar, that was dismissed Friday night. So let’s focus on that case.  

In 2003, the freedmen tried keep Smith from being recognized as Chief with their lawsuit.  He was recognized.  In 2007, they tried to stop the election from happening, but it went forward anyway.  By 2011, the freedmen hadn’t won anything in the Vann v. Salazar case, and there was no federal law or treaty saying the freedmen had citizenship rights in the Cherokee Nation, even though they’d been arguing that for 8 years.  So until last week’s settlement between S. John Crittenbaker, the Freedmen and the BIA, freedmen didn’t have any citizenship rights because of the federal government.

So, the fact that there is now a federal court order granting freedmen citizenship rights (which APCSJC has said he thinks is the right thing, no matter what the Cherokee Nation Constitution says--- or as the court order he agreed to said “notwithstanding any provision of tribal law to the contrary.”), is entirely due to the fact that Crittenden AGREED to it.

So how did freedmen get citizenship before last week?  Well, in 2006 the Cherokee Nation JAT (soon to be renamed the Supreme Court) ruled in Allen v. Cherokee Nation Tribal Council that anyone with an ancestor listed on the Dawes Rolls was now eligible for citizenship, whether the person on the Dawes Rolls was Indian or not.  So that’s when freedmen (and don’t forget the inter-married whites) got to be citizens.  And it wasn’t because of what a treaty said. It was because of what the Cherokee Nation Constitution and our Supreme Court said.  The Justices who decided that were: Stacy Leeds (appointed by Smith), Darrell Dowty (appointed by Byrd originally, reappointed by Smith) and Darell Matlock (appointed by Smith). 

So if you believe the judicial branch is an independent branch of government, this isn’t Baker’s fault or Smith’s fault.  If you don’t believe the judicial branch is an independent branch of government, then brush up on your Cherokee Nation Constitution and do something about that.

In 2007, the Cherokee people passed a Constitutional amendment, going back to the old way.  Both Baker and Smith supported the people’s right to vote on the issue, but neither took a public stance, as far as we can tell, telling people which way they should vote.

In the meantime, Stacy Leeds quit the Supreme Court and decided she’d run for Chief instead.  So maybe some of the ‘blame’ for all this should go to her!

Since then, we’ve been in both tribal and federal court.

Smith has defended the Constitution, because, well, that’s what we elect a chief to do and that’s the oath he takes as Chief.  He stood up in both tribal and federal court for the Cherokee people’s right to amend their Constitution.  Until the last couple of weeks, we could say the same thing for Baker, but not Crittenden.

Crittenden voted against even letting the Cherokee people vote on this (see June 2006 Council Meeting Minutes) after the Freedmen were made citizens and has been one of the biggest freedmen supporters on the tribal council.  Again, that’s his right as an elected official, but when the Constitution was amended, he still took an oath to defend it, not sabotage it in federal court.  Baker is complicit, because he has pushed so hard to get freedmen votes into this election.

The fact that there is still a federal court case going (Cherokee Nation v. Nash) could be viewed as both Smith and Baker’s fault (again, if there really is a 'fault').  Remember, the tribal council has to approve any lawsuits, and that case was filed back in 2009 and no one has made a stink about it being a bad thing until now.  And to us, it seems like winning a lawsuit doesn’t weaken your case in a similar lawsuit, it only strengthens it, so we’re not sure how winning the DC case is bad news for the Cherokee Nation.  

The only time the Cherokee Nation lost anything in the DC case was when Crittenden willingly signed an order-- in full knowledge it violated Cherokee law--and made freedmen citizens anyway. And that, friends, is why we are still in Election mode, a week after the special election was supposed to end. 
 

3 Days Until the Election: Mr. Crittenden Goes to Washington

It’s official:  Freedmen can vote in our new election, thanks to an agreement approved Wednesday by APCSJC, the Freedmen and the BIA.  Significant in the deal is that the election ain’t over on Saturday:  Freedmen get extra time to get their absentee ballots in (which makes sense since they didn’t get them as early) and they also get two extra days to go vote in-person, besides election day and the other early voting available to the rest of Cherokee citizens.  

Oh, did we mention the best part?  The federal court ruling seemingly trumps our Supreme Court by telling them that Cherokee law doesn’t count and that freedmen are citizens.  So that whole referendum to gain signatures, and then the vote of the people and then the four year court challenge all meant jack squat, because it was tribal law.  Freedmen are citizens as long as the judge in DC wants them to be, according to the court order.

Pretty harsh huh?  The judge really handed it to us on that one. Oh wait, the judge didn’t decide that! Crittenden decided that himself by signing the agreement.  Maybe he felt he needed to compromise and let the BIA have what it wanted and let the freedmen have what they wanted, but in doing so he ignored what the Cherokee people voted for in 2007, and he did so voluntarily.  Ouch.

The election will go forward on Saturday.  For the people who were Cherokee citizens on Monday, that’s their last chance to vote for chief.  For the people APCSJC decided to make citizens on Tuesday, they have until October 8 to vote. 

Let us make sure you understand what we're saying here: if you are Cherokee by Blood-- you can vote early in person Thursday in Tahlequah from 9-5, and in your assigned precinct on Saturday, the 24th. Your absentee ballot MUST be received by the Election Commission on Saturday. ONLY non-Indian Freedmen get extra days to vote. Check out the Cherokee Phoenix's online story today for all the hairy details.

 

P.S.  Late tonight we heard that Baker and Chuck Hoskin, Jr. are accusing Smith of colluding with Barney Frank to somehow keep HUD money while Smith was Chief.  When asked by Channel 6, they could produce no evidence, and Frank himself said it was bull BLEEP.  Really. Only he didn’t say bleep!  Watch the channel 6 story if you don’t believe us.  This time Baker is getting busted by the media and a Congressman immediately when he’s not telling the truth. We’ll see if it slows him down.