The people speak: Watson’s resolution insults native people

August 08, 2007 05:51 pm

— U.S. California Rep. Diane E. Watson introduced legislation (H.R. 2824) to sever U.S. relations with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. The legislation calls for cutting all federal funding to the nation, until such time that the nation (as she sees it) restores full tribal citizenship to a group of African Americans known as freedmen.
Watson is not calling for the full restoration of the 1866 Treaty. That action would mean all land now called the state of Oklahoma would have to be turned back to Indian nations forced to sign onto the treaty. Nowhere in the treaty is the word citizenship stated covering any freedmen.
The American Indian community is further outraged that every time a U.S. House member or caucus has a problem with an Indian nation government, they call for severing reconnection of the Indian nation’s government. It’s the same old 1800s hang-em high vigilante law, don’t let the facts or truth get in the way, stop the Indians anyway you can.
The American Indian community is demanding that our U.S. representatives open their eyes and see Watson’s resolution for what it truly is, a throwback to the days of “Custer policy” against all American Indian men, women and children.
Our sons and daughters today are giving their lives for America on battlefields around the world against terrorism. It’s a sick national joke that an elected member of the U.S. House would disgrace them with a resolution like H.R.2824.
Support stopping H.R.2824
Mike Graham
Muldrow