Sunday, November 27, 2011

Cherokee Nation At Odds with BIA Over Approval of 1999 Constitution

A Sept. 9 letter from Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk to Cherokee Nation officials states the Bureau of Indian Affairs has not approved the tribe’s 1999 Constitution or an amendment that led to its implementation.

The letter, sent to then-Acting Principal Chief Joe Crittenden, emphasizes that the BIA hasn’t signed off on the constitution the tribe is operating under nor the amendment of the 1975 Constitution.

“The department has never approved these amendments to the Cherokee Constitution as required by the Cherokee Constitution itself,” Echo Hawk’s letter states

OP: It's past time for the BIA to hold the Cherokee Nation accountable for violating it's treaty with the U.S. and for stripping the citizenship of THOUSANDS of it's citizens, the Freedmen, who are descendents of Cherokee SLAVES, who were dragged on the Trail of Tears as PROPERTY. Should we fund $500 MILLION to a tribe that violates the rights of its people, or rather, some of its people?


Read More at the CHEROKEE PHOENIX

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does anyone have a 1979 copy of pechanga's constitution?

Anonymous said...

Yes, We have 1979 before that ! We are about 250 people that has .

Marilyn Vann said...

The Cherokee freedmen were not allowed to be delegates when the 1999 constitution was written or to vote on it. Why should the BIA recognize it or the phony amendments to disenroll the freedmen - amendments which were placed on the ballot through a petition drive using fraud to get signatures on the ballot and numerous tribal laws were violated regarding notarization and how the petition was presented to the voters. These legal violations were brought out by tribal court judges Stacy Leeds and Darrel Dowty. Even with all the fraud, the petition only had 81 more signatures than the minimum to put on the ballot.