August 2010 August
"Genocide" is described as a deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. Genocide is a term that was not developed until 1944 when Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, coined the phrase to describe the atrocities committed by countries and groups in the First World War and then by the Nazi government during the Second World War. Genocide was not officially made a crime until 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
One item in the Convention describing genocide states “(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. Efforts by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) to discredit our tribe by calling us fake and fraudulent as listed on the Cherokee Nation Task Force website as well as a YouTube video and CD distributed by the CNO begin to fit the above description. The YouTube video and the CD try to describe fake tribes by comparing various groups with the CNO. The presentation asks the viewer who they think is a “real Cherokee chief”, Chad Smith dressed professionally or some man dressed in a plains Indian war bonnet? During the video, our tribe’s name goes flashing across the screen which includes our tribe in the CNO list of “fake or fraudulent” tribes.
One item in the Convention describing genocide states “(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. Efforts by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) to discredit our tribe by calling us fake and fraudulent as listed on the Cherokee Nation Task Force website as well as a YouTube video and CD distributed by the CNO begin to fit the above description. The YouTube video and the CD try to describe fake tribes by comparing various groups with the CNO. The presentation asks the viewer who they think is a “real Cherokee chief”, Chad Smith dressed professionally or some man dressed in a plains Indian war bonnet? During the video, our tribe’s name goes flashing across the screen which includes our tribe in the CNO list of “fake or fraudulent” tribes.
I received a recent email describing an effort to alter the Indian Arts and Crafts Act to exclude state-recognized tribes from the protection offered through the act which was enacted to preserve the culture and integrity of Indian artisans and keep fraudulent crafts from being sold as Indian. A representative from the Department of Interior Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Ashley Frye, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is described as saying the 1990 Act “does not consider state tribes as Indians, it only guards them from prosecution if they “claim” to be Indian when selling their art”. She is also quoted as saying “a 1/512th blood citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is an Indian and that state tribal members are not.
The effort of the CNO and other federal tribes to discredit and have our tribe and other state tribes eliminated borders on genocide. Arguments that “real” Cherokees did not hide or deny their heritage and participated in the Trail of Tears sounds like a “re-write” of history by the dominant culture. Since the CNO has a budget of several million dollars and a staff of attorneys on retainer, they can write and present history to meet their agenda. We have tribal members whose ancestors did not “hide” nor did they “deny their heritage”. After they were released from the stockades they returned to their homes and lived in Alabama. They were known in their communities as Cherokee even to the point they were not allowed to be buried in the church’s cemetery upon their death. Do you believe my account of history or the account that was written and broadcast by the CNO? I conclude we have an accurate view of Cherokee history and bloodline. We just don’t have millions of dollars or a staff of attorneys on retainer.
The effort of the CNO and other federal tribes to discredit and have our tribe and other state tribes eliminated borders on genocide. Arguments that “real” Cherokees did not hide or deny their heritage and participated in the Trail of Tears sounds like a “re-write” of history by the dominant culture. Since the CNO has a budget of several million dollars and a staff of attorneys on retainer, they can write and present history to meet their agenda. We have tribal members whose ancestors did not “hide” nor did they “deny their heritage”. After they were released from the stockades they returned to their homes and lived in Alabama. They were known in their communities as Cherokee even to the point they were not allowed to be buried in the church’s cemetery upon their death. Do you believe my account of history or the account that was written and broadcast by the CNO? I conclude we have an accurate view of Cherokee history and bloodline. We just don’t have millions of dollars or a staff of attorneys on retainer.
Degadageyusisdi
Chief Stan
Chief Stan
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