Delaware Tribe seeks to restore federal recog.

[blackcrowheart]

Delaware Tribe seeks to restore federal recognition
Posted: December 20, 2005
by: The Associated Press


BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (AP) - A year after a federal appeals court stripped the Delaware Tribe of Indians of its federal recognition, the tribe is running out of money and shutting its doors.

A for-sale sign hangs on the tribe's national headquarters building and its modern Delaware Health & Wellness Clinic was slated to close on Dec. 21.

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the tribe's appeal, resulting in a loss of about $7 million the tribe received annually as a federally recognized tribe.

The money went for economic development, housing and nutrition programs, and the tribe's new health clinic, which opened in 2003. Without new money from the IHS, the clinic can't continue operating.

''It's a judicial travesty what has happened here,'' tribal spokesman Ernest Tiger said.

The Cherokee Nation, which sued to strip the Delawares of federal recognition, said the Delawares brought the problems on themselves.

Cherokees repeatedly offered to agree to Delaware recognition if the Delawares agreed not to assert sovereignty within the Cherokees' 14-county jurisdictional area, said Melissa Gower, who leads the Cherokees' government relations group.

''We object to the Delawares asserting Indian sovereignty within the Cherokee Nation. An analogy would be Oklahoma objecting to Arkansas trying to exercise state authority within Oklahoma,'' Gower said.

Having lost in court, the Delawares are ready to talk.

''We're trying to set up a meeting,'' said Assistant Chief Jerry Douglas, who has been leading the tribe since Chief Joe Brooks was ousted Nov. 5 in continuing fallout from the federal recognition decision. Election of a new chief is scheduled for Jan. 21.

''We would like to ask them to help us get our federal recognition back,'' added Wayne Stull, a member of the tribe's trust board. ''It's something we need to talk about and see if we can work it out where it don't make us look like we're begging.''

All the Delawares interviewed agreed their tribe has always been separate from the Cherokee Nation and will continue to be - with or without federal recognition.

For Stull and Douglas, the bottom line is getting the Delawares' federal funding restored, even if it means making concessions.

A harder pill to swallow may be letting the Cherokees get and disburse the Delawares' federal money. When the Cherokees put that on the table in the past, the Delawares refused.

''That's not acceptable, not to our people,'' said Brooks, the ousted Delaware chief. ''They want our government to administer services to them, not the Cherokee Nation.''

Stull and Douglas don't like the idea, either.

But in hindsight, they said the tribe would be better off with the Cherokees controlling their money than having no money at all.

''All we had to do is agree. We'd be way ahead if that had happened,'' Stull said.

[blackcrowheart]

Tribes agree to pursue quest for federal recognition
Cherokees and Delawares join forces to lobby Congress

BARTLESVILLE OK
Sam Lewin 7/27/2006

nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle
<http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8038>
&article_id=8038

At odds for years, the Cherokee Nation and the Delaware Tribe of Indians
of Oklahoma are teaming up to help the Delawares regain their lost
federal recognition.

Leaders of the two tribes are meeting with members of Oklahoma?s
congressional delegation, trying to lobby the lawmakers to introduce
legislation that would put the Delawares back on the Federal Register.

The move is a turnaround from the hostile relationship that has existed
between the Delawares and the Cherokees.

Delaware director of economic development Earnest Tiger said the
relationship changed when leaders of the two tribes were able to ?sit
down and talk it over and look for some amendable solutions.?

Cherokee Principal Chief Chad Smith said he conducted ?successful
negotiations? with Delaware Chief Jerry Douglas.

?The Delaware are also Cherokee citizens and what is good for them is
good for us,? Smith said. ?We have negotiated fair terms and look
forward to creating new partnerships with the Delaware tribe on future
programs and services. I believe that this will bring new opportunities
to all of our citizens.?

?I am appreciative of the working relationship that has been established
with Chief Smith,? said Douglas. ?I am looking forward to providing a
better quality of life for Delaware tribal members that can only be
achieved through tribal sovereignty and federal recognition.?

The history of the Delawares pursuit of federal status has been
circuitous. For decades the government maintained the tribe was unable
to meet Bureau of Indian Affairs recognition guidelines. That changed in
1995 when then-Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt exempted the tribe
from the standard federal recognition process and granted them
separation from the Cherokees. Almost a decade later the 10th Circuit
Court of Appeals reversed Babbitt?s decision, ruling the Delawares gave
up independence when they signed a treaty with the Cherokee Nation back
in 1866.

"We are not unsympathetic to the Delawares' cause. The [Department of
Interior?s] unlawful actions, however, cannot provide the Delawares the
status they seek," the 10th circuit justices wrote in the November 2004
decision.

The Cherokees pursued the case against the Delawares and applauded the
ruling as legally accurate.

That court decision sent shockwaves through Bartlesville, the Oklahoma
town that serves as the Delaware home base. Tribal officials warned of
being forced to cut vital health, education, housing and senior citizen
services and slash numerous tribal members from their payroll.

In a statement, the Cherokees said the legislation being proposed to
Congress that would restore the Delawares independence ?could bring
resolution to the much interpreted 1867 Agreement the tribes entered
into according to treaties with the United States. The 1867 Agreement
has been the focus of many legal disputes over the last 139 years.?

The Cherokees also said under the proposed legislation the tribe ?fully
protects its existing sovereignty and preserves the integrity of the
Cherokee Nation?s territory and jurisdiction.?

At their June 24 council meeting, Delaware officials voted 6 ? 0 in
favor of presenting the bill-which would require the BIA to recognize
the Delaware?s 1982 constitution-to Congress. One council member was
absent.

At the time of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision the Delawares,
with over 10-thousand members one of the largest tribes in the country,
were active in Indian gaming and had been working to build a $250
million resort hotel and casino in the Kansas town of Bonner Springs.

Even if the joint venture with the Cherokees goes through, the Delawares
will have taken a symbolic loss. The historic Bureau of Mines building
in Bartlesville-built in 1918-had served as the tribe?s headquarters for
the last five years. But concerns over the reduction in money that
losing federal recognition translated means led officials to put the
building on the auction block.

It was sold last week to an area businessman.

?It?s gone no matter what,? Tiger said.

You can reach Sam Lewin at [e-mail]

NTN Article#: 8038

Cara Cowan Watts
Cherokee Nation Tribal Council
District 7 - Will Rogers
P.O. Box 2922
Claremore, OK 74018
F: 918 266-3518
C: 918 752-4342

[Okwes]

Delawares voice opposition to Cherokee deal
“We are making concessions that we should never make”

BARTLESVILLE OK
Sam Lewin 9/13/2006

Members of the Delaware Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
attended a meeting that examined the implications of
proposed legislation that would restore the tribe’s
federal recognition.

The proposal would mean “devastation for the Delaware
tribe but will assist the Cherokee tribe in getting
its controversial 2003 Constitution through Congress
without taking the proper steps tribes must take,”
said Annette Ketchum, secretary of the tribe’s elder
committee, after attending the meeting.

At odds for years, Cherokee and Delaware leaders
agreed this summer to lobby lawmakers to introduce
legislation that would put the Delawares back on the
Federal Register. Delaware director of economic
development Earnest Tiger said the relationship
changed when leaders of the two tribes were able to
“sit down and talk it over and look for some amenable
solutions” and Cherokee Principal Chief Chad Smith
said he conducted “successful negotiations” with
Delaware Chief Jerry Douglas.

Douglas said the proposal would provide “a better
quality of life for Delaware tribal members that can
only be achieved through tribal sovereignty and
federal recognition.”

Not all Delawares agree.

“No deal is better than a bad deal,” said Delaware
elder Ed Wilson.

Opponents of the plan say they are concerned that the
tribe could lose its ability to put land into trust,
see its tribal court done away with, and that in cases
of disagreement, Cherokee law would trump Delaware
law.

“This offer from the Cherokees has been on the table,
we didn’t want it twenty-five years ago, and we don’t
want it now,” said former Delaware chief Dee Ketchum.

“I believe that this legislation is to our detriment
and we are making concessions that we should never
make,” said Rusty Creed Brown, a Delaware tribal court
judge.

After years of lobbying the Delawares were awarded
federal recognition in 1995, a move reversed almost a
decade later when the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that the Bartlesville-based tribe gave up
independence when they signed a treaty with the
Cherokee Nation back in 1866.

At the time of the court decision the Delawares, with
over 10-thousand members one of the largest tribes in
the country, were active in Indian gaming and had been
working to build a $250 million resort hotel and
casino in the Kansas town of Bonner Springs.

[blackcrowheart]

Recognition, but at what cost?
Guest commentary


Rusty Creed Brown 10/10/2006

Let me start by saying, I absolutely support the Delaware Tribe having our federal recognition restored; we should be actively pursuing all options that will not harm our people and/or our tribe. However, I am concerned with the avenue our current chief and council have chosen. Other options are available and after this legislation is marked up by Congress there is no guarantee the Cherokee Nation will continue to support it; which in my opinion is a good thing. I do not want this legislation to pass.

In 1867, an agreement was made by the Delaware and the Cherokee, this agreement has been of much heated debate since its signing. The 1867 agreement specifically violates the Delaware Treaty of 1866; this treaty has never been abrogated, meaning it is still the supreme law of the land under the U.S. Constitution. In a letter Chief Chad Smith sent to the Delaware several months back, he specifically stated our two tribes could not enter into an agreement violating federal law. He is correct on that point

Today, our Delaware chief and council are making yet another agreement with the Cherokee Nation and attempting to have Congress pass legislation restoring our federal recognition. As I mentioned, I am absolutely for the restoration of our federal recognition. We were the first Indian nation to sign a treaty with the newly formed U.S. government. We have fought many wars on the side of the U.S. government. We have retained our culture and our heritage through at least six major removals. We are a tribe; we are a nation

The currently proposed legislation gives our authority to the Cherokee Nation. We will not be able to do anything without consulting the Cherokee Nation. Our federal monies will go through them and they will have the authority to regulate and tax our businesses. The prospect of having land into trust does exist within our last reservation and our aboriginal homelands, but I believe this legislation caps how many acres we will be allowed to take into trust. This deal is not in our best interest; why make hasty decisions?

It is also important for Delaware people to realize our trust fund payout does not need to be tied to our federal recognition legislation. Our council voted to tie the two together; we are entitled to and will get our settlement. This legislation will also affect groups other than the Delaware Tribe. The legislation will also have potentially detrimental affects on the Freedmen, the Shawnees, and the United Keetoowah Band (UKB) of Cherokees.

The legislation, for all practical purposes, abolishes our inherent rights as a tribal aation. Our council members have said the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) is not finalized. Whether or not the MOA is finalized the US Congress can still pass this legislation; the legislation that our current chief and council support. A draft copy of the MOA does exits; however, tribal members are not allowed copies for review and we have not been told of the current status of any further negotiations.

There is quite a bit of concern over whether the council and chief will allow the Delaware people to vote on accepting the MOA, as required by the Delaware Constitution, before they and the Cherokees sign it. The “Adult Voting Membership” of the tribe is the “Supreme Governing Authority,” not the tribal council or the chief. However, our Delaware administration seems to have forgotten that point.

As a candidate for Delaware tribal council, I absolutely support giving the governing power back to the people, where it rightfully belongs. I will work endlessly to restore our recognition and our rightful place among Tribal Nations. Nevertheless, I do not support the legislation and if I had a copy of the MOA, I am certain I would not support it either. My family does not support it, many other Delaware families do not it, and I know of many elders that do not support it.

In the last year there has been a 180 degree turn in this council and chief with no explanation. For 140 years, our Delaware people have fought the 1867 agreement. Now we are willing to enter into another agreement and have congress pass legislation supporting the 1867 agreement. I ask Why? There is nothing favorable in the legislation to the Delaware Tribe and I can only imagine what we are giving up in the MOA.

Our ancestors did not want the 1867 agreement. Our ancestors have fought continuously for our survival, our federal recognition, and have never given up our inherent rights to govern ourselves. We are not Cherokee. We are Delaware people, we are Lenape. We must never forget that.

When the Delaware Tribal Court fails its people, the Delaware Tribal Council is not sharing information, tribal elders are left out and their views not respected, something is incredibly wrong. Read the Delaware Indian newspaper, read the Delaware Court opinions, and read the tribal council minutes, you will see our current administration is not looking out for the interest of our tribe.

It is time the Delaware people, stand up and assert our constitution rights and require accountability from the chief and the council. Our general elections are on November 4, 2006. Now more than ever it is time for our Tribal Leaders to make well educated, well informed, and calculated decisions; not hurried decisions that will detrimentally affect us and all of our future generations.


About the author: Rusty Creed Brown is a candidate for Delaware tribal council