More than 600 First Nation leaders denounce U.S. House bill that threatens to sever U.S.-Cherokee re

More than 600 First Nation leaders denounce U.S. House bill that threatens to sever U.S.-Cherokee relations and cut nearly $300 Million in federal funds

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith speaks to the Assembly of First Nations in Ottawa, Canada, on December 12, 2007. The AFN unanimously passed a resolution denouncing and objecting to H.R. 2824, a U.S. House bill that calls for the termination of U.S.-Cherokee Nation relations. The bill would cut nearly $300 million in federal funding for crucial social services such as health care, housing and education. The AFN represents more than 600 indiginous peoples First Nations located within Canadian borders.

OTTAWA, Canada - Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith thanked the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) for unanimously passing a resolution yesterday to "denounce" and "object to" H.R. 2824, a U.S. House bill that retaliates against the Cherokee people for voting to limit Nation citizenship to those with Indian ancestors on the Dawes Rolls, the 1906 federal census list of the Cherokee people.

"The Cherokee Nation applauds the Assembly of First Nations for opposing H.R. 2824, which is a scorched-earth assault on tribal sovereignty that threatens all indigenous nations," Chief Smith said. "If Cherokees can face termination in the United States, it can happen anywhere in the world. We have common interests and common threats of large governments challenging the most basic principle of sovereignty, which is who determines our citizenship."

At a conference in Ottawa, AFN is meeting at a Special Chiefs Assembly to represent the interests of 634 indigenous peoples First Nations located within Canadian borders. Following passage of a resolution opposing H.R. 2824 at the National Congress of American Indians conference in November (representing more than 250 Indian nations located within the United States), the AFN invited the Cherokee Nation to build on the Kinship Accord between the AFN and NCAI. Discussions around the recent passage of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, among other things, confirm the shared human rights of indigenous people exercising self-determination and self-governance.

Specifically, the AFN Resolution states: "The Chiefs-in-Assembly hereby denounce and object to H.R.2824 - or any other termination provisions or amendments in legislation that severs the government-to-government relationship between sovereign nations and the United States Federal Government or any legislative action which diminishes limits or reduces funding of the United States to Indian nations."

Authored by California Congresswoman Diane Watson, H.R. 2824 seeks to punish the Cherokee people for their March 2007 vote requiring every citizen in the Nation - whether African-, Caucasian-, Asian- or Hispanic-American - to have at least one Indian ancestor listed on the Dawes Rolls of the Cherokee Nation. More than 500 other Indian Nations in the United States also require their citizens to have Indian ancestry.

The March 2007 measure, which passed by 77%, disenrolled about 2,800 Freedmen descendants who had been citizens in the Nation for about a year due to a Cherokee Nation Supreme Court ruling that allowed citizenship for descendants of people listed on the Dawes Rolls as non-Indians.

The bill would sever U.S.-Cherokee relations and cut nearly $300 million in federal funding for crucial social services such as health care, housing and education that help young, elderly and infirm Cherokees.

Litigation on Freedmen citizenship issues is ongoing in federal and tribal courts. Until all litigation is resolved, the approximately 2,800 Freedmen descendants have been reinstated to citizenship with full social services and the right to vote. Congresswoman Watson's bill would hurt many of these individuals and others in the Nation who receive such federal assistance.

To help Freedmen descendants become citizens, the Nation will provide genealogical assistance, helping research whether they have an Indian ancestor listed on the federally created Dawes Rolls, no matter how long it takes.

Here are five undisputed facts to know about this issue:

The March 2007 vote requiring Indian ancestry for citizenship had nothing to do with race and everything to do with who is a Cherokee.
More than 1,500 Freedmen descendants have Cherokee citizenship because they each have an Indian ancestor listed on the federally-created Dawes Rolls. There are thousands of African-American citizens in the Nation overall.
Litigation continues over this citizenship issue in Cherokee tribal and U.S. courts. The approximately 2,800 people whose citizenship is in question are citizens today until the tribal and federal litigation is resolved.
In addition to cutting social services for elderly, the young and the frailest of Indians, H.R. 2824 would also deny services to the 2,800 whose citizenship is in question.
H.R. 2824 would shut down tribal government and business operations that directly employ more than 6,500 people in rural northeastern Oklahoma.

For more information, go to http://www.cherokeenationfacts.org/PressRoom/PressKits.aspx and http://www.cherokeenationfacts.org/PressRoom/18/PressKits.aspx.