Watson introduces legislation to sever U.S.
relations with Cherokee Nation of Okla.
Washington,
DC— Congresswoman Diane E. Watson today
introduced legislation to sever all U.S. relations with Cherokee Nation
of Oklahoma. The legislation cuts all federal funding to the Cherokee Nation,
estimated to be roughly $300 million annually, until such time that the
Cherokee Nation restores full tribal citizenship to the black Cherokees, known
as freedmen, expelled from the nation this past March. The legislation also
suspends the Cherokee Nation’s authority to conduct gaming operations until it
complies with its treaty and statutory obligations.
“The Treaty of 1866 states unequivocally that the freedmen are citizens of the
Cherokee Nation and have all the rights of Cherokees,” said Congresswoman
Watson. “It particularly pains me, over forty years after the passage of the
historic Civil Rights Act, that legislation has to be
introduced to compel the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma to recognize the basic
civil rights of the Cherokee freedmen. The Cherokee Nation’s leadership claims
that it has the sovereign right to determine who is a citizen of the Cherokee
Nation. But the sovereign right to discriminate is no right at all.”
In March, Congresswoman Watson, along with twenty-five of her colleagues, sent
a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affair’s (BIA) Assistant Secretary, Carl Artman, protesting the Cherokee Nation’s March 3, 2007 vote
that resulted in the expulsion of 2,800 freedmen. To date, BIA has failed to
take any administrative action against the Cherokee Nation for violating its
treaty obligations.
Congresswoman Watson’s bill also requires the Department
of Interior to issue a report to Congress on the status of freedmen’s rights in
all tribes, instructs the Attorney General to issue a determination on whether
the federal civil rights of freedmen have been violated, requires an audit of
the Cherokee Nation’s expenditure of federal funds, and provides for the
freedmen’s private action for relief through the federal courts.
Find out more at the Congresswoman's official website: http://www.house.gov/watson
