Chad Smith letter to Congresswoman Watson
Elder John Cornsilk's Debunking of the letter.
June 2008
Smith Said:
Your May 13, 2008 column in The Hill contained a number of errors and
omissions. I would have preferred to bring them to your attention in a
meeting with you, but, despite repeated requests since August of last
year, your office has not agreed to a meeting.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
My thoughts would be, the office of Congresswoman Watson was well aware
of the lies an absolute racist rhetoric smith wanted to impose up on
the lady. Simply because of the situation itself she has to know the
stance of Smith on Law, which would be, his total pretermission of the
fact of law, if he were not a Lawyer his blatant disregard might be
overlooked as ignorance. Watson is in the business of writing law so
she most assuredly knows what it is and what it means As is
demonstrated in her BILL HR 2824 simply read it people an see the
understanding of law that is demonstrated and with citing of
documentation for corroboration.
Smith Said:
Unfortunately, distortions and misrepresentations of the history, the
law and the facts concerning this issue abound. If we could meet, I
would explain the following facts:
1. At its core, this issue is about Cherokee identity and who is an
Indian. To be a citizen in the Cherokee Nation, one must find an Indian
ancestor listed on the federally authorized base rolls of the
Cherokees. More than 1,500 descendants of former slaves, also known as
Freedmen, can do so and are our citizens. We have many thousands more
who have such Indian ancestors and also self-identify with other
heritages, including African American, Asian American, Hispanic
American, and Caucasian.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
First off, Smith's fact # 1 is rife with absolute distortion and
misinformation if not outright blatant lies! First of all, the core of
the issue is not the the identity of an Indian, we are not concerned
with what is or who is, the crux of the issues is what and who is a
Cherokee...
Secondly, The base Roll Smith likes to mention, is a figment of his
imagination/or distorted brain, it can be said to be a federally
authorized roll of the Cherokee Citizens, called the Dawes Rolls, and
the implication by the use of the term federally authorized for basis
of authority as Rolls for Citizenship, is the above mentioned
misinformation, it was simply an enumeration of the People living in
the Cherokee Nation/Indian territory at the time that were actually
Cherokee Citizens for the sole purpose of determining who as a Cherokee
would receive a land allotment.
And the use of the Dawes Rolls as the document for determining who is a
descendant of a Cherokee citizen, was NOT a federal requirement,
in-fact they could care less, their concern is the violation of the
Citizenship rights/Law of the Cherokee Freedmen by fact of Smith's
violation of the 1866 Treaty.
The use of these Rolls was written into the supposed Constitution of
the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma by Ross Swimmer in 1975,
read "Article III Section 1. it says, All members of the Cherokee
Nation must be citizens as proven by reference to the Dawes Commission
Rolls, including the Delaware Cherokees of Article II of the Delaware
Agreement dated the 8th day of May, 1867, and the Shawnee Cherokees as
of Article III of the Shawnee Agreement dated the 9th day of June,
1869, and/or their descendants."
So you can readily see even Swimmer back then, knew he was NOT talking
about Cherokee Citizens except for the descendants thereof.
Thirdly, It is NOT who can be a Citizen of the Cherokee Nation, that
was determined by the Dawes Commission, completed in 1906 with the
enumeration of all Cherokee Citizens in the different sections of the
Dawes Rolls, with Cherokee Citizens of each section being no more no
less Cherokee than the other. And at the completion the United States
Congress close the Rolls of the Cherokee Nation Forever with no more
citizens to be added, except for a very few by court order up to 1914,
and the Rolls remain closed today!
And the Fourth, Smith would still be wrong if he were talking about the
Cherokee Nation, for all the reasons explained in sections 1, 2, 3, of
this section, and this one number 4, but he is NOT, and can-not, he is
talking about the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma CNO, an entity that was
born in 1975 by Ross Swimmer's declaration he was writing a
Constitution for the Cherokee, and he did it with out any basis of
Cherokee Law...
The current government of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) claims
to enjoy the same sovereign powers as every other federally recognized
tribe, the constitutional foundations of the CNO government are, in
fact, dangerously deficient and will likely remain so until the
Cherokee people decide to convene an authentic constitutional
convention and reorganize under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936
(OIWA). The constitutional crisis now confronting the Smith Junta, that
he refuses to deal with is the direct result of decades of an
authoritarian style of executive decision making that has consistently
valued political expediency above the due process of law. From W.W.
Keeler to Ross 0. Swimmer to Wilma Mankiller, Joe Byrd, and today Smith
of Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) have uniformly neglected the need
for constitutional reform in the interest of preserving their own
power. Smith's control, actually no different than the previous Chiefs
live merely asserted the authority to govern without taking seriously
the responsibility to insure that his authority is based on a REAL
constitutional foundations, it simply isn't Folks!
Smith Said:
2. There is no such thing as a termination effort against the Freedmen.
The fact that more than 1,500 Freedmen descendants are citizens of the
tribe today is a testament to that fact.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
Smith must think the world is as ignorant as he, and the people he has
hawking the Racist rhetoric, True there are some black Cherokee,
absolutely no different than any other Descendant you will find with a
blue membership card of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma products of the
marriages of all the Cherokee Citizens listed on the Dawes Rolls. That
Smith likes to tout as the base roll of the Cherokee, actual we as the
the Cherokee people have no such thing as a base roll, that is used
today, if there was one it would have to be the 1880 Census of the
Cherokee if you will visit it you will get a true sense of who is a
Cherokee, the Negro/Colored included, and black Cherokee Family members
were simply listed as a Cherokee, and note this was long before the
Dawes Rolls and the segregation of the black Cherokee as Freedmen, with
just a little effort one can research and prove the asininity of the
claim for the purpose of showing there ar Freedmen Cherokee Citizens,
While it may true there may be a scant few blue card toting Cherokee
Freedmen, Chad touts none of them as members of the Cherokee Nation of
Oklahoma, in fact their Status as Citizen is on hold awaiting the
complete disenfranchising Smith is after.
The black Cherokee he Touts as being members are descendants of a
Cherokee Ancestor, absolutely no different than Smith
or Me
...
The Cherokee Ancestor/Citizen on the Dawes roll married a free slave
Negro/Colored just like Chad's ancestor and mine married a white
person, thus eventually producing Chad a white man Part Cherokee and Me
a Cherokee Part White but we both Cherokee because of the ancestor and
verifiable by the BIA with the issuance of the certificate attesting to
the Cherokee lineage. And the black Cherokee he touts, example Mike
Graham, a black man that passes as white, with the BIA certifiable
Cherokee lineage 
hawking the Racist rhetoric of Smith against our black
brothers and Sisters The Cherokee Freedmen, is this a sick form of
racism or not?? Then there is this one Mz Heather Williams 
She hawks the
Smith Rhetoric as well and to watch her say, "them black people only
want something for free", is so disgusting! These two black Cherokee
are Cherokee because of their Cherokee ancestor on the Dawes Rolls, NOT
their Freedmen ancestors and this is what gets them their pedigree from
the BIA, The CDIB card Thus their acceptance as a Cherokee by Smith and
company, and you can believe if Smith could lump them with the freedmen
he would, because they are black, BUT he can-not because they got the
little white BIA card that says they are Cherokee, So he does the next
best thing he uses their ignorance to hawk the racist rhetoric against
our black brothers and sisters!
Smith Said:
3. The Cherokee people and no government body or official -- chose to
return to what it was since time immemorial a tribe of Indians. Three
thousand signatures were collected in a citizens petition to put the
March 2007 amendment on the ballot for a referendum. This was the third
time Cherokees have spoken on this issue since 1975, and the amendment
passed by 77% of the vote.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
What is disgusting about this statement is the simple fact is Smith is
a Lawyer and he knows better, we are what we have been from time
immemorial, in the beginning we called ourselves A-ni-yv-wi-ya , later
to be called Tsa la gi and today in English means Cherokee, in the
1700's early 1800's we could have been called a tribe, and the
matrilineal Clan of government was the rule of law...
In 1827 when the centralized form of Government was taken on by the
Cherokee, and the 1827 Constitution of the Cherokee was passes and
implemented we ceased being a Tribe and became a Nation of Nationals.
Cherokee Citizens which included different ethnicity's even back then,
some adopted blacks, adopted Whites, other Tribal members adopted, so
even then we were a nation of Citizens not a tribe of Indians...
Yes Smiths hacks who were designated to collect the signatures did come
up with 3,000 but with the illegalities the petition process was
fraught with, I would even question the number, as you can see from
reading Justice Leeds dissent the one justice on the Court, Smith had
no control over, justice Dowty did write a dissenting opinion as well
which concurred with Leeds that the Petition should be thrown out. And
Smith is right the measure was passed by 77 or so percent of the vote,
but what he omits is only 2.6 percent of the Cherokee membership voted!
Smith Said: 4. Two-thirds of Cherokees fought for the Union in the
Civil War against the Confederacy.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
An inconsequential statement to the issue, the most important of the
aspect of the Civil War and the Cherokee they officially treated with
the confederates and fought the United states...And the war was won by
the Union thus The Cherokee were treated as a conquered nation and for
their own good realized they needed to sign a reconstruction treaty and
they did in 1866, resulting in the making citizens of the freed slaves.
Smith Said:
5. The Cherokee Nation, as a nation, owned no slaves. Two percent of
Cherokees held slaves before the Cherokee Nation voluntarily
emancipated them in 1863 - well before the Civil War ended, the passage
of the 13th Amendment, and the signing of the 1866 Treaty.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
Another inconsequential statement to the matter of fact, the Cherokee
Owned Slaves, though it was a small number of thin blood nearly white
Cherokee that owned the slaves emulating their White brethren...Even
that was inconsequential simply because The Cherokee Government was of,
by and for the Cherokee People and the Cherokee People was Responsible
for the actions of the government: Thusly the Government responsible
for the actions of its citizens.
Smith Said:
6. It is completely false that the Cherokee tribal court was ever
dissolved, reconstituted and then packed. This simply never happened.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
This has to be the most asinine statement in this total niggle, once
again the fact Smith is a Lawyer is what makes it utterly asinine...The
Curtis Act a congressional act, (Act of June 28, 1898), ch. 517, 30
Stat. 495. Section 28 of the Curtis Act provided that on July 1, 1898,
"all tribal courts in Indian Territory shall be abolished... No where
in the act did it say except for the Cherokee Nation, it unequivocally
states all tribal courts will be abolished, But Smith's statement is
partially true the Cherokee Court has NEVER been reconstituted legally,
and Smith knows that a Congressional Act or the Actions thereof can
only be abrogated by the Congress it self ONLY there fore the Cherokee
Nation has no Judicial system and Nether doe the Cherokee Nation of
Oklahoma,
In 1906, when Congress was considering the admission of Oklahoma to the
Union. it was deemed by Congress the tribal governments were needed to
be in place for what ever reason: therefore they were extended
indefinitely by Joint Resolution No. 7 of March 2, 1906, 34 Stat. 822,
and by Section 28 of the Five Tribes Act of April 26, 1906, ch. 1876,
34 Stat. 148. The Creeks face this problem in Harjo V Kleppe, 420 F.
Supp. 1110, 1118-1131 (D.D.C. 1976), aff'd 581 F.2d 949 (D.C. Cir.
1978), the court held that the Five Tribes Act of 1906 continued the
executive and legislative authority of the Creek government under the
Creek constitution of 1867.
The Muscogee Creek Nation V. Hodel court ruling stated, neither the
Five Tribes Act of 1906 nor the Harjo decision revived the Creek tribal
court system.
Only the re organization under the OIWA repealed the effect of the
abolishment of their Judicial system by the Curtis Act, and allowed the
Creek Nation to reconstitute its judicial system, if this is so for the
Creek Nation in federal Court, you can be assured it holds true for the
Cherokee Nation who have NOT been to any court to date nor been allowed
as a special entity to restore their court system. The Cherokee Nation
has No Court System, and most assuredly the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
does NOT either.
Swimmer knew all this when he wrote the supposed Constitution of the
Cherokee in 1975 if you will read:
Article VII Judicial. It says
"There is hereby created a Judicial Appeals Tribunal composed of three
(3) members all of whom must be admitted to practice law before the
highest Court of the State of which they are residents, and -all of
whom shall be members of the Cherokee Nation, appointed by the
Principal Chief and approved by the Council for such terms as the
Council may provide. The purpose of this Tribunal shall be to hear and
resolve any disagreements arising under any provisions of this
Constitution or any enactment of the Council. The Council shall provide
for a procedure which shall insure that any litigant receives due
process of law together with prompt and speedy relief, and shall
generally follow that portion of the Oklahoma Statutes known as the
Administrative Procedures Act, Title 75, Oklahoma Statutes, 301 et seq.
The decision of the Judicial Appeals Tribunal shall be final insofar as
the judicial process of the Cherokee Nation is concerned."
As you can see this is a judicial appeal Tribunal NOT a Court of law!
Smith Said:
Furthermore, as is the case for the President of the United States and
the Congress, neither I nor the Tribal Council have powers to dissolve
the tribal courts or pack them with anybody.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
No one is saying otherwise for The US Government, but the Simple fact
is either can with respect to the Indian Nations the president simply
by a stroke of the pen, because of the fact of the plenary control by
Congress over Indian affairs they can and have by congressional act,
and that is what took place in 1898 and that crippling blow to the
Cherokee Nation has NOT been abrogated. And Just as the President packs
the courts of the federal judiciary, so do the Indian Nations that have
courts, Not all have Courts.
The Cherokee Nation is one that does not, the Cherokee Nation of
Oklahoma has what is called a Judicial Appeals Tribunal which as we
speak is morphing in to an illegal court, and is conducting judicial
proceedings today, for the benefit of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma's
administrative branch, and you better believe it is packed/stacked with
Smith loyals 4 to 1.
Smith said:
In fact, only one Cherokee Principal Chief tried (and failed) to
dissolve the courts and that was Joe Byrd, the man who spoke on your
panel addressing this issue during the Congressional Black Caucus
Legislative Conference in September 2007. This is the same man who,
while a Tribal Council Member, voted three times to require Cherokee
citizens to have an Indian ancestor.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
This is another asinine babbling inconsequential to the issue! But Byrd
did not try to abolish the Court, he was acting on the advice of a
Lawyer who was actually working for the CNO political Machine that was
out to unseat him, Byrd was to absorbed in power craze to know he was
being got by his own people from within his circle...BTW Smith was a
part of the CNO machine, What Byrd, tried to do was Impeach the
justices, that had nothing to with the court, had he been successful
the Court would have still been in place.
Smith Said:
7. The example of the Seminole Nation could not be more different...The
Seminoles 1866 Treaty with the United States explicitly gave Freedmen
citizenship in the Seminole Nation in perpetuity. The Cherokee Nation's
1866 Treaty did not. Also, the Seminoles lacked a tribal court system
to adjudicate citizenship disputes, while the Cherokee Nation has had
one for many years.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
This is just more complete asinine drivel, while I have not read the
Seminole Treaty, I have read the Creek's 1866 Treaty and the Cherokee
1866 Treaty, neither treaty has a clause ending the Freedmen's
citizenship rights granted at the end of any stated or specific time,
and with the Cherokee Freedmen after being granted this right by law,
having to fight in court numerous times proving their citizenship
rights in EVERY instance, would indicate to me their citizenship is
rather solidly perpetual!
Smith Said
8. The Cherokee Nation has honored the 1866 Treaty and no court has
ever ruled otherwise. On the other hand, the U.S. Government and
Congress have broken countless treaties with the Cherokees and other
tribes for centuries, including the 1866 Treaty itself. In the case of
anti-Cherokee legislation, Congress would be violating the treaty if it
interfered with the courts as the 1866 Treaty was a negotiated document
that left it to tribal courts to decide these issues and that's what
they are doing today. While Congress might have the power to take away
funding to our poorest citizens, doing so is a blatant violation of the
1866 Treaty, which left to tribal courts the authority and
responsibility to determine citizenship disagreements.
I "The Elder" Cornsilk says!
Well finally an unequivocally correct statement, YES The Cherokee
Nation Absolutely honored the 1866 Treaty and honored its Cherokee
people as well, and did so in the same year of the signing of the
Treaty they amended their 1839 Constitution, see Article II Section 5.
this is an honoring of the fact of law they agree to in the signing of
the Treaty!
Yes it could be construed the Treaty of 1866 gave the rights of self
governance to the Cherokee to the extent it would honor the civil
rights of all its citizens, but that is not what Smith is trying to do
he is trying to abrogate this right the US swore to protect, and that
is what they are doing with Watson's action. The Cherokee Court
assuming it is an actual court has ruled on the issue, smith did not
like the ruling and set out to over throw it, now it is up to the
federal Court, and if they fail, the only other option is the Congress
must act.
Smith Said:
9. We strongly disagree on the meaning of the 1866 Treaty. However, you
cannot ignore what Congress did 40 years later. In 1902 and 1906,
Congress passed laws that clearly removed Freedmen descendants as
citizens in the Cherokee Nation. Subsequent federal court decisions
confirmed that Congress had changed the meaning of the 1866 Treaty with
respect to Freedmen descendants. Today, Congress wants to coerce the
Nation into giving back to Freedmen descendants what Congress took away
100 years ago. The ongoing confusion surrounding these issues
demonstrates why this matter belongs in the courts, which have all the
facts and law before them, and not in Congress. With more than $270
million in federal assistance for health care, housing and education
for the young, poor and infirm hanging in the balance, we have no
choice but to continue to oppose H.R. 2824 and related legislation. We
are proud that Indian Country in the United States in addition to
indigenous peoples groups internationally -- stand with the Cherokee
Nation on this issue. Hundreds of federally recognized tribes
represented by the National Congress of American Indians and thousands
of individual Native Americans have expressed their opposition to
anti-Cherokee legislation. They view it as a dangerous precedent,
similar to the kind of reckless and coercive congressional action that
led to the Trail of Tears. They understand that Congress should not
rush to judgment before the courts decide. And, more importantly, most
Americans can understand why an Indian tribe should be comprised of
Indians. It continues to be a sad fact that the contemplated approach
to the Cherokee Nation and Indian Country is reminiscent of the dark
periods of the 19th century rather than the more enlightened world of
the 21st century. I hope you will accept my invitation to meet soon --
either in Washington, D.C. or when you come to Oklahoma on June 7 --to
discuss these issues in greater depth.
"The Elder" Cornsilk says!
I am at a loss as to what the Congress did in 1902, that Smith could
seize upon in attempt of claiming abrogation of a congressional act
(THE CURTIS ACT) I know what he claims of the 1906 Act, but the Supreme
Court rendered that concept moot in Hodel where it said neither the
Harjo nor the 1906 act restores the judicial system of the Creek
Nation.
As for the thousands of people clamoring by mail for the congress to
not pick on the Cherokee Nation, sadly all those letters are from the
employees of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma who were told, mail those
letters or lose your job! Congress needs to look into that as well! In
fact Congress needs to order a full-fledged investigation in to the
business ot the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
Well Chad Congress is only after the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma to do
right by ALL its citizens', and any meeting you might have with
Congresswoman Watson can only result in her learning what a liar you
are, so I sincerely hope she will grant you a meeting and that you will
actually attend, which I doubt you would!
John "The Elder" Cornsilk
Cherokee CNO Member
Purveyor of Simple Truth!