Black Native American

Preserving, remembering the Siksika Nation

by Master Sgt. Scott Wagers
Air Force News Agency

11/15/2007 - RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) -- Being a part of a warrior society has not only manifested in Andrea LaBoy's 25 years of continuous military service to the Air Force, it is also embedded in half of her ethnic lineage as a Siksika Indian, a tribe indigenous to southern Canada.
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Scholar in Native American Studies

Women's and Ethnic Studies

University of Colorado





The Women's and Ethnic Studies Program (WEST) is seeking a tenure-track assistant professor focused on indigenous struggles in the United States with a possible transnational perspective. Attention to how colonialism, racism, class, gender, sexuality, and religion shapes native struggles is key. Candidate may have an interdisciplinary background with grounding in history, literature and/or other relevant fields. The candidate needs to have a Ph.D. in a relevant field (or be very close to finished). We are seeking a candidate dedicated to innovative scholarship, liberatory pedagogy, and community engagement.

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download judgement here

D.C. Circuit Rules Suit Against Cherokee Officers Can Go Forward

Native American litigation frequently presents interesting questions. Here's a prime example: On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a suit filed by descendants of slaves once owned by the Cherokee Nation. The slaves' descendants, who are called Cherokee Freedmen, sued the Nation and Cherokee officers in 2003, when they were denied the right to vote in a Cherokee election. The appellate court addressed whether sovereign immunity protected the Cherokee Nation and its officers against such a suit, ruling the Freedmen's case can go forward against the officers, but not against the tribe.

The Freedmen's lead lawyer, Jonathan Velie, of Velie & Velie, declared victory in the split decision. "We don't have to sue the tribe to get the relief we wanted," he told us. Joining Velie on the brief were Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman attorneys Jack McKay, Alvin Dunn, Thomas Allen, and Ellen Cohen. [Full disclosure: the Litigation Daily's sister-in-law represents the Freedmen.]

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner Josh Galper, an attorney for the Cherokee Nation, also declared victory. "This opinion is a major vindication of sovereignty for the Cherokee Nation and all Indian Country," said Galper in a statement. "The D.C. Circuit panel unanimously upheld the Cherokee Nation's sovereign immunity and rejected every one of plaintiffs' arguments against it, dismissing the case against the Cherokee Nation. The next issue to be decided in the District Court is if the case can go forward against tribal officials without the Cherokee as a party."

Orrick attorney Garret Rasmussen argued for the Cherokee Nation at the D.C. Circuit. On the brief he was joined by Orrick attorneys Raymond Mullady, Jr., Lanny Davis, and Adam Goldberg.

from AmericanLawyer.com

 Hey all!!

So, I am leaving for a job in Tokyo, Japan. I don't think that I will be able to properly manage the community or keep posting as much as I'd like. That said, the comm doesn't need much upkeep, and since we don't have as much flow as other communities, I'm thinking that I'll just take my name off as administrator.

If anyone would like to be administrator, please drop me a line in my journal and I'll hook it up. If no one steps up to be administrator, I'm pretty sure it won't be a big deal either!

Let me know! :)

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

MOSCOW, RUSSIA -Radmilla Cody immediately noticed two things upon her arrival in Moscow. First, there was no apparent order, and secondly, hers was the only face of color.

"There were no lines at the airport," Cody laughed. "People walked around like they were driving bulldozers - they walked right in front of me. Finally, someone asked me if I was in line, and told me that I would have to be more aggressive.

"Then I realized that people were staring at me," Cody continued. "I looked around me, and I was literally the only person of color."
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Research program offers Cherokee genealogy help
Source: www.tulsaworld.com
Date: Friday, June 27 @ 07:09:25 AM PDT

The Cherokee Nation and leaders from Tulsa's African-American community plan to work together to provide genealogy research to people who think they are eligible for Cherokee citizenship.

The outreach program is open to individuals of all races and nationalities who think they have Cherokee ancestry and wish to apply for citizenship in the Cherokee Nation.
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uh huh. *sits on hands*

De Florida a Coahuila (From Florida to Coahuila)

Near the city of Muzquiz, Coahuila, lives a small population of black people, El Nacimiento de los Negros, descendants of the ones called black Seminoles in the United States. The black Seminoles were of African origin who assimilated with many North American indigenous groups from the Florida region. Together these people formed the Seminole confederation, (the word Seminole has its origin on the Spanish word “cimarrón”).

In 1850, running away from the territorial politics of slavery and racial discrimination in the United States, the mascogos (black Seminoles) sought asylum in Mexico, where after serving as border troops in the north of the country, they were given lands and the Mexican nationality.

The Mascogo/Black Seminole culture combines African-American spirituals, Indian fry-bread, and Tex-Mex cowboy culture. Their old religion was based in dream divination, and their old language combined West African, Native American, English, and Spanish. But these old ways have been dying along with the elders who practiced them, and young Mascogo and Black Seminoles have lost touch with a heritage which is not taught in school and which risks total assimilation into mainstream Mexican and U.S. culture. Filmed on both sides of the border, this video documents the complex history of people of African descent caught between national boundaries, and the efforts of their descendants to maintain their culture and instill a sense of pride in future generations of this warrior people.

http://www.cherokeenationfacts.org/

Prince: We're imitating the enemy

Posted: May 16, 2008
by: Shannon Prince
Many intelligent American Indian thinkers have already pointed out why the freedmen have a legal right to remain in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

Cherokee judge Steve Russell has noted in his Indian Country Today column that the freedmen have the right, according to Article 9 of the treaty between the United States and the Cherokee Nation of 1866, to be citizens of the Cherokee Nation. He has also reiterated the well-documented fact that many (and one might say nearly all) freedmen have Cherokee Indian blood that the racists who created the Dawes Rolls didn't note simply because of the pseudo-scientific belief that ''one drop'' of black blood negated all others - a fact that shows the nonsense of the claim that the removal of the freedmen from the Cherokee Nation is based on the desire to allow only those with Indian blood to be Indians.

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black indian and maroon history from katz.

...This uniquely "only in America" relationship began with the earliest foreign landings in the New World. From Nova Scotia to Cape Horn, and along the jewel-like islands of the Caribbean, Europeans imposed a slave system first on Native Americans. Then, as millions of Indian fell victim to overwork, disease and brutality, kidnapped Africans began to take their places.

There in the misty dawn of the Americas two peoples of color began to meet in slave huts, on tobacco and cotton plantations, and as workers in dank mines. For two centuries Indians and Africans remained enslaved together, and Native Americans were not exempted from the system until after the Revolution. Scholar C. Vann Woodward has concluded "If the black-red inter-breeding was anywhere as extensive as suggested by the testimony of ex-slaves, then the monoracial concept of slavery in America requires revision."

The African-Indian connection also adds a sharp new dimension to the issue of slave resistance. The first evidence of Native American and African unity appears in a l503 communication to Spain's King Ferdinand from Viceroy Nicolas de Ovando of Spain's headquarters on Hispaniola, now Haiti. Ovando complained that his enslaved Africans "fled among the Indians and taught them bad customs and never could be captured." In the last four words the governor is describing more than a problem with untrustworthy servants or the difficulties of retrieving runaways in a rainforest. From his thin line of white colonies, he sees Europeans confronting a new bi-racial enemy that has a base of support in the interior. The budding coalition has new recruits joining each week.

from here.

A move to destroy the Cherokee Nation

That "decisive vote" was how many people?

i was actually looking for youtubes of radmilla cody but came across this piece on native people who cannot be enrolled because they dont meet treaty enrollment rules. please note that this vid includes images of hunting.

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so. maerhys's post on pretendindians? yeah. this would be it.

 This guy talks about being multiracial. I've seen some of his other stuff and I think that he has a chip on his shoulder regarding "non-mixed" blacks. I thought it was important, however, to hear his views on white people who claim to be "Native American" in their "hearts".

I found this great resource. It's a Black Indian press that, according to their website, is a multi-media publisher specializing in the history and genealogy if the "Freedmen" of the "Five Civilized Tribes".

The Estelusti Foundation is also a semi-new website that I've found that details in greater depth the history of Freedmen, and to a lesser degree, black Native Americans in general. There is also an African-Native American Genealogy page, dedicated to the lives of Freedmen and Black Native Americans.

Enjoy!

On the eve of what could be the largest gambling expansion in U.S. history, a tale of power, betrayal and lost Indian heritage
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via pam_noles_blog

Blood, Race and Cherokee Sovereignty
by William Loren Katz


As President Bill Clinton and others arrived in Selma, Alabama for the 42nd anniversary of the "bloody Sunday" march that prodded Congress to pass the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Cherokee Nation chose a lower road. Members voted overwhelmingly for an amendment to their constitution that revokes citizenship rights for 2,800 members because their ancestors included people of African descent.

Marilyn Vann, president of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes, has long fought racism from both government officials and by leaders of indigenous Nations. She points out that Cherokee leaders misled voters by insisting "freedmen don't have Indian blood", "the freedmen were forced on the tribe", "the freedmen do not have a treaty right to citizenship", "the people have never voted on citizenship provisions in the history of the tribe", and "the amendment will create an all Indian tribe." Cherokee voters were also influenced by the racist charge "that the freedmen if not ejected, would use up all of the tribal service monies.”( Read more... )

 

This is the shit that just annoys the shit out of me. And people have the nerve to point out htat she is part NA. So? What has she done for us lately? Huh? When was the last time I saw her helping defend Native rights? Hmm?

If you're dressing up as Pocohantas (and some widely fetishized version of her) for Halloween, you're not really "in the fight".

And her husband dressed up like a Mexican Revolutionary (I'm thinking Pancho Villa because that's probably the only one he knows) and this kid thinks that being Mexican and not being offended makes it okay.

Damn. It angers the shit outta me!

See the original stupidity here.

I open up my personal LJ e-mail this morning and in my inbox heading, I see "Black Indians". I open it up, thinking that it's information I've requested (I'm creating a docomentary that discusses the  lives of Black Native American people in the new millenium) but instead it's a ranting e-mail from some chick that thinks I'm a raving racist.

I have a mind to write her back, but I have a life and I'm thinking that answering her would feed the fire and open up a whole other side of crazy that I'm just too busy to deal with. I've got college exams, but, since I have a break for an hour or two, I thought I'd amuse you all.

She writes:

As a black Indian, I notice some of your questions and comments are anti-Native American. For example, you make the comment "It is about addressing overlooked Native American against Black-Native American racism" and ask, "Do you wonder why most Native American Nations would rather accept White Native Americans over Black?" This is what angers me about black people. They can see other people's fault, but not their own.

 
x-posted to blackfolk, blindiand dot_race_snark

 This is the first part of a six part series that talks about Black Native Americans. At times it can be a little preachy and borderline WTF, so beware. I'll comment later when I finish watching the rest of the videos. 

You can find the rest following the links on youtube here

“The First and the Forced”: Indigenous and African American Intersections