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12 Dec, 13 tweets, 4 min read
A thread of federally-recognized tribe-enrolled possible nominees for Secretary of the Interior who have demonstrated their understanding of the Treaties of 1866 and the issues facing Freedmen of the Five Tribes.
1. Kevin Gover. An enrolled member of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, He has practiced & taught Indian law, natural resources law, water law, environmental law, and housing law since the 1980s. He served as the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs from 1997-2000 under Clinton. ImageImage
As Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, Gover rejected a proposed change to the Seminole Nation’s constitution which would have led to the disenrollment of their Freedmen in 2000. indianz.com/News/show.asp?…
2. Larry Echo Hawk. A long-time politician and lawyer and an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation in Cody, Wyoming, Echo Hawk also served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs from 2009-2012 under Pres. Obama. ImageImage
During his tenure, the government increased the amount of land held in trust for federally recognized Native American tribes by 158,000 acres, supporting efforts to be self-supportive and to reconnect fragmented reservations. He oversaw several water agreements made with tribes.
While leading Indian Affairs, he oversaw the formation of the Tribal Leadership Conference, which provides for an annual meeting between leaders or other representatives of the 566 federally recognized tribes, the U.S. President and all members of the Cabinet.
He also stood against a vote by the Cherokee Nation that later led to the disenrollment of Cherokee Freedmen, writing
"The [Interior] Department's position is, and has been that the 1866 Treaty between the United States and the Cherokee Nation vested Cherokee Freedmen with
rights of citizenship in the Nation, including the right of suffrage.” indianz.com/News/2011/09/1…
3. Carl Artman. A member of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, Artman is an attorney focused on tribal law and environmental law. He served as the tenth Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior from 2007-2008.
He also served as the Department’s Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs and chief counsel for his tribe, the Oneida Nation. As the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, he told the Cherokee Nation that the Treaty of 1866 prevented them from amending their
constitution to deny citizenship rights to their Freedmen. indianz.com/News/2008/0084…
We have seen communications that suggest that Secretary Haaland find the disenfranchisement and disenrollment of Freedmen “too complex” an issue to speak out on. There are still “progressive” groups supporting her nomination to the Secretary of the Interior.
All of these recommendations were mentioned and compiled by the Descendants of the Freedmen of the Five Tribes Association. Image

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More from @ChoctawFreedmen

Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
18 Dec
Deb Haaland is not a member of one of the Five Slaveholding Tribes. However, she has now chosen to accept a position as an agent of the federal government to oversee tribal affairs. In her position, supporting Black Freedmen of the Five Slaveholding Tribes is a good first step.
If she didn’t want to become an agent of the federal government and now become a party to the Treaties of 1866, she shouldn’t have accepted Biden’s offer to become the Sec. of the Interior. She is now the agent who is supposed to make sure the US govt upholds their end of tribal
treaties and make sure tribal governments uphold their end of treaties with the US govt. that’s literally part of her job description. So either way, she will have to take a stand on Freedmen. Whether she chooses to aid the tribes in our discrimination, or chooses a benign
Read 4 tweets
Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
17 Dec
Representative Deb Haaland has been chosen as Biden’s Sec. of the Interior. Haaland has refused to make support the Freedmen of the Five Slaveholding Tribes and had co-sponsored legislation that would allow our tribes to continue receiving funding despite their Jim Crow policies.
To the “progressive” organizations who continued to support Deb Haaland despite knowing this information, I hope you will stand with us now. Black Natives deserve to be treated equally. @ndncollective @sunrisemvmt @justicedems @MarkRuffalo
I am currently feeling mixed about this news. I hope she will now support us. We can’t allow this Jim Crow discrimination to continue for another four years. I am feeling very much stabbed in the back by Native and progressive orgs and people who have never spoken up for us.
Read 5 tweets
Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
17 Dec
During the Civil War, the Five Slaveholding Tribes aligned themselves with the Confederate States of America. In their treaties with the Confederacy, slavery was upheld and in the case of the Seminole Nation, the Confederacy promised reparations payments to slaveholders whose Image
slaves had been freed during the Second Seminole Wars. Many slaves owned by Seminoles were freed by Jesups Proclamation (the precursor to and the blueprint for the Emancipation Proclamation), so the Confederacy promised reparations payments for those freed slaves.
Pictured are Cherokee Confederate veterans in 1903.
Read 4 tweets
Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
16 Dec
Black and Native solidarity will be so difficult and so complex because although both groups have committed harm against one another, Native tribes committed harms (like slavery, discrimination, and violence) as sovereign nations, whereas Black Americans committed harms without
political independence or sovereignty. The Buffalo Soldiers, for example, were soldiers associated with the US army. They were acting as agents of the US govt and not their own political wills. There’s a stark difference in what accountability should and could look like.
Native tribes are often infantilized across the board, and are treated as “sovereign” in name, while either federal and state governments ignore their treaties and rights or Native activists excuse their historical and present harms.
Read 5 tweets
Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
16 Dec
From the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations' Treaty with the Confederate States of America (1861): "It is hereby declared and agreed that the institution of slavery in the said nations is legal and has existed from time immemorial; that slaves are taken and deemed to be personal..."
"property; that the title to slaves and other property having its origin in the said nations shall be determined by the laws and customs thereof; and that the slaves and other personal property of every person domiciled in said nations shall pass and be distributed at his or ..."
"her death in accordance with the laws, usages and customs of the said nations, which may be proved like foreign laws, usages and customs, and shall everywhere be held valid and binding within the scope of their operation." #TheTruthShallSetYouFree #ChickasawPropaganda
Read 4 tweets
Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
8 Dec
And see, this is the issue. No Native American person should be telling the descendants of displaced slaves—especially descendants of people owned by Native Americans—to go back to Africa.
As we explained here, we are not immigrants, settlers, or colonizers. We have nowhere in Africa to go back to. Many of the ethnic tribes our ancestors are from have dissolved or where forcibly disestablished during the colonization of the African continent.
Not to mention THIS IS WHERE WE ARE FROM AND HAVE LIVED FOR GENERATIONS. Our ancestors created a new culture and new ethnicity on this land after being forcibly removed from their homelands in Africa. Many of us were owned by Native Americans too. So don’t tell us to
Read 4 tweets

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