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.
Native tribes must be held to the same standard as other sovereign nations, especially in regards to how the are treating the descendants of their slaves. Their policies would never be accepted by Americans if they were being committed against Black descendants of slaves in other
countries. We must hold Native nations to the same standards of other nations, particularly when they’ve perpetuated real and tangible harm.

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More from @ChoctawFreedmen

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
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
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
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
12 Dec
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?…
Read 13 tweets
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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