Felton Newell, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House, says Congress should not intervene in the Cherokee Freedmen dispute.
Newell is challenging Rep. Diane Watson (D-California), who has sponsored bills to cut federal funds to the Cherokee Nation unless the Freedmen are restored to citizenship.
"The people of the Cherokee Nation should have the sovereignty to decide for themselves what membership means,” Newell told The Cherokee Phoenix. "I don’t think it’s appropriate for the U.S. Congress to be stepping in to dictate to the Cherokee tribe what its definition of membership should be.” OP: How about terms of treaties Felton?
The message has resonated with tribal leaders, who approved $7,400 in donations to Newell and his political action committee. "His opponent is the one person in Congress who has introduced a bill to terminate the Cherokee Nation and she actively fights against tribal sovereignty," Ginger Brown, the tribe's government relations officer, told the paper. "So it’s really a clear cut choice and one that other Indian tribes will likely make as well."
OP: Does she fight against sovereignty, or corrupt leaders of the Cherokee Nation that has violated their treaties and the civil rights of the Cherokee Freedmen. How about when tribes like PECHANGA don't follow their OWN constitution, Felton? How much will it cost to get you to be on the side of CIVIL RIGHTS for the Individual Indian, Felton?
Contributions for Rep. Diane Watson can be sent to:
4322 WILSHIRE BLVD. #205 LOS ANGELES, CA 90010
You handled that well, O.P.
ReplyDeleteNothing else I need to say except, Diane Watson, Vote - Yes
Steve Haze, Vote - Yes
Still waiting for an AIRRO member to run for Congress. my vote would be - Yes
“Permanent Interests: The Expansion, Organization, and Rising Influence of African Americans in Congress, 1971–2007
ReplyDelete…Among the CBC’s notable legislative achievements were the passage of the Humphrey–Hawkins Act of 1978 to promote full employment and a balanced budget, the creation in 1983 of a federal holiday commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and legislation in 1986 that imposed the first sanctions against South Africa’s all-white government for its practice of apartheid…. “
http://baic.house.gov/historical-essays/essay.html?intID=1&intSectionID=10
“…Newell, 38, said he opposes legislation Watson authored in 2007 to cut federal funding to the CN. Watson penned the bill after Cherokee citizens voted to expel all non-Indian citizens from the tribe. The vote affected about 2,800 Cherokee Freedmen. He said he opposes Watson’s interference because he doesn’t believe it’s an issue Congress should be addressing.
“The people of the Cherokee Nation should have the sovereignty to decide for themselves what membership means,” Newell said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for the U.S. Congress to be stepping in to dictate to the Cherokee tribe what its definition of membership should be.”
http://www.cherokeephoenix.org/20951/Article.aspx
If Congress and the CBC hadn’t decided to push to “sever” relations with Apartheid South Africa, Nelson Mandela would still be in jail. Felton Newell shows a serious lack in what a sovereign practice of “Apartheid” or “Jim Crow” really is. Taking money for a manufactured statement doesn’t bode well for his character either. He’s not fit for the job.
Lets try the statement with some editing:
The people of the Cherokee or (Republic of South Africa) Nation should have the sovereignty to decide for themselves what membership means,” Newell said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for the U.S. Congress to be stepping in to dictate to the Cherokee tribe or(White Afrikaaner tribe) what its definition of membership should be.
Author and attorney Charles W. Chesnutt wrote this about Black dis-enfranchisement in 1903. The Original Pechanga blog has taken great pains to point out the civil and human rights of the individual in a sovereign society. I think it appropriate to place this excerpt here:
ReplyDelete"The Disfranchisement of the Negro
From The Negro Problem (1903).
...I have spoken of the effect of disfranchisement upon the colored race; it is to the race as a whole, that the argument of the problem is generally directed. But the unit of society in a republic is the individual, and not the race, the failure to recognize this fact being the fundamental error which has beclouded the whole discussion."
http://www.online-literature.com/charles-chesnutt/3174/
Over 100 years later, the dis-enfranchisement of tribal citizens, Indian and Tribal Freedmen descendants alike, is no less a concern of the individual today then it was in 1903, just before Jim Crow removed every right that Blacks had earned during Reconstruction. Tribal individuals are seeing their own collapse of Reconstruction before our very eyes and it is called dis-enrollment.