Black Native American

December 29, 2009
Shinnecock Indians See Prosperity Ahead
By RUSS BUETTNER

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — As Shinnecock Indians returned to their reservation on Long Island after World War II, elders warned that their tribe’s long struggle for survival was once again threatened.

Decent jobs were scarce and many Shinnecock veterans were leaving, draining the reservation of needed hands.

“The older men said, ‘If all of you young men move away, who is going to be here to carry on the work of the reservation and our traditions?’ ” recalled one war veteran, Harry K. Williams, who is now 85.

It has been a stark and constant choice in the life of the tribe: a pastoral yet relatively impoverished existence on the 800-acre reservation or something different beyond its borders.

Now this small tribe on the eastern end of Long Island is on the verge of sketching a new, perhaps more prosperous chapter. The Obama administration’s recent announcement that the Shinnecocks met the criteria for federal recognition finally paves the way for a casino, generating a bounty of jobs and revenue.

( Read more... )

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.

( Read more... )

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."
( Read more... )

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.
( Read more... )

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.

( Read more... )