Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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Barnes
and Nobles Dictionary of American Politics
defines the Bureau of Indian Affairs as “A unit of the Department of
the
Interior, responsible for the exercise of special guardianship over the
economic, educational, and moral welfare of Indians and other American
aborigines, which acts as Trustee for Indian property seeking at the
same time to
encourage and train the Indian owners to exercise direct control, and
which
assists the Indian when he seeks to leave tribal ways and become
assimilated to
American culture outside the reservation.”
Also
in that dictionary, “national sovereignty” is defined
as, “an idea sometimes expressed by Daniel Webster and Abraham Lincoln
that the
Union is supreme because it is older than the States and in fact
created them
as states...”
The
sovereignty of American Indian people and Nations is much
older than the White man’s sovereignty.
Article
VI, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United
States of America reads, “This Constitution, and the laws of the Untied
States
which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or
which shall
be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme
law of
the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby,
anything in the
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.”
The
United States keeps talking about “freedom,” and they
also claim that they are a “nation of laws.”
But, they neglect to say that every one of these laws the White
man
wrote against Indians is written to steal land, resources, and freedom
from
Indian people. Indian people had no
input in writing these laws. Every one
of these laws is a civil and human rights violation.
And, every one of these laws is a violation of international law.
A few examples of these laws include:
**: Creating
apartheid “Trusteeship” over Indian
nations.
1824: Creating
the Bureau of Indian Affairs
1885: The
Major Crimes Act
1887: The
Dawes Act
1889: The
Minnesota Chippewa Commission
1914: The
Snyder Act—creating the U.S. Forest
Service under the Department of Agriculture
1924: Citizenship—without
the guaranteed right to
vote
1934: The
Wheeler-Howard Indian Reorganization Act
1946: The
“Indian Claims Commission”
1948: Relocation
1953: Termination
and Public Law 280
1987: The
White Earth Land Settlement Act
These
are just a few examples. All of these laws
were legislated over our sovereign Indian
people without our consent, and in most cases, without the U.S. even
telling us
about it. Secretary of the Interior
Douglas McKay explained the U.S. Government’s attitude about “consent”
in 1955,
“In short, it seems to me that the principle of Indian ‘consent’ ...
has most
serious Constitutional implications ... I believe that it would be
extremely
dangerous.”
The
Tribal Councils gave up their sovereignty when they adopted
1934 I.R.A. Constitutions. (They became
colonial governments under the control of the U.S.A.)
But, when Indian people signed the I.R.A. Constitutions at that
time, they did not understand the shyster English that the B.I.A. used. They had no access to the news media. There was little communication between
different Indian Nations.
Indian
Nations and Traditional Indian people, however, have
not given up our sovereignty. Applying
Title 25 and the other White laws to acculturated Indian people who
have chosen
to follow the White man is legal. These
people have given up their sovereignty, and with it their right to
Indian
property. Many of these people took the
settlements that were offered them by the U.S.A., sold their land, and
then
came back onto the reservations. If
they had come back willing to follow traditional Indian values, there
wouldn’t
be any problem. But, the U.S.
Government encourages them and pays them to destroy our traditional
values—and
uses them in an illegal colonial government over Indian nations. These people have no right to make decisions
which affect Indian land or Indian rights, and no jurisdiction in
legitimate
traditional Indian government.
Under
International Law, Uncle Sam’s actions are
criminal. Nobody but a criminal would
occupy somebody else’s land and make all of these laws.
Con games and bamboozling (except in “Indian
Affairs”) are also against the law. So
is genocide.
By Francis Blake
NEWS Correspondent
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