Sunday, June 24, 2007

Cherokee Nation News Release
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Cherokee Nation Director of Communications@cherokee.org
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June 24, 2007

Cherokee Nation General Election Results

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Cherokee voters re-elected Principal Chief Chad Smith, elected 17 Council members and passed a referendum affirming a Constitutional amendment during the June 23 general election.

Smith received 7,974 votes, or 59% of the vote, beating challenger Stacy Leeds, who received 5,593 votes, or 41%.

The race for Deputy Chief saw incumbent Joe Grayson, Jr. defeating Raymond Vann. Grayson received 8,230 votes, 61% of the total cast. Vann finished with 5,205 votes, or 39%.

The following results for Council seats were decided at the polls on June 23:

District One - Cherokee District (Cherokee County - 2 Seats):

In Seat 1, incumbent Bill John Baker with 1576 votes (63%) defeated Barbara Dawes Martin who brought in 911 votes (37%). In Seat 2, incumbent Audra Smoke Connor will face-off against Tina Glory Jordan for the Seat 2 spot. Smoke Connor received 583 votes (24%) and Glory Jordan received 1083 votes (44%). David Walkingstick and Amon A. Baker, also vying for Seat 2, received 360 (15%) and 455 (18%) votes respectively.

District Two – Trail of Tears District (Adair County - 2 Seats)

In Seat 1, S. Joe Crittenden received 905 votes (57%) and defeated Rita Bunch, who garnered 690 votes (43%). In the race for Seat 2, incumbent Jackie Bob Martin who received 538 votes (33%) will face off with Jody Fishinghawk, who received 484 votes (30%). Other hopefuls in the Seat 2 race included Bob G. Leach with 286 votes (18%), Jack L. Christie with 281 votes (17.3%) and Ronnie Joe Hale with 34 votes (2%).

District Three – Sequoyah District (Sequoyah County - 2 Seats)

In the race for Seat 1, incumbent David W. Thornton with 612 votes narrowly defeated Sam Ed Bush, Jr. who received 610 votes. In Seat 2, challenger Janelle Lattimore Fullbright defeated incumbent Phyllis Yargee by a vote of 729 (58%) to 535 (42%).

District Four – Three Rivers District (Muskogee, Wagoner and McIntosh Counties – 1 Seat)

Incumbent Don Garvin will retain his seat, defeating challenger Micky Igert by a vote of 732 votes (69%) to 326 votes (31%).

District Five – Delaware District (Delaware and part of Ottawa Counties - 2 Seats)

In Seat 1, challenger Harley L. Buzzard with 610 votes (53%) won over incumbent Melvina Shotpouch who received 455 votes (40%) and Susan Lamb Reed with 87 votes (8%). In Seat 2, challenger Curtis G. Snell received 699 votes (67%) to defeat incumbent Linda Hughes O’Leary, who received 349 votes (33%).

District Six – Mayes District (Mayes County - 2 Seats)

In Seat 1, Chris Soap, 403 votes (56%) defeated Sue Fine, 250 votes (35%) and Jerry D. Troglin, 62 votes (9%). Meredith Frailey, who ran unopposed, will retain her position in Seat 2, with 615 votes.

District Seven – Will Rogers District (Rogers County - 1 Seat)

Incumbent Cara Cowan Watts will retain her seat with 716 votes (76%), defeating challenger Thelda Rucker Boen, who had 225 votes (24%).

District Eight – Oolagah District (Washington County & part of Tulsa County- 2 Seats)

For Seat 1, incumbent Buel Anglen, with 745 votes (75%), won over challenger Roy Herman, who had 250 votes (25%). For Seat 2, Bradley Cobb with 681 votes (69%) defeated Stephen D. Earley who received 304 votes (31%).

District Nine – Craig District (Nowata and Craig counties - 1 Seat)

Charles “Chuck” Hoskin, Jr., who received 490 votes (69%), defeated Rodney Lay who had 224 votes (31%).

At-Large District (outside the 14-county Cherokee Nation boundary - 2 Seats)

In Seat 1, Julia Coates, with 1,935 votes (74%) defeated Taylor Keen, who received 676 votes (26%). In Seat 2, Jack D. Baker, who had 1,952 votes (75%) will retain his seat, defeating challenger Sean R. Nordwall, who received 650 votes (25%).

In addition to the races held for elected officials, the resolution affirming the 2003 Constitutional amendment which removed the federal approval requirement from the Cherokee Nation Constitution, passed by a vote of 7,912 to 3,896 (67% to 33%).

Although results are not official until certified by the Cherokee Nation Election Commission, it is not expected that results will change significantly.

The run-off election for the two Council seats is scheduled for July 28, 2007.

For detailed election results, visit the Cherokee Nation web site at www.cherokee.org

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Kanuchi

Kanuchi is considered to be a real delicacy. The nuts are gathered in the fall and allowed to dry for a few weeks before the kanuchi making begins. It is a simple process, but that does not necessarily mean that is easy. The hickory nuts are cracked and the largest pieces of shell removed either by shaking the pieces through a loosely woven basket, or picking them out by hand.

Traditionally, a log was hollowed out on one end into a bowl like shape. The shelled hickory nuts are placed in the hollowed log and pounded with a long heavy stick with the end rounded to have the same contour, more or less, as the cavity in the log. The nuts are pounded until they are of a consistency that can be formed into a ball that will hold its shape. Kanuchi balls are usually about three inches in diameter and must be stored in a cold place. Today kanuchi is usually preserved by freezing.

To prepare kanuchi for the table, place a kanuchi ball in a saucepan with about a quart of water and bring it to a boil to dissolve the ball. Allow the kanuchi to simmer about ten minutes and then poor it through a fine sieve. (A colander lined with cheese cloth works very well for this.) All the remaining shells are left in the sieve. If you have the time and patience you can pick the larger bits of nut meat from the shells in the sieve and add them to the liquid kanuchi. The kanuchi should be about as thick as light cream. Most traditional cooks will add about two cups of homemade hominy to a quart of kanuchi. Some cooks prefer hominy grits, which are prepared according to package directions and added to the kanuchi. Others add cooked rice. Such things as consistency and how much hominy or hominy grits to add are, of course a matter of taste, as is the addition of salt or sugar.

Serve kanuchi hot as soup.


The John Howard Payne papers, a document from 1835 where elders were interviewed for their knowledge, states that a thick drink was made from hickory nuts which had been pounded, but it was made with cold water and allowed to thicken without the addition of hominy or rice.

Info provided by various sources.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Native American Lands Sold under the Dawes Act

By 1871, the federal government stopped signing treaties with Native Americans and replaced the treaty system with a law giving individual Indians ownership of land that had been tribal property. This "Indian Homestead Act," official known as the Dawes Act, was a way for some Indians to become U.S. citizens.

There were two reasons why the treaty system was abondoned. First, white settlers needed more and more land, and the fact that tribes were treated as separate nations with separate citizens made it more difficult to take land from them and "assimilate" them into the general population. Assimilation had become the new ideal. The goal was to absorb the tribes into the European-American culture and make native people more like mainstream Americans. Second, the House of Representatives was angry that they did not have a voice in these policies. Under the constitution, treaties are ratified by the U.S. Senate, not the House, even though the House has to appropriate the money to pay for them. So the Congress passed a compromise bill in 1871 that, in effect, brought an end to the treaty system. The bill contained the following language buried in an appropriations law for the Yankton Indians --

"Provided, That hereafter no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe , or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty..."

The end of the treaties meant the end of treating tribes as sovereign nations. Attempts were made to undermine the power of the tribal leaders and the tribal justice systems. Tribal bonds were viewed as an obstacle to federal attempts to assimilate the Indian into white society. Assimilation of the American Indians would become the basis for much of the government policy toward the Native American from the 1880s to the 1930s.

"It has become the settled policy of the Government to break up reservations, destroy tribal relations, settle Indians upon their own homesteads, incorporate them into the national life, and deal with them not as nations or tribes or bands, but as individual citizens."
-- Commissioner of Indian Affairs Thomas J. Morgan, 1890.

This set the stage for the passage by Congress of the General Allotment Act (the Dawes Severalty Act) of 1887.

Congressman Henry Dawes had great faith in the civilizing power of private property. He said that to be civilized was to "wear civilized clothes ... cultivate the ground, live in houses, ride in Studebaker wagons, send children to school, drink whiskey [and] own property." This act was designed to turn Indians into farmers, in the hopes they would become more like mainstream America.

The federal government divided communal tribal lands into 160-acre parcels -- known as allotments -- and gave them to individual tribal members. The U.S. Government would then hold the land allotted to individual Indians in trust for a period of 25 years, so that the Indian would not sell the land and return to the reservation and/or be swindled out of it by scheming white men. The Act went on to offer Indians the benefits of U.S. citizenship -- if they took an allotment, lived separate form the tribe and became "civilized."

"And every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States to whom allotments shall have been made under the provisions of this act, or under any law or treaty, and every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States who has voluntarily taken up, within said limits, his residence separate and apart from any tribe of Indians therein, and has adopted the habits of civilized life, is hereby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and is entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities of such citizens..."
-- Language from the Dawes Act.

The Dawes Act would be the most important method of acquiring citizenship for the Indians prior to 1924. The Dawes Act tied Indian citizenship to the ultimate proof of civilization -- individual ownership of property. The American Indian became an American citizen as soon as he received his allotment. The Act also declared that Indians could become citizens if they had separated from their tribes and adopted the ways of civilized life, without ending their rights to tribal or other property. In a sense, the American Indian could maintain dual citizenship -- tribal and American.

President Theodore Roosevelt described this important law in his message to Congress of December 3, 1901 as "a mighty pulverizing engine to break up the tribal mass."

The supporters of the Dawes Act not only wanted to destroy the Indian tribal loyalties and the reservation system but also to open up the reservation lands to white settlement. Hundreds of thousands of acres of land remained after the individual 160-acre allotments had been made. These parcels were then sold at bargain prices to land-hungry whites.

Funds from the sale of so-called surplus land were used to establish Indian schools. The idea was that Indian children could be educated and taught the social habits of white Americans, thus completing the process of assimilation.

The allotment system turned out to be a monumental disaster for the Indians. In addition to losing their "surplus" tribal land, many Native American families also lost their allotted land despite the government's 24-year period of trusteeship. The poorest of the poor were landless and the majority of Indians still resisted assimilation. Native Americans reached their lowest population numbers shortly after the turn of the 20th Century.

By 1932, the sale of unclaimed land and allotted land resulted in the loss of two-thirds of the more than 100-million acres Native Americans had held prior to the Dawes Act.

Because special treaties guaranteed them self-government, the tribes in the Indian Territory had been excluded from the Dawes Act. But, the pressures of white settlers and railroads wanting to acquire Indian land soon resulted in President Harrison declaring in 1889 that lands in the Oklahoma area were open to settlement. The various tribes in the Indian Territory were pressured into signing agreements to allot their lands. By 1901, the Native Americans of the Indian Territory were declared U.S. citizens. In 1907, Oklahoma became a State in the Union, and the tribes of Oklahoma had lost their sovereignty and their lands.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

peggy sanders brennan
Keeping the Old Baskets Alive

Peggy Sanders Brennan Peggy Sanders Brennan, one of the leaders of Midwestern and Southeastern Native basketry, credits her art and connection to Cherokee culture for leading her away from overwhelming grief. “My knowledge of Cherokee basketry was my way of connecting to my past after the death of my father, Buck Sanders,” says Brennan. “After my father died, I needed a connection to him; his mother, Myrtle Monroe; and to my other Cherokee grandmothers.”

Chestnut bread tray woven of ash dyed with cochineal decorated with traditional Cherokee symbols: the diamonds are “Chief’s Daughters” and the stars are “Noonday Suns.” Photo: Ann C. ShermanIn the late 1980s, Brennan, 59, searched out her ancestry at the Cherokee Nation’s capitol in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and at the Oklahoma Historical Society with the help of her mother and oldest sister. Through the guidance of Cherokee artist Betty (Queti) Bondy, Brennan, a member of the Wolf Clan, studied ancient Cherokee beliefs for many years. “It was during this time that I began an interest in basket weaving,” Brennan says.

After failing to locate any local Cherokee weavers, patterns or techniques, “I bought any books about basket weaving I could find,” Brennan says. She examined Southeastern Indian baskets in private and museum collections to learn how her ancestors wove Cherokee twill baskets from maple, ash and honeysuckle. And she learned how to use plants, minerals and insects to dye her basket splints.

Then one day Brennan met master Cherokee basket weaver Mavis Doering, who taught her how to weave the Cherokee wicker plaited double-wall basket. Brennan learned how to gather and process river cane from artists Robin McBride Scott of Indiana and Roger and Shawna Cain of Oklahoma. And Michigan weaver Jackie Carlson, author of Flowing Water, which details the Cherokee double-weave technique, helped Brennan master the river cane double-weave basket.

Storage basket, white oak dyed with walnut and bloodroot.Brennan says that the significance of the various symbols on Cherokee baskets relates to her people’s spirituality. “The clan symbols woven into mats and baskets identified who we were,” she says. ”When we attended a council meeting, our mat with the clan symbols hung above us and we sat on a mat with our symbols.” These symbols, which derive from both natural objects and religious worship, form the basketry, beadwork and finger-weaving patterns that journeyed to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears with their creators. “By keeping the designs alive in our baskets,” she says, “we are remembering our past.”

Brennan’s desire to preserve the ancients’ patterns was bolstered by a First Place ribbon in the 1993 exhibit The Fire Takers: A Cherokee Homecoming Art Show at the Cherokee National Museum in Tahlequah for a traditionally woven and dyed oak plaited twill basket. Among her other awards, Brennan treasures her Judges’ Choice ribbon at the 2000 Heard Museum Indian Market for a basket tray.

Two of Brennan’s baskets were included in the traveling exhibit By Their Works You Shall Know Them, running from 1994 to 1996. This exhibit depicted the effects on Southeastern Indian basketry of the forced removal of Natives to Oklahoma. She was also an artist in residence at the Eiteljorg Museum in connection with the Philbrook Museum of Art’s world-renowned Clark Field Collection in 1999.

The lady who once taught herself weaving now shares her hard-won skill with others, including many family members. “I hope to continue to honor my teachers by passing on the art of Cherokee basketry,” Brennan says. “Teaching Native basketry is now more important to me than actually weaving baskets.” In 2001, Brennan started a small basketweaving circle to teach Native basketry, which grew into the Oklahoma Native American Basketweavers Association, with the assistance of former California Indian Basketweavers Association director Sara Greensfelder.

Brennan says of her students, “What I hope they remember is that their past is as important as their future and what they do now affects seven generations to come.”

Brennan’s work can be found on her Web site and at many Indian museum gift shops, including White River Trader at the Eiteljorg Museum and the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah. She also sells at shows, including the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market.
GOING TO THE WATER

Purification does not come from the a'si, the hothouse, but from the Yunwi Gunahita (Long Man), the River, for our people. They would wade out, facing the rising sun, and dip seven times under the water, while reciting prayers. This was/is done every morning (no matter how cold), this is known as "Going To Water".

Ama (water) has the power to cleanse the body and the soul. Water is a sacred
messenger to Unequa. There are two forms of "Going To Water."

One form is called Amayi Ditatiyi (Taking them to water), in which the water
was simply dipped up the hand and spread it over the person's head and body.

The second form is called Atawastiyi, in which the person plunged or went entirely under the surface of the water. The person "going to water" faced east and dipped himself under, or dipped water over himself, seven times.

The A'si, is sometimes mistaken for the Plains "Sweat Lodge", but the a'si was used mainly for the purpose of healing. When someone was sick or ill, they would strip and enter the a'si. Heated rocks would be placed in the center and then a concoction made of the beaten root of the wild parsnip would be poured over the rocks. Today, it is water that is used, as I have heard of no one using the wild parsnip anymore. There, the ill person would remain until they were in a profuse sweat and choking on the fumes. They would then leave the a'si and go to a nearby stream where they would jump in the water.


Monday, June 04, 2007

Chief Calls Special Meeting to Add Constitutional Amendment to June 23 Ballot

TAHLEQUAH, Okla.— Principal Chief Chad Smith has called a special Council meeting for June 6 to add a Constitutional amendment vote to the June 23 general election ballot. Smith proposes the Cherokee people vote again on an amendment that removed federal approval from the Constitutional amendment process, and that was the subject of BIA concerns earlier this week. Cherokee voters removed federal approval in 2003 and the amendment was declared effective by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court last year.

“The Cherokee people have spoken clearly in the past that we want to remove federal approval over our constitutional process, and we will reaffirm our dedication to sovereignty and self-governance in the upcoming election," Smith said. "We must take a strong stance against the BIA or anyone else endangering the right of Indians to be able to decide, through the exercise of our cherished democratic freedoms, the content of our own Constitutions.”

The Cherokee Nation has abided by a Cherokee Nation Supreme Court ruling that said the tribe could revoke the federal government’s role in approving the tribe’s constitutional amendments. BIA officials have requested another vote on the amendment, and have indicated a willingness to approve the amendment under current election rules.

In its letter to the Cherokee Nation, the BIA was concerned that non-Indians whose citizenship status had been under review would not be allowed to vote in the election. However, based on a May 14 tribal court temporary order that was agreed to and approved by the Nation, these non-Indians have been temporarily reinstated to full citizenship and will now have the right to vote in the upcoming election. If passed by the Tribal Council, this amendment will be on that ballot, laying the groundwork for expected BIA approval.

The Cherokee Nation is a great Indian nation that embraces its mixed-race citizens. The tribe is proud of its thousands of citizens who share African-American, Latino, Asian, white and other ancestry, including 1,900 citizens who are Freedmen descendants.

“The Cherokee people can, should and do control their own government through their power at the polls,” Smith said. “The BIA has said it respects the principle of Indian self-governance, and has upheld that principle for decades. A second vote will make clear our determination to move forward with the will of the Cherokee people and the decisions of our tribal courts.”