| From: | Tzeentch tzeentch666@*********.net |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Fodder for SR Timeline Apologists |
| Date: | Mon, 3 Jul 2000 15:02:48 -0700 |
timeline I'll post it as a preemptive strike ;) Remember that in this area
there is VERY little support for this type of resolution.
http://www.spokane.net/news-story.asp?date0300&ID=s821704
Resolution would end tribal sovereignty
If Indians don't like it, send in troops, GOP delegate says
Julie Titone - Staff writer
The Washington state Republican Party has passed a resolution calling for
the abolition of tribal governments.
"We do not recognize them as sovereign nations, as governments," said John
Fleming, the Skagit County delegate who was a main author of the resolution.
It calls on the federal government to "immediately take whatever steps
necessary to terminate all such non-republican forms of government on Indian
reservations."
"We think it can be done peacefully," Fleming said. But if tribes were to
fight the effort, "then the U.S. Army and the Air Force and the Marines and
the National Guard are going to have to battle back."
The action comes at a time of growing discontent over reservation rules that
affect non-Indians, ranging from hunting privileges to liquor sales. The
backlash against tribal governments has become so strong that human-rights
activists have labeled it "racist."
Tribal leaders call the GOP resolution outrageous and an affront to their
rights under treaties signed by Congress.
"It's absolutely the reverse of what Republican principles stand for_ to
protect all rights and to uphold the integrity and honor of this nation and
all of the commitments it makes," said Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown
S'Klallam Tribe.
Allen is vice president of the National Congress of American Indians. A
Republican, he was surprised to hear about the resolution approved June 17
during the Republican state convention in Spokane.
"The Republican Party nationally has been making some effort to improve its
image with regards to its relationship with the Indian nations," Allen said.
"This is polarizing. It's the opposite of what they should be doing."
Beth Jensen, chairwoman of the GOP platform committee, said she had no idea
how the writers of the resolution intend for termination to be carried out.
Her committee sent seven resolutions to the 1,300 delegates with a "do pass"
recommendation. Among other resolutions were ones calling on the federal
government to preserve hydropower dams and to drop its lawsuit against
Microsoft Corp.
Although some resolutions were heavily debated, the one dealing with tribal
governments was barely discussed, Jensen said.
"I was so unfamiliar with the issue that I wasn't totally focused on what
the debate was. It seems like what was being said was, there were acts by
the tribal governments that weren't the way we do government in America,"
she said. "A couple of people gave examples to people who didn't have a
clue, and it passed."
The committee considered 29 resolutions in two hours' time, she said. "I
wish we had the luxury, the time to discuss them."
Fleming lives within the Swinomish Reservation. He refers to tribal
governments as "non-republican" because non-Indian reservation residents
can't vote in tribal elections. That makes them illegal under the U.S. and
state constitutions, he contends.
In 1994, Fleming began trying to persuade the Republican Party in Skagit
County to pass a resolution. This year he succeeded.
"Out of 250 delegates, only two people said no. They were tribal members or
the mother of tribal members," he said.
The Skagit delegates to the state convention championed the cause in
Spokane. Now, Fleming wants Washington's delegates to work the idea into the
national GOP platform.
Supporters of the cause hope that a class action eventually will find its
way to the U.S. Supreme Court and that the court then would rule tribal
governments illegal.
"The key to this is making people aware," Fleming said.
Fleming has written many essays attacking tribal sovereignty. He is active
in regional and national organizations that oppose treaty rights. Asked if
he is anti-Indian, he replied: "Oh my God, no."
The Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity has concluded that efforts to
abolish tribal government are racist. Coalition researcher Robert Crawford
called the GOP resolution "disturbing."
"I wouldn't say it's a majority view. It's in line with the hard core of
anti-Indian folks within the party such as (Sen.) Slade Gorton and (Rep.)
Jack Metcalf," he said.
Termination was the focus of the government's Indian policy in the mid-20th
century, he noted.
"In the 1950s and '60s we rampantly violated the rights of tribes," Crawford
said. "We can do better than this."
The resolution
Terminate tribal councils
Here is the resolution passed at the Washington state Republican Party
convention June 17:
Whereas Article IV, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution guarantees every
state a republican form of government, and this guarantee to each state is a
warrantee to protect the citizens of that state; and
Whereas the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is currently aiding and
abetting Indian tribes to regulate and collect taxes, injure property
rights, withhold due process and grant unequal protection under the laws to
some citizens, for the benefit and advantage of other citizens; and
Whereas these same Indian tribes, with the support and advice of the Bureau
of Indian Affairs, organize and operate tribal governments that are not
republican in form, and in fact prohibit certain citizens from voting for
the representatives who enact such measures and laws and injure the citizens
being denied representation;
Therefore be it resolved that the executive and legislative branches of the
federal government immediately take whatever steps necessary to terminate
all such non-republican forms of government on Indian reservations, and
compensate those citizens who have wrongly suffered loss due to denial of
their constitutionally guaranteed rights to be governed by a republican form
of government.
Ken
---------------------------
There's a war out there, old friend, a world war. And it's not about who's
got the most bullets, it's about who controls the information. What we see
and hear, how we work, what we think, it's all about the information!
Cosmo, 'Sneakers'
