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Tribe identity splits Native Americans

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Monday, 22 March 2010

Tribe identity splits Native Americans 6 new groups may claim recognition By Janell Ross • THE TENNESSEAN • March 21, 2010 Ask Cherokee Wolf Chief Joseph Manycoats Walters his name, and his answer will change depending on who's asking. If the person seems kind, he'll say all three. If they might be prejudiced against Native Americans, he'll say he's Joe Walters. It may seem strange for the 70-year-old man to go back and forth on what he should be called, but Walters' dilemma mirrors Tennessee's debate over who should be identified as Native American and what that means. Tennessee is set to join 20 states that recognize groups of people who say they are descendants of Native Americans who hid, disguised their identities or assimilated with white culture as a way to avoid being sent to reservations. At stake is federal funding for everything from housing to health care, education to economic development. It could open the door to opportunities only federally recognized tribes enjoy. It's more than a fight about money and labels. It's a question of who is and who is not a Native American — and who gets to decide. "What we have here in this state is sort of like a competition of Indian-ness," said Walters, the hereditary head of a group of about 700 people who claim to be the Cherokee Wolf tribe in Carroll County, about two hours northeast of Memphis. "Some of the federally recognized Indians have turned on us. Maybe out of fear. Maybe out of pain. But we Indians in Tennessee know who we are. … It would just be nice if the state recognized who we are, too." But the possibility of six new state-recognized tribes — plus a pair of bills in the Tennessee Senate that would set up a permanent path to recognition — has some Native Americans concerned. "The idea of state-level recognition for what are essentially social clubs — people who may have Indian ancestry but are not Indians — is offensive to me," said Melba Checote Eads, a citizen of the Oklahoma-based Muscogee Creek Nation who has lived in Tennessee since the early 1990s. "We are people who were run down on horseback, burned out, put in chains and drug off to Oklahoma. To stand in my face and say they are Indians is fraud, cultural fraud and cultural theft." U.S. grants recognition Throughout the 1830s, the federal government forced Native Americans living in much of the Southeast to move to lands farther west. Thousands died. The process opened more than 25 million acres of land for white settlers and ultimately laid the foundation for disproportionate levels of poverty and disease that continue to characterize life on reservations today. The U.S. government ultimately established a process to recognize distinct Native American tribes. Many own sizable tracts of land and are eligible for a variety of federal programs that aim to improve their health and economic conditions. Six groups may apply Tennessee won't have a state recognition process until May 17, when a set of tribal recognition rules created by the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs will go into effect. Six distinct groups of people who say they are remnants of tribes — collections of people who hid out during the so-called Indian Removal, assimilated or intermarried with people of other races — are expected to apply. James Everett Meeks, the commission's secretary, said Native American groups who rode out persecution the best way they knew how shouldn't be penalized now that their heritage is "cool." But plenty of people disagree. Since its rebirth in 2003, the commission and its meetings have been the center of public disagreements, lawsuits and efforts to steer members either toward or away from creating a state recognition process. Last year, all seven commission seats were won by individuals who are not members of federally recognized tribes, and that group opened the path to state recognition. The commission is set to expire in August, unless the legislature acts to extend its term. It is not clear what any recognition given this year will mean if the commission is dissolved. State recognition could make the tribes eligible for some federal Bureau of Indian Affairs programs and open the door for the artwork, crafts and goods created by these groups to be labeled and sold as "genuine Native American." It could allow tribe members to apply for special business loans and participate in government supplier diversity programs that can help build a business, Meeks said. Some worry tribal recognition could open the door to casinos, but Walters said his Cherokee Wolf tribe and others have submitted documents to the state that say they aren't interested in creating casinos. Disputes predicted Ross Swimmer, a former principal chief of the Oklahoma-based Cherokee Nation, a U.S. assistant secretary for Indian Affairs and George W. Bush's special trustee for American Indians, was in Tennessee last Monday to encourage the Senate not to clear a path for state-level tribal recognition. Creating state-recognized tribes will set off disputes between tribes, the state and the federal government, he said. The groups claiming to be remnant tribes could take any legitimate claim of tribal membership to federally recognized tribes or to the U.S. Congress if they really had relatives who were forced to move to the Midwest. He said evaluating tribes won't have the zero-dollar price tag Tennessee thinks it will, and state recognition lubricates the path toward federal recognition and casinos. "There is a slippery slope that can happen when you recognize a tribe," Swimmer told a state Senate committee. Sen. Mike Faulk, R-Kingsport, said he sponsored one of the bills to set up a process for potential tribes to follow. "It's not my objective to recognize or fail to recognize any particular group or another," he said. A Senate committee will consider the bills Tuesday and decide whether to move for a full Senate vote. http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100321/NEWS0201/3210358/1009/NEWS02

 

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