When I went to bed last night, the Cherokee website had Chad Smith leading by a considerable margin, so I figured at that point that he was probably going to take the election. Then, I woke up this morning to this:
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%.
They also have the results for all of the districts and the at large representatives on the Cherokee Nation website.
I think Stacy Leeds was fighting an uphill battle against Chad Smith’s $$$$$. The fact that he is an incumbent, didn’t help either, but she fought fairly, and she tried to look out for the best interest of all of the Cherokee people.
I am fairly certain there will be a challenge to the proposed Constitutional Amendment, since it was introduced so late that many people didn’t even get it on their absentee ballots. This is the Amendment that would make it so that the federal government will not be part of the approval process for the Cherokee Constitution. I don’t know how the Bureau of Indian Affairs is going to react to this, but I would think they are not going to be happy.
Then, we have this bill floating around Congress to defund the Cherokee Nation. I have no idea where that will go. Paul pointed me to a letter from the BIA, saying that they do not have any plans to cut funding based on the Freedmen lawsuit, unless a federal court or the Congress directs them to do so.
What does this mean for the Cherokee people? What does it mean for Black Cherokees and more specifically the descendants of the Freedmen? I have no idea, but I will continue to watch this.
I wish Leeds had won. Then again I also wish we could take the money we now generate and use it, and tell the BIA and the federal government to go fuck themselves and take their bloodmoney/blackmail money with them. I’ll admit, Leeds winning would be the more realistic goal but I do still daydream of telling the feds to eat shit and die. Sucks to be reduced to just daydreaming once again and having real hopes dashed.
When it comes down to it, I don’t think the federal government will come to the Freedmen’s rescue. My guess is that Rep. Watson’s bill won’t get passed, and even if Judge Kennedy rules in their favor, it doesn’t seem likely that such a ruling would survive an appeal.
And even though I personally think the Freedmen are getting a raw deal (at least those who not only have an ancestor on the Dawes Freedmen roll but also maintained their ties to the tribe since then ), I don’t think the feds should intervene here (and they shouldn’t have interfered with the Seminole).
Paul, this is a tough one. The Freedmen are group who face really extreme discrimination; they are a “minority within a minority, ” and this has been a tremendous blow to Black/Indian relations (which are getting really bad these days). Who is going to stand up for the injustice? From their perspective, they are going to go to whoever will help them because they are being totally disenfranchised and actually having their citizenship stripped. The Congressional Black Caucus and some judges, including Cherokee judges, have provided them some hope. So I can understand why they are going to outsiders.
On the other side, it isn’t right for the US government to constantly dangle sovereignty in front of Native American Nations, and simultaneously renege on treaties. I think this is a pretty clear treaty violation on the part of CNO, which poses an interesting case because it is quite atypical. Usually, the US govt. is violating treaties, and trying to control tribal govts.
I wrote a little longer piece over at my home site; you can come over and give your two cents (pretty please).
this has been a tremendous blow to Black/Indian relations (which are getting really bad these days)
How else? When racial identity becomes a political football for power and influence, then cooperation is impossible. There’s only one pie, and identity politics has never yet made the pie bigger.
Robert said, “There’s only one pie, and identity politics has never yet made the pie bigger.”
Robert, there isn’t only one pie, and that’s part of the zero sum mentality that keeps racism going. People often think that our current resources are finite, and one group’s gain is necessarily another group’s loss. That is simply untrue. Racism holds everybodybody back. I think it is a fair bet to say that the Cherokee national is not going to experience any kind of tremendous reborth by kicking out it’s black citizens. In fact, it would seem to me that a nation would be stronger with more people in it, but that old zero sum game mentality crops up over and over again.
Rachel: I’ve posted a comment on your site
that old zero sum game mentality crops up over and over again
The zero sum game mentality is the very core of your racial politics. However, that’s not relevant to the thread and I didn’t mean to derail, so I’ll drop it. There should be a button where you have to give Amp $1 via PayPal before you can make a comment. ;)
(Yes, I want the market to fix my character flaws!)
Well…I knew it would happen. Once again the actions of a few mean the entire Cherokee people are evil. We’re borg to white people and black people alike. We’re either savages or some noble talk to mother nature icons. And of course, the entire backdrop and context surrounding indian slavery and european slavery is ignored.