PETITION TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE/GOVERNMENT

Authored by Mark DeMucha, US Army Retired, Cherokee citizen and patriot!

We, the citizens of the Cherokee Nation/Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (Tribe), do declare as one people that we are sovereign and independent of the State of Oklahoma and or any other nation.

We reaffirm to our tribal government’s representatives that:

All representatives, including, but not limited to, Principal Chief, Deputy Principal Chief, members of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council and any other elected official are nothing more than representatives of the actual government, the collective citizenry of the Cherokee Nation. We, the Cherokee people, remind our elected representatives that just recently the State of Oklahoma did, in fact, attempt to do financial harm to the Cherokee Nation through threats, coercion, and DISTORTIONS, INTENTIONAL MISREPRESENTATIONS AND AN IGNORING OF EXISTING AGREEMENTS DURING discussions regarding tribal gaming compacts. The State of Oklahoma does not now, nor has it ever had the best interests of the Cherokee people at heart and should never be trusted, especially knowing how poorly that state government has managed its own finances, continually trying to take from the Oklahoma tribes to fill their shortcomings. Most know the nightmares associated with shared jurisdictions in Public Law 280 States. That cannot happen to our Tribe or our neighboring tribes.  So much has been stolen from our people and the hard-won victory of McGirt cannot be lessened or weakened in any way.

McGirt reaffirmed that which the Tribe has always known, our land is OURS, not the State of Oklahoma’s

Treaties are federal law! Federal law is, according to the Constitution of the United, the supreme law of the land and states have NO AUTHORITY to affect any change to those laws!

And the reality is, congress will not pass legislation that diminishes, weakens or alters our treaty rights. To do so would expose any individual member of congress as a Native American hating racist.

This petition is to demand the following:

1)      No representative of the Tribe agree to or sign any, but not limited to, contract(s), deal(s), memorandum of understanding(s), or any other instrument or device or become party to any  agreement that, including but not limited to, transfers, allocates, shares, amends, assigns, relegates, reduces, abdicates, surrenders any sovereign power, right, privilege, immunity, or independence of the tribe to any degree imaginable. We are a people who have lost almost everything and to give away any hard-won power of self-governance and/or sovereignty would be akin to the betrayal of the Ridge Party.

2)      That the representatives of the tribe formulate and broker an agreement with the State of Oklahoma, enforceable on all of the State’s political subdivisions, that unequivocally and irrevocably leaves ALL authority, rights, powers and privileges vested in and with the Tribe alone.

Furthermore, it is recommended that the following be considered as an alternative:

1.       That the Tribe adopts a penal code as close to identical to the Oklahoma penal code as possible. This penal code will be applicable to the entire reservation of the tribe.

2.       Any violation of the newly adopted penal code by any citizen of the tribe, or the member of any other federally recognized tribe will fall strictly under the jurisdiction of the Tribe. Any violation of the Oklahoma penal code by a non-Indian, except where federal law applies or has exceptions, will be under the jurisdiction of the State of Oklahoma.

3.       That the tribal representatives create a fully revocable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Tribe and the State of Oklahoma that creates a fully revocable cross-deputation agreement between the Tribe and the State of Oklahoma which will allow the Tribe’s law enforcement agents to arrest non-Indians for violations of the Oklahoma state penal code. Upon arrest of a non-Indian on the Tribe’s reservation by Tribal authority, the tribal authorities will immediately notify the appropriate state or local agency of the arrest and, through an expedited and agreed upon extradition agreement, surrender the non-Indian offender to that designated appropriate authority, unless the offense is committed against any citizen of the Tribe or any other Indian that is a member of a federally tribe and that crime falls within the exceptions of federal law allowing tribal jurisdiction over the non-Indian. Any citizen of the Tribe or any other Indian of another federally recognized tribe who violates any provision of the Tribe’s newly adopted penal code or any federal statute will be kept and held under the jurisdiction and custody of the Tribe. Should any authority other than that of the Tribe arrest or detain any member of the Tribe, or any Indian that is a member of another federally recognized tribe on the Tribe’s reservation will immediately notify the Tribe so the Tribe can make the determination if it wants to take physical possession of the offender, or, allow the arresting organization to maintain custody of the offender as a contractor/proxy of the Tribe, full well acknowledging the Tribe retains all sovereign authority over the offender and may exercise that authority at any time without question.

4.       To accommodate and preserve the keeping of the peace and maintaining public safety, the Tribe may and should enter into a fully revocable MOU with the State of Oklahoma that will allow the courts and the various public safety agencies of the State that of Oklahoma to act as contracted agents or proxies by contract for the Tribe in any case of law, with the Tribe retaining full, unconditional, irrevocable sovereign power over anything, at all, that happens within the boundary of the Tribe’s reservation.

5.       No civil jurisdiction or authority shall be shared, surrendered, acquiesced, given, forfeited to any organization, sovereign government or its political subdivision thereof, let alone the State of Oklahoma. Any matters of civil law must be dealt with via a fully revocable MOU that benefits the Tribe and its citizens.

The state of Oklahoma does not have a legal leg to stand on and is in an untenable position regarding its relationship with the Five Civilized Tribes. We have nothing to gain through capitulating, whatsoever. We have everything to gain by standing strong as a people and with our other tribal partners!

This is not to be considered an indictment against any elected official of the Cherokee Nation. This is an expression of the will of the Cherokee People that they represent.

Wado!