ICYMI: OKLAHOMA'S 67 ALL BLACK TOWNS (reprint)

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

A recent posting on FaceBook has prompted me to provide you with a partial listing of some of the Black towns that existed in Oklahoma Territory before the Oklahoma "Ruin" of April 22, 1889 - which was the biggest land grab outside of the Bush mortgage debacle of 2008.
There are others, but this should suffice to show that Greenwood - so called "Black Wall Street" - was not the only town where Blacks were thriving and raising families, Black in the day.  While historians may claim that Black towns only came into existence after th eCivil War, Black slaves were escaping into Oklahoma territory long before the Civil War, and had established homes, businesses, schools and churches long before the Oklahoma Ruin of 1889.  The land grab spelled in many ways, Black autonomy in Oklahoma for many people who had enjoyed living without white oppression, racism, and violence.  

African Towns and Settlements of Indian and Oklahoma Territories

AFRICAN GHOST TOWNS

• Arkansas Colored
• Bookertee
• Canadian Colored
• Chase
• Ferguson
• Lincoln City
• Marshall Town
• North Fork Town
• Old Vinita
• Wybark

AFRICAN TOWNS TODAY

• Arcadia
• Boley
• Langston
• Red Bird
• Rentiesville
• Taft
• Tullahassee
• Vernon
• Wewoka

AFRICAN GHOST TOWNS

ARKANSAS COLORED TOWN----From 1895 onward, this small black settlement existed in the southern part of the Chickasaw Nation. A post office operated in this town from 1895 to 1912. Not much more has even been written about the town, nor the Freedmen who resided within its limits. No trace exists of the settlement today.
BOOKERTEE----Three miles northeast of Weleetka in Okfuskee County the settlement of Bookertee used to lie. The town was named after Booker T. Washington, and was at its peak around 1920. No remnants nor written history of this settlement exists.
CANADIAN COLORED---About 10 miles south and west of the town of Eufaula the black settlement known as Canadian Colored Town existed. Nearby was the Civil War point known as Canadian Depot, which was a supply point during the Civil War. Since there were already places with the name of ?Canadian? elsewhere in the region and since this particular settlement had a large black settlement it became known as the Canadian Colored Town and with time it was simply referred to as Canadian Colored.
CHASE---Established in 1903, this town was 8 miles southwest of Muskogee. In 1908, the name of the town was changed to Beland. Neither names exist today.
FERGUSON---In 1901 this settlement on the Canadian River North in Blaine County O.T. was established. It was 12 miles directly north of the town of Watonga Oklahoma. No longer in existence.
LINCOLN CITY---Established in 1889 during the Oklahoma Land Rush, this town was a legacy to the All Black town movement of Edwin P. McCabe. It was located outside of Indian Territory and further west in Oklahoma Territory in Kingfisher County. Nothing remains today.
MARSHALL TOWN---As far back as the 1870s Marshall Town was known as a black settlement. The town was on a spot between the Arkansas River, and the Verdigris River. Between 1878 and 1885, many of the Creek Lighthorsemen were black, and there were constant clashes between Cherokee cattlemen, and the African Creek Lighthorse Police. Many of these clashes were fatal between the African Creeks and the Cherokee cattlemen. Some researchers indicated that a state that closely resembled a racial war continued for several years in the area around Marshall Town. In 1876 one of the African Lighthorsemen was killed, and in 1879 one of the Cherokee cattlemen, John Vann, was killed. It was believed that the death of the Cherokee was in revenge of the death of the African Lighthorseman. The conflicts continued for several years, and did not quiet down till the mid 1880?s.
NORTH FORK TOWN---Originally a Creek Settlement, by the 1850?s this town had a considerable number of Africans residing in the town. By 1862 the town in the early part of the Civil War, the town was raided by Confederates and many of the African citizens lost personal property and were forced to flee the town for some time. The Claims of the Loyal Creeks were made in 1867 whereby several hundred Black Creeks spoke of their lives and property in North Fork Town. (These claims can be read at the National Archives.) By the turn of the century it was an exclusively African town, with Sugar T. George serving as the most widely respected Town King in the Creek Nation.
OLD VINITA---This was a primarily black settlement in the Cherokee Nation, and was home to mostly Cherokee Freedmen. Many Freedmen eventually left and settled in Coffeyville Kansas, for job opportunities. This black settlement has been absorbed into the current city of Vinita Oklahoma.
WYBARK---Established in 1890, though settled a bit earlier, Wybark was 4 miles north of Muskogee. The town operated a post office from 1890 to 1940. It is believed to have absorbed some of the old settlement of North Fork though no remains of that town are noted. The town faded in the 1940?s.

Map of Black Towns in Oklahoma Yesteryear and Today

 

AFRICAN TOWNS TODAY

ARCADIA---Established in 1890, this town is the most recently incorporated of the historically black towns. It was incorporated in 1987--almost 1900 years after the post office was established in the town.
BOLEY---Located in the western part of Okfuskee County this historically black town was established in 1903. The town of Boley is also the site of the noted attempted bank robbery that was foiled when Black townsmen prevented the Pretty Boy Floyd gang from robbing the town's only bank. Now a much smaller town of about 750 residents, this was the at one time most vibrant black towns in all of Indian Territory. In addition each year the town hosts one of the most famous events of the state-----the Boley Black Rodeo. Horsemen from throughout the region participate in this annual event each year during Memorial Day weekend. Many of the structures are on the National Register of Historic Places. During the early 1900?s Boley was considered to be the largest black town in the United States. During the days when Boley was at its peak more than 4000 blacks lived in the town. Several restaurants, hotels and businesses were a part of this city's legacy.
LANGSTON---This city was named for the noted educator and abolitionist John Mercer Langston. It was founded in 1891, and is home to Langston University the farthest west of the Historically Black Colleges & Universities. The town was founded during the heart of the campaign to establish and all black state initiated by Edwin P. McCabe from Kansas.
RED BIRD--- In the Creek Nation, this town lies only a few miles from Coweta Oklahoma. it was officially established in 1902 though it existed as a settlement before that time. It was always a rural community and was home to many Creek Freedmen as well as State Blacks who relocated to the Twin Territories in the late 19th century. Red Bird served as a market center for many rural black farmers, providing a market exchange for the black farmers of the region. The population of the town peaked out at about 400 in the 1920?s.
RENTIESVILLE---Now only a bed-room community, this town hosts the often tri-annual reenactment of the famous Battle of Honey Springs. In the heart of the Creek Nation and only a few miles south of Muskogee this town lies on the banks of Elk Creek. The Civil War battle was won, interestingly by black soldiers many from the Creek Nation, who had served in two units------the 1st Kansas Colored and the Indian Home Guards. The well written about Texas Road runs right through the heart of Rentiesville.
TAFT---Originally known as Twine, I.T. this Creek Nation black town was established in 1903. Like neighboring Red Bird, it was a market for rural farmers mostly black. Many Creek Freedmen lived in or near Taft. The city council still exists today and is one of the few black towns remaining that has a town council still in operation. The town of Taft is now home to the Creek Freedmen Shrine and African American landmark built by Napoleon Davis a memorial to the history of the 5000 Africans who lived in the Creek Nation.
TULLAHASSEE---The history of this town pre-dates Oklahoma statehood by 57 years. Established as a mission for the Creeks in 1850, Tullahassee became the site of the famous Creek Academy--the Tullahassee Mission School. It later was abandoned by the Creek Indians who left it as a school for their former African slaves. The Tullahassee Mission school then became a boarding school for the next two decades for Creek and Seminole Freedmen, under the leadership of Fisk and Hampton trained teachers and under the financial leadership of Sugar T. George, African Town King and leader from North Fork.
VERNON---The town of Vernon was founded by Edwin P. McCabe the Kansas auditor who launched the all black town movement. It was established in 1895, and still exists today.
WEWOKA---Established by African Seminole leader John Horse, in the 1840?s this particular town is now mostly white, though a sizable black community still survives in this area. The town is the county seat of Seminole County. Founder John Horse left Indian Territory in 1848 taking several hundred Africans with him to northern Mexico, attempting to escape raids from the Creek Nation, and efforts to force them back into slavery. The town had notable African Seminoles among its residents at one time---Negro Abraham, Caesar Bruner, Dorsar Barkus, Cudjoe and others. ( The Seminole nation today now has two African bands both led by African American women tribal leaders.)

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Tulsa Historical Society

Learn » Past Exhibits » All Black Towns of Oklahoma

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All Black Towns of Oklahoma

May 2010 – September 2010 – NOW CLOSED
Oklahoma’s all-black towns epitomize the unique African-American history of the Sooner State. From the mid-nineteenth century to 1920, African-Americans established more than 50 identifiable towns and communities, some of short duration and some still existing at the turn of the 21st century. Many started as cohesive farming communities that supported businesses, schools and churches, eventually gaining town status. Entrepreneurs in these communities started every imaginable kind of business, including newspapers, and advertised throughout the South for settlers.
This traveling exhibit from the Oklahoma Historical Society is made possible through funding by the Oklahoma Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

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Table of Contents Search All Entries Home ALL-BLACK TOWNS The All-Black towns of Oklahoma represent a unique chapter in American history. Nowhere else, neither in the Deep South nor in the Far West, did so many African American men and women come together to create, occupy, and govern their own communities. From 1865 to 1920 African Americans created more than fifty identifiable towns and settlements, some of short duration and some still existing at the beginning of the twenty-first century. All-Black towns grew in Indian Territory after the Civil War when the former slaves of the Five Civilized Tribes settled together for mutual protection and economic security. When the United States government forced American Indians to accept individual land allotments, most Indian "freedmen" chose land next to other African Americans. They created cohesive, prosperous farming communities that could support businesses, schools, and churches, eventually forming towns. Entrepreneurs in these communities started every imaginable kind of business, including newspapers, and advertised throughout the South for settlers. Many African Americans migrated to Oklahoma, considering it a kind of "promise land." When the Land Run of 1889 opened yet more "free" land to non-Indian settlement, African Americans from the Old South rushed to newly created Oklahoma. E. P. McCabe, a former state auditor of Kansas, helped found Langston and encouraged African Americans to settle in that All-Black town. To further his cause, McCabe established the Langston City Herald and circulated it, often by means of traveling agents, throughout the South. McCabe hoped that his tactics would create an African American political power block in Oklahoma Territory. Other African American leaders had a vision of an All-Black state. Although this dream was never realized, many All-Black communities sprouted and flourished in the rich topsoil of the new territory and, after 1907, the new state. In these towns African Americans lived free from the prejudices and brutality found in other racially mixed communities of the Midwest and the South. African Americans in Oklahoma and Indian Territories would create their own communities for many reasons. Escape from discrimination and abuse would be a driving factor. All-Black settlements offered the advantage of being able to depend on neighbors for financial assistance and of having open markets for crops. Arthur Tolson, a pioneering historian of blacks in Oklahoma, asserts that many African Americans turned to "ideologies of economic advancement, self-help, and racial solidarity." Marshalltown, North Fork Colored, Canadian Colored, and Arkansas Colored existed as early as the 1860s in Indian Territory. Other Indian Territory towns that no longer exist include Sanders, Mabelle, Wiley, Homer, Huttonville, Lee, and Rentie. Among the Oklahoma Territory towns no longer in existence are Lincoln, Cimarron City, Bailey, Zion, Emanuel, Udora, and Douglas. Towns that still survive are Boley, Brooksville, Clearview, Grayson, Langston, Lima, Red Bird, Rentiesville, Summit, Taft, Tatums, Tullahassee, and Vernon. The largest and most renowned of these was Boley. Booker T. Washington, nationally prominent African American educator, visited Boley twice and even submitted a positive article on the town to Outlook Magazine in 1908. The passage of many Jim Crow laws by the Oklahoma Legislature immediately after statehood caused some African Americans to become disillusioned with the infant state. During this time Canada promoted settlement and, although the campaign focused on whites, a large contingent of African Americans relocated to that nation's western plains, forming colonies at Amber Valley, Alberta, and Maidstone, Saskatchewan. Another exodus from Oklahoma occurred with the "Back to Africa" movements of the early twentieth century. A large group of Oklahomans joined the ill-fated Chief Sam expedition to Africa. A number of other African Americans migrated to colonies in Mexico. White distrust also limited the growth of these All-Black towns. As early as 1911 whites in Okfuskee County attempted to block further immigration and to force African Americans into mixed but racially segregated communities incapable of self-support. Several of these white farmers signed oaths pledging to "never rent, lease, or sell land in Okfuskee County to any person of Negro blood, or agent of theirs; unless the land be located more than one mile from a white or Indian resident." To further stem the black migration to eastern Oklahoma a similar oath was developed to prevent the hiring of "Negro labor." Events of the 1920s and 1930s spelled the end for most black communities. The All-Black towns in Oklahoma were, for the most part, small agricultural centers that gave nearby African American farmers a market. Prosperity generally depended on cotton and other crops. The Great Depression devastated these towns, forcing residents to go west and north in search of jobs. These flights from Oklahoma caused a huge population decrease in black towns. As people left, the tax base withered, putting the towns in financial jeopardy. In the 1930s many railroads failed, isolating small towns in Oklahoma from regional and national markets. As a result, many of the black towns could not survive. During lean years whites would not extend credit to African Americans, creating an almost impossible situation for black farmers and businessmen to overcome. Even one of the most successful towns, Boley, declared bankruptcy in 1939. Today, only thirteen All-Black towns still survive, but their legacy of economic and political freedom is well remembered. SEE ALSO: AFRICAN AMERICANS, BOLEY, BROOKSVILLE, CLEARVIEW, FREEDMEN, LANGSTON, LINCOLN CITY, EDWARD McCABE, RED BIRD, RENTIESVILLE, SEGREGATION, SETTLEMENT PATTERNS, SUMMIT, TAFT, TATUMS, TULLAHASSEE, VERNON BIBLIOGRAPHY: Black Dispatch (Oklahoma City), 8 March 1923. Norman Crockett, The Black Towns (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1979). Norman Crockett, "Witness to History: Booker T. Washington Visits Boley," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 67 (Winter 1989-90). Kenneth Lewallan, "Chief Alfred Sam: Black Nationalism on the Great Plains, 1913-14," Journal of the West 16 (January 1977). Bruce Shepard, "North to the Promised Land: Black Migration to the Canadian Plains," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 66 (Fall 1988).

Now that you know

  WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?

Stay Blessed & 

ECLECTICALLY BLACK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gloria DULAN-Wilson

 

April 22, 2017 - The 128th Anniversary of the Oklahoma Ruin

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

While the rest of the world knows April 22nd as the newly created EARTH DAY - those of us who are from Oklahoma - especially those of us who are Black and/or Indian (Native American to the PCs) know it as the anniversary of the Oklahoma Ruin - the biggest rip off of land sanctioned by the US government, in the history of this country - with the possible exception of the massive loss of homes during  2007-2010 via mortgage backed securities and the Bush Administration's greed-based economic downturn.

Oklahoma was thriving from one end of the state to the other.  It was the only state in the union that was specifically set aside for Indian tribes (and by extrapolation, and just plain old common sense and survival instincts - Black people.   From 1817 through 1889, Blacks and Indians enjoyed the best and most extensive period of peace, privacy, prosperity, and pride in the history of their existence in this country, since the invasion of the white eyes into this country in 1619.

They thrived!! They worked together!  They built communities, schools, businesses.  Their farms flourished; their children were well educated and well dressed. 

There was a great deal of peace and tranquility among our people - and when I say our people, it's because I am a direct descendent of this wonderful historical heritage of Blacks and Indians.

TWO BROTHERS FROM A BLACK AND INDIAN BLENDED FAMILY

Apparently whites are only happy when Blacks and Indians are doing badly.  They can't stand it when we're thriving - going about our business, raising our families; loving and supporting one another. They can't stand to see us do well.  

By law, it was illegal for whites to cross into Oklahoma Territory with out express permission of either the government or the chiefs who governed the territory.  So all they could do is look with envy at the tall corn that grew there with ease, the wheat, barley, the beautiful cattle we were raising, the fact that we not only did not need them, did not want them anywhere near us or our families.  

The few whites who lived there were either married to Indian men or women, or Black men or women- and they had no desire to return to the realm from which they had escaped. 

So, the jealousy and ignorance and racism began to rear its ugly head in the mid 1880s as they begin to deplete the land around them, and as their greed and envy grew, they began to lobby Washington for access to Oklahoma.  

They even had the audacity to call it "unassigned lands" as though the Blacks and Indians who resided there were nonexistent our unimportant: 

Land Rush of 1889. The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land rush into the Unassigned Lands. The area that was opened to settlement included all or part of the present-day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties of the US state of Oklahoma.

Of course, I had relatives who were living on those "unassigned lands" who were  pushed to the side as the result of this so called relanguaging of the truth - what T-rump would call alternative "facts." SMH

OKLAHOMA'S FLAG - Notice that has the symbols of the 5 Civilized Tribes, The Calumet (Peace Pipe) and the Feathers - the Plant Olive Branch is for Peace (Whites violated all that big time)

Old West (from Google - where else?)

1889

The Oklahoma land rush begins

At precisely high noon, thousands of would-be settlers make a mad dash into the newly opened Oklahoma Territory to claim cheap land.The nearly two million acres of land opened up to white settlement was located in Indian Territory, a large area that once encompassed much of modern-day Oklahoma. Initially considered unsuitable for white colonization, Indian Territory was thought to be an ideal place to relocate Native Americans who were removed from their traditional lands to make way for white settlement. The relocations began in 1817, and by the 1880s, Indian Territory was a new home to a variety of tribes, including the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, Cheyenne, Commanche, and Apache.(Note:  As long as they thought it was unsuitable for whites, they didn't care - they pushed the Indians and the Blacks onto it - but as soon as our people began to thrive and grow in those areas - blooming where they were planted, then whites wanted it - as with everything else we succeed in - music, sports, fashion, food, etc.  Oklahoma wss part of the Louisana Purchase, of 1804, which the French gave up after the Haitians kicked their butts and kicked them to of Haiti and sent them packing back to France.  It was sold to the US, which at the time, was the only imperialistic country left in this area - if you don't count the spanish)

By the 1890s, improved agricultural and ranching techniques led some white Americans to realize that the Indian Territory land could be valuable, and they pressured the U.S. government to allow white settlement in the region. In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison agreed, making the first of a long series of authorizations that eventually removed most of Indian Territory from Indian control.

To begin the process of white settlement, Harrison chose to open a 1.9 million-acre section of Indian Territory that the government had never assigned to any specific tribe.  (LIAR  THE ENTIRE TERRITORY WAS INDIAN TERRITORY) However, subsequent openings of sections that were designated to specific tribes were achieved primarily through the Dawes Severalty Act (1887), which allowed whites to settle large swaths of land that had previously been designated to specific Indian tribes.

On March 3, 1889, Harrison announced the government would open the 1.9 million-acre tract of Indian Territory for settlement precisely at noon on April 22. Anyone could join the race for the land, but no one was supposed to jump the gun. With only seven weeks to prepare, land-hungry Americans quickly began to gather around the borders of the irregular rectangle of territory. Referred to as “Boomers,” by the appointed day more than 50,000 hopefuls were living in tent cities on all four sides of the territory.

DOES THIS LOOK FAMILIAR TO ANYONE?  

The events that day at Fort Reno on the western border were typical. At 11:50 a.m., soldiers called for everyone to form a line. When the hands of the clock reached noon, the cannon of the fort boomed, and the soldiers signaled the settlers to start. With the crack of hundreds of whips, thousands of Boomers streamed into the territory in wagons, on horseback, and on foot. All told, from 50,000 to 60,000 settlers entered the territory that day. By nightfall, they had staked thousands of claims either on town lots or quarter section farm plots. Towns like Norman, Oklahoma City, Kingfisher, and Guthrie sprang into being almost overnight.  THEY PUSHED THOUSANDS OF BLACK AND INDIAN FAMILIES OFF THEIR PROPERTIES IN THE BIGGEST LAND THEFT EVER - 

An extraordinary display of both the pioneer??? spirit   and the American lust for land, the first Oklahoma land rush was also plagued by greed and fraud. Cases involving “Sooners”–people who had entered the territory before the legal date and time–overloaded courts for years to come. The government attempted to operate subsequent runs with more controls, eventually adopting a lottery system to designate claims. By 1905, white Americans owned most of the land in Indian Territory. Two years later, the area once known as Indian Territory entered the Union as a part of the new state of Oklahoma. 

NOTE: (The late Ralph Ellison - another proud Oklahoman, wrote about it when he said that once Oklahoma Territory became a state in 1907, the fate of Black and Indian families were sealed - the racism escalated to epidemic proportions as Texans, Missourians and other came pouring into the state).

NOTE: The Sooners is the name of the football team in Oklahoma - they were named after the thieves who sneaked across the border at night staked their claim, and then sneaked back to be part of the race, having already gotten there.  It's one of the reasons why I have no "love" for the team. SMH I guess it would be the same with those who don't like the fact that DC has the Washington Redskins.  But, I digress - while everyone is talking about Black Wall Street, which was actually rebuilt by the Blacks who lived there, what they don't truly realize that Black and Indians lost so much more with the Oklahoma Ruin of 1889.  They lost their land, their homes, their right to peaceful coexistence in a racist country, and perhaps the right to become the first state to be completely Black and Indian.   Oklahoma once had 67 All Black Towns - of which 13 still remain.  Who knows what we could have become had Harrison not caved in  to the the b.s. of   his white contemporaries.  

THE GREAT JORNALIST/ACTIVIST IDA B. WELLS BARNETT CONSIDERED MOVING TO OKLAHOMA

It is said that Ida B. Wells Barnett, who visited Oklahoma on several occasions,  had considered moving to Oklahoma when it was still a Territory because Black people were doing so well there.  

The scanty bit of historical reference I just provided you via Google,  was written from a white standpoint - not from the standpoint of those who actually lived it and were the victims of the Oklahoma Ruin, like my great-grandfather Ben Dulan, (and my great grand mom who was Creek), who had to start from scratch and move to a smaller property in Luther Oklahoma, which is where my Dad, Uncle, Aunts and great aunts all grew up (86 acres, a big step down from the nearly 200 acres he originally had).    The great Will Rogers, whose father was caucasian and mom was Cherokee - were pushed off their lands and ended up having to start from scratch as well.  It appears they didn't like mixed marriages any more than they liked Black or Indian people  - imagine their surprise when later on they nearly had to kiss Will Roger's behind when he became one of the most famous celebrities of the 20's and 30's.  He never forgot what happened to his family, and used his humor to rub it in the faces of whites every time he spoke, acted, or wrote - he's one of my personal heroes).

ONE OF MANY BLACK INDIAN FAMILIES OF OKLAHOMA (CHOCTAW)

So as Oklahomans go around wearing their pioneer gear and bonnets, and pulling their wagons and bragging on 1889, there are those of us who recognize it for what it truly is - the day that white American made it patently clear that Blacks and Indians had no rights that whites were bound to respect - even though they had passed laws saying they did.  Hence the saying, White man speak with forked tongue.

I dedicate this little blog piece to my families - The Dulans, The Washington's,  The Gaines, and The Hornbeaks of Oklahoma - as well as to  all of us who are descendants of those valiant Black and/or Indian families who gave us a legacy that shall never be forgotten.

BTW:  The biggest comeuppance for us was during the Dust Bowl of the 1920s and 1930s.  To show how ignorant whites are - they invaded in 1889, and it took them less than 40 years to deplete the land so that it would not grow or produce.  John Steinbeck talks about it in the Grapes of Wrath -the Joads - a family of PWT - who left Oklahoma to go to California, after their ignorant behinds had ruined what had originally been fertile land.  While Steinbeck was trying to make us feel sorry for them, all we could do (in our great book series in schools) was laugh at the fact that whites left Oklahoma after messing things up - which is what they usually do.  But guess who didn't leave Oklahoma?  We didn't - The Black and Indian families who knew ow to farm remained and continued to grow and thrive - 

The sad thing is this - Oklahoma is a victim of more rip offs and hypes than ever before.  Now, instead of growing their own produce, they're going to the supermarket just like people from other states, and paying exorbitant prices for things they used to grow in their back yards.  

They've fallen prey to the repuglycons and are now lagging behind in so many ways - as these miscreants continue to cannibalize what was once a proud territory of Blacks and Indians.  My consolation is that most Blacks who live there  - including my family - have not forgotten who and what they are - well at least my peers haven't.  My Mom Ruby Love, the militant of the family made sure we knew the truth - her dad had 187 acres of land that she and her sisters grew up on.  Her dad,my grandfather Enoch Gaines, a Fine Black Man,  prevented them from grabbing it by sheer force (but that's another story for another day).  

Interestingly enough, it still goes on - if you look on Google Images for Oklahoma, you see none of the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES depicted there; when they talk about points of interest, they never mention Anadarko (Indian Village); nor do they mention LANGSTON University, which is situated in one of the few remaining all Black towns of Langston, Oklahoma.  To say nothing of the mud huts and other relics from the original Black settlers of Oklahoma Territory.  

ALL BLACK TOWN OF RED BIRD OKLAHOMA - BLACKS WERE THRIVING! 

As you walk through the Oklahoma Ruin Celebration, which is by now in full swing in Oklahoma City, you may see  misguided, ignorant  Blacks walking around wearing jackets that say "Buffalo Soldiers," not realizing that it's an affront to those Indians who are the descendants of those who saved Black Africans who were kidnapped into slavery from enduring the fate of living on a plantation in chains.  Buffalo Soldiers were called by that name because their skin color was deep brown like that of the Buffalo - after the Civil War ended, whites turned their attention to genocide, and wiping out the Original Americans who stood between them and ripping off other parts of the US as part of their bogus "manifest destiny" (more like maniacal destiny) of conquering all of America for themselves.  So they hired Blacks who had fought in the Civil War to do their dirty work for them. And, unfortunately, a combination of desperation for money and an opportunity to prove to whites that they were "worthy" the brothers fell for it, hook, line and sinker - and begin the task of slaughtering Indians and the buffalo as well.  Rather than something to be proud of, it's a mark of ignorance and shame in my book and those of my family who were likewise victimized. 

BLACK INDIAN FAMILY FROM BLACK IN THE DAY 

The reason I write about this every year is not just because I'm perpetually P.O.'d whenever April 22 comes around, but because I realize that we are now in the 21st century and still have yet to devise a means by which we can fully protect who we are as a people, what we have, what we develop, or what we own from these rapacious people. The Indians have not,Africans have not, South American Blacks have not; Caribbean Blacks have not, African Americans have not - and, truth be told,  the Native Americans may actually be living on borrowed time if whites  ever find a way to get the casinos from them.  

Marcus Garvey had a broad appeal for Black people in Oklahoma, especially those who owned their own farms.  They were already in the motion of moving towards autonomy, after having obtained land via other means in less desirable parts of Oklahoma.  So they supported him.  But, when Marcus Garvey helped Black Americans  develop their own businesses, homes and educational system - whites went on the offensive.  To show how incensed they are, they  killed proponents, including Malcolm X's father; and harassed people who supported Garvey.  And while he kept on educating and motivating and energizing Black people, he also realized that as long as they were here in the United States, they would always be under threat.  It was for this reason he devised the concept of Black people returning to the country from which they originated - taking their skills, talents and abilities and sharing it with their brothers and sisters in Africa.  When 12 million Black people said, "YES!! LET'S GO  BACK TO AFRICA!" Whites went ballistic!! Whites in London with the Goodyear Rubber plantations in Africa were so afraid that Black would come back and teach Africans how to harvest and develop their own rubber, they contacted America and said they had to be stopped.  So they conspired with the US to do so.

And I presume white Americans were afraid they would have no more Black folks to lynch, and would have to get back to lynching each other; no more Black women to rape, so they would have to get back to dealing with their own women; no more servants to do their dirty work, so they would have to do it themselves.   The upshot of it was, as with the Oklahoma Ruin, they found a way to undermine, divert, destroy, and confiscate something we had built and were succeeding in  - our own move to self empowerment, autonomy and repatriation to our own homeland. 

Of course, I could go on and on with this train of thought, folks, but that's not the point. The point is that you/I/we have to make sure that we dot all our "i's" cross all our "t's", and have contingency plans 1through 100 ready for when they come at us.

We need to be about the business of both obtaining reparations, as well as co-buying our own properties and building up our own neighborhoods, schools, health systems, and consolidating our economic wherewithal, our votes, our rights.  It is a lead pipe synch that when we do, when we really get serious and show progress, they are going to try to find a way to involve themselves (to undermine from the inside); or sabotage, or otherwise block what we are doing. 

But let's make this the time when "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" is more than a song, but a battle cry - get our lawyers and  or warriors and our planners together to build strategies so that we not only succeed, but have the means by which what we do remains ours and in the hands of our prodigy for generations to come.  Let's not give them something to celebrate in the future about yet another time when they defeated and deprived us of something that truly belonged to us.  

Stay Blessed & 

ECLECTICALLY BLACK 

Gloria - Still An Oklahoma Kid 

BLACK INDIANS: The Ancestors Will Trouble Our Dreams and Shorten Our Days If we Don't Stand UP

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Many a Black person has had the occasion to say, proudly, at some point in their lives, “I have Indian in my family.” It has been known for hundreds of years that Blacks and Indians in the US intermarried extensively, from the East Coast, the South West, the Wild Wild West, and to a small extent, the Northwest.

Certainly the largest numbers of Black and Indian marriages and family lines emanated from the South (Georgia, North and South Carolina, and parts of Florida) and Oklahoma.

Those of you who have been reading either the Black List or my gloriadulanwilson.blogspot have been keeping abreast of a heinous matter roiling out of control in Oklahoma (my homestate)- a state that started out as deeded Indian Territory. Some of you have even heard of the arduous “trail of tears” over which the Cherokee, Seminoles,and other tribes, along with their Black slaves and intermarried wives, trudged in a fierce winter, and died in the early 1800’s, as the result of being given blankets infested with a highly contagious form of smallpox (thanks to famous redneck Andrew Jackson - then President of the US).

From the outset the Oklahoma Territory was inhabited by Blacks and Indians, many of whom had intermarried, built homes,raised families, opened and ran businesses, communities together. Initially, whites were forbidden to go there; and were kept out for 85 years. As a result, we thrived, and built lovely homes, communities, educated our children. We were kool.

To this day, the state of Oklahoma is still inhabited by Blacks and Indians, many of whom are still married, and have homes, businesses and family ties and communities together. But now, things are not as kool as they used to be.

This latest insult on the part of the Cherokee nation, misled by (--I have to say it - wait for it - ) a half-breed whose white ancestry has obviously made him even more of a red neck than most rednecks in the region (and trust me we do have our share). His machinations and manipulations, started by a promise of lucrative funds, have now led to the vote in the Cherokee Supreme Court calling for the ouster of the descendents of Freedman (Oklahomans who are descendants of former slaves who were given full Cherokee Nation rights in 1866 - after the Civil War.

Now, of course these were the former slaves who were "owned" by Indians during the Civil War, who were stupid enough to side with the South. They lost, so they had to abide by the rules. These were not the Indians who originally migrated to Oklahoma with their former "slaves" during the early 1800's, and who had been enjoying life in Oklahoma before, during and after the Civil War. In fact the earlier Black and Indian settlers were none too happy to have the post Civil War crew move in.

Where we once got along and had mutual interests for the most part, things really began to devolve after the Oklahoma Run (read Ruin) of 1889 (April 22, to be exact). The first thing they brought in was Jim Crow, and a whole host of other racist policies - some of which they weren't able to carry through simply because we Blacks had guns, and didn't play.

However as they began to change the tenor of the territory, things degenerated, and eventually the racism was pervasive. The stupid thing is that the Cherokee nation is claiming that the Blacks are no longer part of the tribe as though there were some magic way of unmixing blood. (I know I said this already, but it bears repeating). My DNA, my mother's, father's brother's, sister's, uncle's (not to mention my grandparents - you know ad infinitum) ain't gonna change.

And this ouster seems to be aimed at only 2800 people. And I had to ask myself "why?" As I was conjecturing why the number was so small - a mere 2800 Freedmen - the answer appeared in an article that appeared in the Blacklist, written by Achoctaw1866, to wit: “the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has managed to reduce the Freedmen Struggle in the media to just 2800 “registered” Cherokee Freedmen, effectively locking out all other Cherokee Freedmen eligible for modern Citizenship enrollment, numbered in the thousands, pulling media away from dissent from Advocates for all other Freedmen.”

Well, I for one don’t plan to allow them to get away with that. This is not a box canyon where you can herd off the few and send the rest on their way as though it has nothing to do with them. In the Black community, regardless of who is in our gene pool, it’s one for all and all for one! And we are all just as outraged as those 2800 brothers and sisters you are trying to jerk around.

I am personally calling on all our people, regardless of the percent of melanin you have in your skin, to stand together for the Black people of Indian heritage regardless of whether they reside in Oklahoma, New York, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Oregon, or anywhere else - living or dead - Because by this action the Cherokee Nation has declared that Black people are under siege.

This is not something that you have philosophical debates about. It’s not even something that you sit back and wait for the White House to take a stand on, even though they are definitely taking note of this debacle - this is about who and what we are in the 21st Century.

There was a phrase that appeared at the end of a movie that said: “If No One Else Will Save You, Save Yourself!“ We have to be the heroes and the freedom we are looking for. Another saying from Africa says: “If the people will lead, the leaders will follow.“ Well WE are those people. We are the people who have to stand up for ourselves.

Maybe we need to be about riding in on Oklahoma and giving the Cherokees a first hand knowledge of what it looks like when a Million Black (and Black Indian) people ride down on their behinds. Maybe the march should not be on Washington, or on DC. Maybe the next Million People March needs to be on Oklahoma - Tallequah.

Black and Black Indian Oklahomans need to open up a can of "Wisconsin" on their bogus legislators who sit on their haunches and do nothing (smile up their sleeves as they watch this mess evolve).

According to AChoctaw1866: “Freedmen People feel that continued disrespect and overt intolerance of our humanity will no longer be endured quietly, now or in the future and Black Indians will not back down, even if it appears that we only have a slingshot or hatchet with which to wage an effective campaign. One must not forget that we are imbued with a self-determined propensity to protect rights encoded in our melanated DNA. Freedmen have elicited a response from the White House upon the illegal disenfranchisement of Freedmen People, Deprivation of Nationality, Citizenship and denial of access to their Treaty Mandated Rights.”

She further states: “Yet, it is also indicative of defeat, and a major failure by the White House to reach beyond a reluctant tight-fisted grudging nod to a mere 2,800 Black Cherokees, to clarify the status and treatment of all other Ethnic Indians Freedmen and Tribal Peoples in North America also having African Ancestry numbering in the several hundred thousands of eligible disenfranchised descendants (i.e., Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole Negro Scouts, Creek Freedmen, Mississippi Choctaw, and others) treated the same way in today‘s Indian Country, while their stories have been buried under attention paid only to the plight of Cherokee Freedmen.”

It’s time to bring the Indian Reorganization Act into the 21st Century. Now. Forget about the “cherry picking” of issues one at a time so as to not disturb or upset the so-called nation. Let’s pull the scab off and let the healing begin! It’s time to implement the requests by collective Freedmen People to invoke, implement or proclaim a Presidential or Congressional Enactment making it mandatory for all Tribal Nations and the U.S. Government to respect and/or adhere to the Treaty Rights of all the aforementioned Peoples, or face the legal consequences, immediately if not sooner! Apparently when the Civil Rights act was passed, they forgot to “enforce them within the Tribal Nation and Federal Laws as codified in the Indian Reorganization Act.”

The bottom line is that having failed to do it right the first time around has exacerbated the situation. Many of the issues originally handled by the previous organization was turned over to a hostile entity called the US Court of Claims. It appears that it is amusing to pit people of different cultures against each other and play the game of “keep away” while they try to work things out.

According to the AChoctaw1866, “{since} claims are met with challenges that the U.S. Court of Claims are not compelled to hear such claims, then the hurdle that Freedmen actions are time-barred, after which comes the extreme burden of overcoming Tribal Nation and U.S. Sovereignty. None are charitable enough to waive Sovereign Rights to weigh Freedmen Rights fairly, depriving them of much deserved Due Process. This is why Freedmen Tribes must stand on their own acumen as Nations to challenge other Sovereigns in Nation to Nation actions.” (also known as "Catch 22).

At this point I am only paraphrasing this article; to read it in its entirety check out BlackList.net, or http://newsone.com/nation/associatedpress3/cherokee-nation-will-restore-rights-for-black-cherokees/. My main purpose is pulling out certain salient points is to make you aware that the tactics of Divide and Conquer are being used by the mainstream to put two under served cultures against each other. The oppressed oppressing another oppressed with the assistance of the oppressor (under the guise of trying to “help” is nothing new. Whole tribal wars have been developed by these very means. And while these two entities are fighting each other, the catalyst in the middle walks off with the whole pie.

Sound familiar? Recognize a pattern? And unfortunately, showing their true colors and snake heart for being all too willing to serve as the pawns in this mess are my Cherokee brothers and sisters, who have now shown themselves to be as dumb and gullible as the tribe who paid the Republican representative $7million to introduce them to people who would give them lucrative contracts, only to end up bankrupt.

You and I both know that our ancestors will trouble your dreams and shorten your lives upon this earth if you continue with this line of action. And they will likewise do the same to us if we don’t stand together against you for such a stupid, foolish, selfish, ignorant, destructive act. Go look in the mirror at your tongue and tell me the shape!

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK (and Indian)
Gloria Dulan-Wilson

SUPPORT THE Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund

Disenfranchisement of Black Cherokees: Time to Go on the Warpath!!!

Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Well,well, well, they finally did it! or they think they did. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma finally legislatively disenfranchised thousands of Black Indians who have been part of their nation for over three centuries. Notice I said legislatively, because BLOOD cannot be unmixed.

How insipid. How sad. How tragic. How ignorant. Wonder what kind of water they're drinking these days? Can't be the sweet water of Oklahoma. Maybe they've allowed the wacky weed to grow too close to the banks. Whatever it is, they have shown that when you let an Indian with white heritage become the so-called leader, racism can't be very far behind, can it? What is it about the white eyes and their racist genetic code? They seem to infect those they touch. They certainly infected Principal Chief Chad Smith (half-breed white - oops, did I say that out loud?), the miscreant who made this cockamamie proposal.

Talk about divide and conquer. And you thought Blacks were the only ones who fell prey to such machinations. Look around you, guys. In addition to all out war, extermination and genocide, it appears that a fair amount of divide and conquer is what's keeping my brothers and sisters from taking a stand in regard to this racist situation.

Indeed, it was the promise by some nefarious rep-ugh-blicans that they would not be able to receive monetary benefits, because the Blacks in the tribe would then be able to construe it as "reparations for slavery" that sparked this whole mess to begin with. Under the impression that getting the Blacks off the rolls would then make it possible for them to reap heap big dollars, they have proceeded on a course of action that not to many of the tribe agreed with. But the tantalization of dollars dangled in front of them have turned those who were initially reluctant into supporters.

Congresswoman Diane Watson, D. California, had been a critical foe in this regard, and held panels during the Congressional Black Caucus to highlight what was going on low under the radar. Margaret Vann of Oklahoma, and a descendent of Black Indians was one of the key panelist. Congresswoman Watson, who was originally from Oklahoma, and of Black and Choctaw heritage, had introduced legislation aimed at stopping the Cherokees from going forward with the disenfranchisement; there were stiff penalties, including loss of federal dollars to be imposed should they succeed. Now that she has stepped down, and Karen Bass has assumed the mantle, one wonders whether she will be as ardent and vociferous in making sure they don't get away with modern day segregation.

Interesting, isn't it? The disenfranchised disenfranchising those who have stuck with them for hundreds of years? Many have heard of the Trail of Tears, during which thousands of Cherokees and Indians of other nations were pushed off their lands and sent westward to what is now known as Oklahoma, under Andrew Jackson, then president of the United States, in order to give the land to white settlers.

The land they were being sent to, Oklahoma, which literally means "land of the Red people" was part of the Louisiana Purchase, acquired when the French decided to leave the United States and this part of the hemisphere, after the Haitians kicked their butts in 1804. The French realized they were no match for the Haitians when they came running through the fire they had set to burn the island down, during a battle. The sight of those Black men and women scared the beejeebers out of them, and they went scurrying back to France in much the same way Strauss-Kahn is doing now after having tried to rape an African maid (it appears that individually and collectively cowardice is part of their collective gene pool - but I digress). The French hurried up and got out of Dodge, and after making the best deal they could, cut bait and went back to things French.

A fair amount of Black people, who were then slaves to the Indians who were being pushed out of the south, traveled on that smallpox ridden trek to Oklahoma. Though some perished, a fairly large amount survived, and eventually married into the tribes. Another wave of African descended slaves who sneaked out of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri (long before the Civil War), and other surrounding slave states - such as my family did - likewise stole away to Oklahoma for freedom, since it was the only place in the US at that time that whites were not allowed to go. Those also intermarried with the Indian families there.

Oklahoma had gone from a reservation for Cherokees to the place where the Five Civilized Tribes (Chocktaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminoles), as well as smaller tribes, now resided "LEGALLY", on their own set aside lands (you-all remember set asides don't you? It's that little portion the feds give you to make up for the fact that they have been cheating you all along - but it's generally got a piece of elastic tied to it, and when it looks like you're doing too well, they jerk it back. Anywaaaaaay...)

They were considered "civilized" because they adopted many of the white man's ways, and had educational centers, constitutions, and,thanks to Sequoiah, could actually read their own language. This was opposed to those Indians who recognized the whites for the threats they really were and routinely opened up a can of whip-ass in an effort to keep them from stealing their lands. Unfortunately, the inevitable "manifest destiny" ruled out this as an effective methodology. Now, nearly extinct, these valiant warriors and their descendents have been relegated to some of the worst lands in different parts of the US, where the grass is no longer green and the water that does flow is pretty putrid.

This latest salvo at Black Indians would be comical if it wasn't so heinous. How do you unmix blood? Even the white eyes know that by law one tenth of one per cent of Black blood makes you Black; and by extension, the same is probably true in terms of making you Indian. They sure went out of their way to identify those whites who were part Indian. Most of them got the boot.

So now here we stand, in what is known as a "mexican stand-off." No matter which way you move, somebody is going to get whacked. And as far as I'm concerned, better them than us. Particularly in this instance. It is now time for Blacks, whether you have Indian in your family or not (and you know, we almost all do, because those early slaves would never have survived had it not been for our Indian counterparts), IT'S TIME TO GO ON THE WARPATH!!

It's time for the NAACP, SCLC, Urban League, as well as Blacks individually and collectively, to come down on them and let them know what time it is. No more nice guy; no more panels; no more discussions. No one, within the shores of the United States of America, as it is constituted at this time gets to disenfranchize or segregate Black people.

As a Black woman of Indian heritage - Cherokee, Crow, Creek, I am quite frankly, pissed off. Having grown up in a city where all these heritages honored each other, it is clear to me that this has been engineered over a long, deliberate period of time. We who went to Anadarko every year, or who celebrated our mutual lines in so many other ways, are appalled to find that the so-called youth have gotten into the fray and totally screwed things up. I call on the elders to sanction them, take back the reigns, and put things right before there is a total conflagration in Oklahoma. It will make the Oklahoma Ruin (er, Run) look like a cake walk. You remember that, don't you - April 22, 1889, the day when they opened up our land to whites and pushed us off to marginal lands; taking and uprooting everything we had. Had the tribes not been so "civilized" maybe things would have worked out differently. Now it appears that the "civilized" factor is allowing for fascism to take hold. We are the only ones (Black Indians) to have been disenfranchized twice - once for being Black, and second for being Indian. So for those who think that Black people who claim their Indian heritage (by the way notice that no where in here did I say "Native American") are trying to escape being Black, better think again. Either way, under the current system, we are the targets.

So my Cherokee Brothers and Sisters, my African American Brothers and Sisters You Better Wake Up Now!

Take a look at your population stats. The Five Civilized Tribes and the Blacks who settled after 1865 (Civil War) made up 100% of Oklahoma's population. We all thrived. We lived and worked together successfully; had rich harvests, thriving towns and cities. We basically were happy. Now, of course, that's quite a bit before my time, but I heard stories from my Grandmother (full blooded Cherokee), and my Grandfather (Full Blooded Black Man), as well as my great aunts and uncles - about how wonderful things were "back in the day." (Check out the move "Posse", by the Hudlin Brothers to get a sense of where I'm coming from). Who do you think caused the Oklahoma dust bowl, that caused the land to blow away, wiped out crops, caused people to starve, and sent those very same white settlers scurrying for California after they decimated some of the most arable (read, fertile) land in the area? We remained, we continued to till our land, we continued to thrive. Oklahoma used to have 67 all Black Towns; 13 of them still remain! Even in the days when we weren't "bosom buddies" we definitely weren't sworn enemies either.

In this day and age of global relationships, the Oklahoma region of the Cherokee nation is more reflective of Jim Crowism than anything else. That this must be stopped immediately is an understatement.

Below is an excerpt from Black Indian Magazine covering this latest attempt. Please read it carefully. Because if they are able to succeed segregating us in Oklahoma, can the nation be far behind - particularly under a Rep-ugh-blican run Congress? Think about it!!

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson

[TheBlackList] Appearances: Black Indians-Cherokee Freedmen Stripped of Citizenship
by Angela Finley Molette (Tuscaloosa Warrior Woman) as excerpted from BlackIndian Magazine

One must consider that a gentrified Native American Nation, in collusion with the highest levels of U.S. Government, driven by the appointed superiority of persons of a certain mindset and foundation to change the appearance of an entire aboriginal species on the Continent, has nearly succeeded in their task.

“the core philosophic foundation behind a modern racist perception management program; of wherein which the perceptions of black people are being covertly negatively shaped as a means of defending and maintaining white dominance and control.” [Franklin Jones, aka Tha Nubian, 2011].

Ergo, the appearance of descendants of Aboriginal Ethnic Cherokees having African Blood has been re-cast negatively in revisionist media-driven commentary as “non-Indians” by “the modern manifestation of the original Cherokee Nation,” so described by Principal Chief Chadwick Smith, himself a lineal descendant of mixed blood (White/Native American) Confederate Cherokees (read; losers of the Civil War in Indian Territory).

This is happening to Ethnic Cherokees (popularly known as Cherokee Freedmen) despite being legally thrust “as Indians” to dwell within the historic Indian Country by hundreds of years of permissive and legalized Naturalization through residence, birth, death, marriage, adoption, land ownership and enfranchisement by the Union Loyalist Faction of Cherokee Nation in the Tribal geographical Treaty-mandated domain of Indian Country, and finally Indian Territory (under the jurisdiction and legal sphere of influence) of the so-called “Indian Nations” of the 5 Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma.

The Enfranchisement of Ethnic Cherokees, in full acknowledgement of their African Ancestry, former condition of Enslavement, Servitude, Free Persons of Color status and their 1863 Adoption by the Cherokee Nation Legislature, was memorialized by the Cherokee Treaty with the United States inscribed at the Nations Capital in Washington, D.C., in 1866 and apparently also entered as a Constitutional Amendment to boot.

Principal Chief Chad Smith, a self-appointed opponent of Ethnic Cherokees, presided over a Media Campaign created to aid in smoothing over the mean-spirited, racist and immoral tenor of the Cherokee Nation campaign against Cherokees of African Ancestry seeking modern Citizenship validation based upon eligibility derived by their ancestry and lineal descent. He introduced much more socially palatable language in efforts to “terminate the Citizenship and eligibility of non-Indians.“ Except that the overwhelming number of terminated Cherokee “non-Indians” are those Cherokee Nationals having African Ancestry and there is no equal and opposite program to terminate the Citizenship of the vast number of Cherokees (250,000+) having Caucasian or other ancestry.

The insidious Cherokee Media Management Campaign was instituted after throwing the gauntlet down against the enrollment of Ethnic Cherokees. Chief Smith consulted with a myriad of high powered legal eagles who suggested that Media Management Campaign re-center the Chief’s campaign to make Freedmen Campaign for enfranchisement to be a test of Cherokee Nation Sovereignty, amid a persistent roaring din of racial aspersions cast, including; “Racist Cherokees White-washing Cherokee Nation History” and the “Modern Tribes giving themselves the power to erase the Ethnicity of African Ancestored Cherokees due to fears of being viewed as Black too“, Indian Reservations are Black-Free Zones sanctioned by the U.S.A., and Indian Apartheid, etc.

During the 2009 Federal BAR Association Conference at the ultra-glitzy Skirvin Hotel, downtown Oklahoma City near Bricktown, an Oklahoma entertainment mecca built by the overlords of the failed Indian State of Sequoyah on reclaimed/gentrified lands once held by the poorest most poverty-stricken Black Descendants in the entire State, the Conference Chairperson gagged the Representative of the Cherokee Freedmen Band, Marilyn Vann to keep her from speaking freely during the public event (held in non-Court Room Venue).
Vann's goal was to present the Cherokee Freedmen perspective in the midst of an assemblage of the brightest legal minds in the Nation, in a conference segment promoted as “a debate” between Cherokee Chief Chad Smith and the esteemed Dr. Charles Ogletree, Mentor of President and Mrs. Barack Obama. He gently encouraged the Cherokee Chief to see this struggle as a once in a lifetime Teachable Moment, the kind that goes down in history, attached to Great Men and Women.

At that point, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation looked at Ogletree as if he wanted to pierce the impeccable and learned Black Man’s soul with his eyes. It was a historic Teachable moment alright, it taught us that we were in for the fight of our lives with a very wealthy nation, while we were the most destitute in a land of plenty,

The Chief of the 2nd wealthiest Tribal Nation in America, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma was allowed to speak freely (even though he was a defendant in a suit lodged by Vann), but before he said one word, Chad Smith introduced his anti-Freedmen Campaign Video that showed healthy happy Cherokees (including the mixed Black children of enrolled modern Cherokee Women). The knowledgable in the room recognized the difference between those children and persons of Cherokee Freedmen Ancestry. The Mother’s of the children in the video trace their lineage back to Cherokees without African Ancestry. The modern Cherokee women choosing to have children by Black Men have nothing what so ever to do with historic Freedmen Ancestry. Yet Smith’s Media Campaign Video challenge the unlearned mind to make that leap, which the average man cannot make without knowing Cherokee History.

I suppose to assuage their guilt, the Moderator allowed me to speak, which was much more irritating to Chief Smith, because my Representation and Advocacy is for all Indian Freedmen of the 5 Civilized Tribes, not just the Cherokees.

“Today the U.S. Government, as with many other white governed nations now uses media driven perception management programs to defend and maintain their position of white dominance and control. The U.S. media’s racially devaluing depictions and distorted portrayal of its Black population that amplifies the negative to the point that it distorts reality is a deliberate government deplored perception management program. It is purposefully designed to imply the superiority of its whites populous over its Black; therefore creating internalized -self-contemptuous- responses within its Black population that hinders their Black unity, upward mobility and manipulate them to accept white dominance over their lives. It also reinforces seemingly pre-conditioned response of resentment and prejudicial images of Black people in the majority population, thereby creating a false impression of wanton Black criminality and violence. This creates conditioned responses in its population for eventualities to unfold against its targeted Black populous without opposition or resentment.

Dr. Edward Bernays, a mass manipulation and propaganda specialist hired by several U.S. presidents describes this process by saying that: “If we understand the mechanism and motives of a group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it."

“The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) describes "perception management" as a type of psychological operation intended to provoke the behavior you want out of a given individual or targeted group collectively. Perception management through propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, and direct behavior of a population to achieve responses that furthers the desired intent of the Government.”
Franklin Jones aka Thanubian www.divineBlacktruth.org

Based upon our interpretation of the Wednesday, August 24, 2011 Headline News regarding their specific (unique) Ethnic origins, Cherokee Freedmen were classed in summary judgment by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court as “non-Indians” and “Descendants of Slaves,“ made Citizens merely by “an 1866 Constitutional Amendment” ahead of being stripped of their Cherokee Citizenship, Nationality and exiled against International Prohibition of that action, as the final move in a devastatingly slick end game created by a First Nation Democracy, intended for the purpose.
Interpretation of the Revoked Citizenship of Ethnic Cherokees

Let us be clear about what is really happening to Ethnic Cherokees (as well as Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole Freedmen of the 5 Civilized Tribes), they have been forcefully stripped of their Tribal Citizenship, Nationality, Exiled and rendered Stateless, not for legitimate reasons, like treason, sedition or an attempt to overthrow their Tribal Government. Rather, Indian Freedmen find themselves legally banished (in 2011) by a retroactive law introduced by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, so rendered ostensibly because “citizenship was extended to the freedmen by an 1866 Cherokee constitutional amendment--not the treaty--and that Judge Cripps did not have the authority to overturn its results.“

Well, according to Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., it’s Enid, Oklahoma Spokesperson and Representative, Dr. Angela Molette (Tuscaloosa Ohoyo) Black Warrior Woman, says; “the official Media account provides only the partial truth about Cherokee Freedmen Citizenship (which makes us question whether or not the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court was also dealing only with a partial truth also), that being…persons formerly enslaved by any Cherokee, as well as Free Persons of Color never having been in enslaved, but living within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation prior to 1861, gained legally indefeasible Citizenship by surety of an En Masse Adoption in 1863, at Cowskin Prairie by the Special Act of the Cherokee Legislature, led by Chief Downing and Spring Frog (a Dignitary and lineal descendant of the old Great Chiefs of Chota).
That’s three full years before the Legislative Enactment was included in the 1866 Cherokee Constitution, making their Citizenship inalienable by Naturalization.”

In completion of the 1863 Legislative Enactment, the original Cherokee Nation Legislature invoked the 1866 Constitutional Amendment to confirm the Legislative Enactment, En Masse Adoption and Inclusion of Cherokee Freedmen as fully enfranchised Equal Citizens by the 1866 Cherokee Treaty with the United States of America.

“In that light, one begins to see clearly the fiction in the new Cherokee Nation Supreme Court Decision. The Cherokee Freedmen have been banished, exiled and have now suffered legal termination of their historic Cherokee Citizenship and true Indigenous Nationality, because of their African Admixture, Ethnic Origin and Historic Previous Condition of Servitude.
The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court just used Magic (built upon racism) to execute an Ex Post Facto Law to deprive them of their 1866 Treaty Rights, Citizenship, Indigenous Nationality and access to benefits and entitlements for which ‘Indians’ are eligible.”

The Magic: Depriving Cherokee Freedmen of their True Nationality. Despite their International Human Right to a Nationality and Self-Identification, Freedmen were classed in summary judgment by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court as “non-Cherokees,” “non-Indians” and “Descendants of Slaves,” because of the way the attained their Nationality,” which was incredibly…through a Constitutional Amendment. Even if that was all, why should that be perceived as tenuous, unsecured and revocable for the flimsiest of reasons? Isn’t that how U.S. Slaves received their Citizenship in America?
The second act of the Magic Show was the characterize the Freedmen struggle for Enfranchisement as an affront, assault and challenge to Cherokee National Sovereignty and its right to choose its Citizens. But the Cherokee Nation right to choose Citizens cannot outweigh the rights of an entitlement group enfranchised by Treaty, nor shall Cherokee Nation Laws be steeped in historic racism, insinuating that a Constitutional Amendment was not forceful enough law to maintain eligibility to Citizenship while at the same time ignoring Birthright and Adoption. Nor can installation or use of Ex Post Facto Laws be implemented to deprive certain groups of historic legal Treaty, Citizenship and Nationality Rights. Finally, simply because the Cherokee Nation in rebellion, does not also mean that the United States is relieved of its duty to protect the rights of an Ethnic Protectorate specifically identified and enfranchised by the 1866 Treaties...that is unless it is allowing the Cherokee Nation to do its dirty work for them, by making an end-run around the same said Treaties.

Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund, maintains that the question now becomes; will any of the following use their Plenary Powers, Over-site Mandate and Stewardship Privileges over the Domestic Dependency [Cherokee Nation, as well the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole Nation] to put an end to the fiction allowed to devastate Indian Freedmen at will, like that espoused by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Courtpptouted by it’s main proponent, Principal Chief Chadwick Smith.

What action will the following take; President, Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus, the U.S. Justice Department, Interior Department and Bureau of Indian Affairs. Will each allow such a blatant violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the General Assembly Resolution 61.295 on 13 September 2007, ratified by the United States Government by President Barack Obama in December, 2010?.

The game, an enigma characterized in the past by de facto laws and social policies manifest in the present now by the introduction of a Cherokee Nation Supreme Court law that looks back to deprive rights (ex post facto laws) of Freedmen, all accomplished by metaphysical legerdemain that renders the 1866 Treaties, a chimera for Indian Freedmen.

Metaphysical Legerdemain refers to Magic, the use of mirrors and slight-of-hand tricks in order to manipulate “Appearances” to deceive the mind into believing what it‘s seeing, creating a classic struggle between your eyes, brain, perception, common sense and belief system. In this case the Magic, achieved by smoke and mirrors were undertaken by an entire national system controlled a racist mandate, whose sole intent is to deny African Ancestored Humanity (in the Americas) the tools to remain Sovereign. Instead we have been destabilized by forced detribalization, the domino effect of which is Statelessness, bereft of Political Representation, tenuous dependency upon pilfered U.S. Citizenship (as subsequent generations of Indian Freedmen began to seek U.S. Hospitals in which to give birth to their children, so they might attain some type of Citizenship after being rendered Stateless).

Forced Exile, Statelessness, Deprivation of Citizenship, Nationality and Land Ownership is the doorway to actual physical, emotional and social starvation.

Citizenship: Citizenship status that was legally conferred upon Cherokee Freedmen by an Act of the Cherokee Legislature, featuring an En Masse Adoption of their Class of Citizens in 1863 was revoked on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court in Oklahoma, effectively detribalizing the Ethnic Indians by stripping them of their historic Citizenship, Nationality and future eligibility as Citizens in the Nation of their ancestry.
The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court reversed and vacated an earlier Oklahoma District Court Decision by Judge John Cripps in their favor.

Instead the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court instituted a new ruling, which looks back and discriminates against a highly specific and unique entitlement group guaranteed enfranchisement by the 1866 Treaty with the Cherokee to have their Citizenship and Nationality preserved as an autonomous protectorate of the Tribe.

The Cherokee Freedmen have no other legal Nationality: In a move that was unique at the time, Historic Indian Freedmen (from all 5 Tribes), in order to secure a National Identity for their offspring of illegal exile in the 1940s (see Plecker Letters deny Black Indians legal Native American Nationality), began giving birth to their children in U.S. Hospitals, thereby gaining birth certificates for their progeny. The parents had only Tribal Citizenship and Tribal Midwife affidavits. Even at that, many of the Cherokee Freedmen had parents and/or Grandparents that were not U.S. Citizens and did not have U.S. Birth Certificates.

The issue, according to Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund of Enid, Oklahoma Spokesperson and Representative, Dr. Angela Molette, is not that Cherokee Freedmen are “non-Indians”, but that “Cherokee“ is their Nationality and the United States has just allowed the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma to strip Freedmen of their Citizenship and Nationality.

Molette says “their precise standing prior to being adopted by the Tribe, was as Cherokee Citizens with African Ancestry." They were characterized by the 1866 Treaty as “Persons formerly enslaved by any Cherokee,“ in addition to “Free Persons of Color” and “Freedmen.”.
All Ethnic (Black) Cherokees were granted Autonomy (within the Cherokee Domain) in their own Colony, Districts and Communities.

Chief Downing and Spring Frog (a descendant of the old Great Chief’s of Chota, boldly instituted the practice of adopting Ethnic (Black) Tribal Members) at Cowskin Prairie prior to the end of the Civil War in Indian Territory. Downing and Spring Frog were Union Loyalists in opposition to the rising contingent of Confederate Mixed Bloods-comprising the modern core of Cherokees in opposition to Black Tribal Members, led in the present day by Chief Chad Smith, referred to by Cherokee Freedmen, as a “White Indian”.

FOR CLARIFICATION, SOME DEFINITIONS OF TERMS ARE BELOW:
Legislative Act - an act passed by a legislative body: By an Act of the Cherokee Legislature in 1863, the Cherokee Freedmen were adopted as a matter of historical record, ahead of the end of the Civil War in Indian Territory.
Act or Enactment: A legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society or legislative body
Constitutional Amendment: A change to the Constitution of a nation or state, requiring a special procedure different from that used for enacting ordinary laws. (Extraordinary Law).
Legal Instrument: Legal document: (law) a document that states some contractual relationship or grants some rights (Princeton.edu)
Legal document: (Wikipedia)-A legal term of art that is used for any formally executed written document that can be formally attributed to its author, records and formally expresses a legally enforceable act, process, or contractual duty, obligation, or right, and therefore evidences that act, process, or agreement. Examples include a certificate, deed, bond, contract, will, legislative act, notarial act, court writ or process
Naturalization: To grant citizenship to somebody of foreign birth, or to acquire citizenship in an adopted country.
Adoption: 1. In family law: Adoption is the legal process that establishes a parent/child relationship between individuals who are not related by blood. Once the adoption is completed, the adoptive child becomes entitled to all the privileges belonging to a natural child of the adoptive parents, and the adoptive parents acquire all the legal rights, duties and obligations of the child’s natural parents. All the legal rights, duties and obligations between the child and his or her natural parent terminates upon completion of the adoption.
2. In contract law: Adoption is acceptance by a person or entity of the rights and responsibilities made for their benefit under a contract to which he/she is not a party. And,
3. To accept legal responsibility for the act of another.[Webster’s Law Dictionary]
Ratify: to affirm or approve, usually after the fact.
Kinship: is established by blood, marriage, or adoption: family relationship. Relationship by nature or character. [Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology].

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples(Adopted by the General Assembly Resolution 61/295 on 3 September 2007) Ratified by the United States under President Barack Obama, December 2010
*Excerpts From Preamble
"Affirming that Indigenous Peoples are equal to all other peoples, while recognizing the rights of all peoples to be different, to consider themselves different, and to be respected as such."
"Affirming also that all peoples contribute to the diversity and richness of civilizations and cultures, which constitute the common heritage of humankind."
"Affirming further that all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust."
"Reaffirming that Indigenous Peoples, in the exercise of their rights, should be free from discrimination of any kind."
"Concerned that Indigenous Peoples have suffered from historic injustices as a result of inter alia, their colonization and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources, thus preventing them from exercising in particular, their right to development in accordance with their own needs and interests. "
"Considering also that treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements, and the relationship they represent, are the basis for a strengthened partnership between indigenous peoples and states."
Change: Ordinary People, effect Extraordinary Change Everyday. More People united for moral and just causes effect even greater change.
"The U.S. can't impose change (internationally) but bolster emerging efforts for positive reform."
The actions of the once oppressed Indian nations against pre-existing oppressed and exiled Indian Freedmen of the 5 Civilized Tribes, is philosophically equivalent to the extinctional level events, deprivation of lands and restriction of movement towards the pursuit of happiness, as currently experienced by Palestinians in the Middle East...only its happening on U.S. Soil.

Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., on behalf of its constitutents categorically contends that:
We Oppose!
The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court Action
and All Negative Actions Levied Against
Ethnic Native Americans and Freedmen!

And Reassert The Demand a Presidential and/or Congressional Review and Intervention Into All Tribal, Federal Actions and Court Decisions Involving Freedmen of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole and allied Nations And, Invite all of our Supporters To Press The Executive U.S. Administration, Members of the Congress, Congressional Black Caucus, U.S. Justice Department and Department of the Interior
Into Action To Change The Paradigm!

For more information contact: Dr. Angela Molette (Tuscaloosa Ohoyo) Black Warrior Woman; Principal Chief, United Tuscaloosa Band of the Choctaw Nation President, NAACP Unit #6126 Enid (Garfield County), Organizational Member-Harvest Institute Freedmen Federation of Washington, D.C.

Donate Today: Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.
http://www.blackindiansunited5tribesembassy.org/