Join my Tribe!

Is it any wonder that when a person starts talking with another about his/her "native" heritage, they coalesce into a culture club, then start calling themselves a "tribe", when it's been done that way in New Orleans for over a century? Now even the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) is promoting its own version of ground-up tribal creation :

Three things i've learned from CBS's latest promotion:

1. corporations have learned from the late-20th-century fad of culture-club-creation that the idea of a real tribe can be made into a fun game of fake tribes that can be capitalized.
2. creating and joining a tribe is money-making "entertainment", not culture. "Entertainment clubs" should be the new descriptive term for these groups that start up in the 21st century, take a "desire to return to the Old Ways of Our Ancestors," steal an old local Native American Indian tribal name, and squat on it to 'assume' its cultural identity.
3. the bigger and more-recognized an "entertainment club" is at the county (1, 2, 3) and regional pow-wow levels, the better they'll do in the far more difficult challenges to get to state and federal levels where the really big buck are.

That's how entertainment works/makes money, for the creators -- the entertainment clubs, and the vendors -- the powwow sellers, "heritage parks", and casinos waiting in the wings.

TCIA suicide by recipe

While it suits many people on the losing side of an issue to quickly blame individuals for failed agendas, ie, scapegoating, all too often they fail to stop and take a look at what really happened and at the issue itself.

The culture clubs of Tennessee didn't get legislative and executive recognition of themselves as tribes in 2010 for one big reason: they failed to convince the Native American Indian community in Tennessee that they were Indian. By lying about their origins and histories, by successfully advocating for the removal of members of federally-recognized tribes from the state Commission of Indian Affairs, by taking over the TN Native American Convention and making local caucuses and the state convention a one-sided political party, by thumbing their nose at the tribe to which most of them claim kinship, by promoting secrecy, pettiness and hate at their 2010 Commission meetings, they successfully alienated all indian community support for even the sanest of culture-club members.

Of course The Fake Tribes of Tennessee blame a White Republican female legislator for their downfall after their success with the top White Republican male lawmakers of the state. 'Blame Whitey' is still a curious regurgitated racial rant when it comes from the keyboards of white blondes themselves pretending to be Indian.

The new (2009) TNNAC and new (2010) TCIA itself killed the TN Commission of Indian Affairs. They followed the recipe for Commission murder to a 't' and have ended up with less than nothing: a reputation for historical fraud, identity theft, nastiness and partisanship that is now the legislators' collective memory for the coming decade.

They were given the death recipe 17 months ago:

Killing the Commission in 2009
------------------------------------------------
1. promote argument and dissension, esp. against individuals
2. maintain state recognition of tribes, organizations & individuals as a legislative and Commission issue
3. Commission focus on internal rules and resolutions
4. TNNAC elect not-tribally-recognized members/descendants as Commission nominees

... published 5 february 2009 right here (see below). Every single one of the 4 steps TNNAC and TCIA followed religiously, compulsively, right to the very end on 19 june 2010 with the passage of TCIA Standing Rule 14 and the illegal recognition of their six culture clubs as fake tribes.

This extended suicide isn't painless, and its ghost will haunt the six faux culture clubs and their koolaid-drinking supporters for a scary long time.

Candidate Needs to Take Responsibility

ref: 8 July 2010 USA TODAY: Battle grows bitter as TN recognizes new Indian tribes

Lieutenant Governor/Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey supported these fake Indian tribes and sponsored their legislation in 2009 and 2010:

• SB1733 grants state recognition to certain Indian tribes, bands, and groups

• SB1735 extends state Native American Indian recognition with full legal rights and protections to the Remnant Yuchi Nation

• SB1978 grants state recognition to certain Indian tribes, bands, and groups

"Team Ron Ramsey" ought to be taken to task for making Tennessee the laughingstock of Indian country and for disrespecting the historical 'removed' tribes of Tennessee.

Denunciation of TCIA's 19 june 2010 actions

JUNE 24, 2010

TO: TENNESSEE ATTORNEY GENERAL
TENNESSEE SECRETARY OF STATE

RE: JUNE 19TH ACTIONS OF THE TN COMMISSION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED FOUNDERS AND FORMER COMMISSIONERS OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, denounce, repudiate and reject the actions of the current TENNESSEE COMMISSION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS on June 19, 2010 to recognize six groups (often called culture clubs) as State Recognized Tribes. The action taken by the current TCIA is a gross violation of state administrative policies that safeguard the public interest through prior notice, open meetings and public hearings, all of which were violated by the six current commissioners who voted for this illegal action. It is also an egregious conflict of interest given that 4 of the TCIA’s 6 members (Vice Chair Christine Goddard, Secretary James Everett Meeks, Alice Gwin Henry and Charles Lawson) are members of these very groups. Such illegitimate tribal recognition is an intentional fraud perpetrated on Cherokee, Lenape and Yuchi people to steal their political identities. Groups pretending to be Indian when a majority of them have no cultural or family affiliation with the tribes they claim as kin is a deception played on all the citizens of the State of Tennessee.

We ask the state Attorney General and Secretary of State to review these violations of state administrative rules and to determine the legitimacy of these commissioners’ actions, and to fully and objectively prosecute all violations.

Given the complete lack of public review, we also ask that the state Attorney General, the Secretary of State, and the Department of Environment and Conservation that oversees the Commission of Indian Affairs, and the Senate and House Government Operations Committees obtain for public review the applications and documentation submitted by the groups to the state Commission of Indian Affairs and used by the Commission to determine these groups’ eligibility and approval by the Commission.

FORMER TN INDIAN AFFAIRS COMMISSIONERS
1. Ray Emanuel, Nashville 1989-1992
2. John Hedgecoth, Crossville 2003-2004
3. John Anderson, Chattanooga 2003-2005
4. Evangeline Lynch, Dyer 2003-2008
5. Doris Tate Trevino, Sewanee 2005-2006
6. Niles Aseret, Nashville 2005-2007
7. Jeanie Walkingstick King, Knoxville 2005-2010
8. David Teat, Nashville 2007-2008
9. tom kunesh, Chattanooga 2007-2010
10. Bill Wells, Nashville 2008-2010

Contact: Evangeline Lynch (731) 643-6655

“Historic Orchard Knob - Established 1835” ?

There are new signs stuck in the ground around the Orchard Knob area east of downtown Chattanooga that claim ‘Historic Orchard Knob - Established 1835’. Given that this area south of the river was Cherokee Nation up through 1838, and that the geographic feature was called ‘Indian Hill’, and that there is no publicly available information on the web about ‘Historic Orchard Knob’, - does anybody know where the idea of ‘Historic Orchard Knob’ being established in 1835 comes from?

reminder to TNNAC

notes from the TNNAC meeting, 18 October 2008 - Saturday, 9.30am - Cumberland U -agenda

TNNAC chairman Doug Kirby said some good words at the start of the meeting ...

no reason for TNNAC to be an org without the Commission
without the Commission there will be no recognition
told if the Commission fails, there will be no recognition.
TNNAC needs to be at the center - open, transparent means of
getting commissioners, need to follow state guidelines, rules
if TCA says we need 5 recognized indians on the Commission,
it's our job to assure that it does happen
have to recommend that the balance be held as in the guidleines or
we're not doing our job, exposing ourselves to those organizations outside
the state that TNNAC & the Commission are not following the guidelines
TNNAC is not a political body
----

in spite of his words, there appears to be no further concern on the TNNAC board's part regarding the lack of guaranteed or preferred representation of members of federally- or state- recognized tribes on the state Commission of Indian Affairs, and the current lack of compliance with state law that states that 5 of the 7 members be given Indian Preference.