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~From Chief's Front Porch~ #12

~SOVEREIGNTY~

While sovereignty of the Indian is definitely a major issue to support, the way to maintain it is NOT to berate other descendants who choose not to be shackled in the white governments yoke of approval! Our own traditional innate common sense would seem to demand this minimum consideration of and by others. Has there ever been another race of people in recorded history who have had to rely on another separate race to tell them who they are?!!! I know it is our tradition to not complain, yell, jump up & down, and all those other things that would draw attention to what we feel inside, but it is my observation of others having to deal with this sort of thing. If we don't yell and scream and fight back, for our very own self-respect, others won't change their attitudes in the way they consider us! They are perfectly content in continuing their mode of imagining us as a people who just want to be called "Indian"!

This brings up another obvious question....Why would anybody want to be Indian if they aren't?! Isn't it the Indians who always loose the fight?, isn't it the Indians who are always the "savages"?, isn't it the Indians who are considered stupid, lazy, shiftless and drunk? Isn't it the Indians who were the terrible killers of poor well-meaning white people who only wanted to take their land?!

I could go on for pages with this, but I hope and believe that you get my point. It is time we start defending who we are!! If we don't, nobody is going to do it for us!!! The Overhill Nation does not want any land or reservation appropriated to them by the Federal Government nor the State Government of Tennessee. The Overhill Nation feels that they do not need someone from the outside recognizing them as Cherokee. To the people of the Overhill Nation, Federal or State recognition is not even a consideration. The Overhill Nation has been advised, in the past, that it would be in their best interest to apply for State recognition....I refused any consideration of this!....

Wado,

Chief Man Many trees

From Chief's Front Porch #12

(Prepared by: Hummingbird Warrior)



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