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The Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory, also known as the Northern Cherokee Nation, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization[1] of individuals who self-identify as Cherokee but are not state or federally recognized as a Native American tribe or government.[2][3]

Members live primarily in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Their current leader is Chief Kenn “Grey Elk” Descombes.[2][3]

While members of the group claim Cherokee ancestry, genealogical research has not corroborated any of these claims. An estimated 90 percent of the organization's membership's Cherokee claims are from personal family stories.[2]

History

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The group incorporated on September 15, 1978, as the Northern Cherokee Tribe of Indians.[4] On March 17, 2014, the organization changed its name to Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory.[5]

In an attempt to gain gambling and bingo rights in Missouri, an illegal election was held at which time a group usurped the Northern Cherokee name and attempted to steal the not-for-profit corporation that has been held by the Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory since 1982.[citation needed] After this was discovered, the new group was indicted by a Cole County Grand Jury, thus ending the attempt.[citation needed] The group splintered off into other groups which included the Northern Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri in the same year; a separate splinter became the Sac River and White River Bands of the Chickamauga Cherokee Indian Nation of Arkansas and Missouri, which had its own split producing the Chickamauga Cherokee Nation White River Band.[citation needed]

The Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory continues to claim they have state recognition in Missouri, due to a 1983 letter from then-Governor Kit Bond where he personally acknowledged existence of the group; but this letter did not grant them state recognition (which is a legislative process) nor did it grant them recognition by the continuously-existing Cherokee tribes as Cherokee people.[3] The group's claim of Missouri state recognition is called misleading because, according "to a master list maintained by the National Conference of State Legislatures, Missouri recognizes no Indian tribes except those recognized by the federal government."[6][7]

In 1996, the group claimed to be recognized] by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[8] The group is not recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[9]

Recognition status

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This organization is neither federally or state recognized.[2]

Federal recognition of an Indian tribe can be achieved in one of three ways; by recognition through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, recognition through Acts of Congress or recognition through Courts of Law. State recognition of an Indian tribe differs from state to state but fall into one of four methods, namely: passage of State Statutes and Acts, recognition through State Regulatory Processes, recognition through Joint and Concurrent Resolutions, and recognition through Treaties, Proclamations and Executive Orders. In both cases recognition is accomplished by meeting the requisites for any one of the relative methods of recognition. That means that the BIA can recognize a group and yield that group recognition or Congress can pass a bill recognizing the group.[10]

The Missouri American Indian Council asserts "there are no domestic Indian tribes recognized by the state," insisting that an executive mandate does not constitute the appropriate avenue of recognition but that it must be done by the passage of a state law in the state of Missouri. The NCNOLT has attempted multiple times, since around 1983, to clarify state recognition in Missouri (where it has a 200-year residency) and Arkansas but have not been successful.[11] They have received three declarations from different state governors acknowledging "Northern Cherokee Recognition Day" and the presence of the Northern Cherokee since the late 18th century in the states of Missouri and Arkansas and one county, Boone County in Missouri.[citation needed] The Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory filed a Letter of Intent to Petition with the Bureau of Indian Affairs on February 19, 1992, but as of September 22, 2008, no decision had been reached,[12] because the group has submitted no documentation (as of February 15, 2007).[13]

Rocky Miller, a congressman and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, has said that the proclamation issued on June 1983 by then-governor Kit Bond where Bond "acknowledged the existence of the Northern Cherokee Tribe" as "an American Indian Tribe within the State of Missouri" and declared June 24, 1983 Northern Cherokee Recognition Day, "does not make the Northern Cherokee a state-recognized tribe" because "Missouri has no established process for recognizing state tribes, and a list of state-recognized tribes will vary, depending on who you ask."[3]

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Under the 1990 Indian Arts and Crafts Act, members of the Nortern Cherokee Nation cannot market their work as being "Native American" or "American Indian.[14] Terry Lee Whetstone, a member of the Northern Cherokee Nation,[14] was charged with and convicted of with "falsely portraying himself as Cherokee" to sell "authentic Native American" artwork for "high prices." [15] However, "Whetstone was selling at powwows and art fairs using a fraudulent Cherokee Nation card."[16][17]

Relationship with the federally recognized Cherokees

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The three federally recognized Cherokee tribes do not acknowledge the claims of the Northern Cherokee Nation.

The Cherokee Nation, headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, issued a statement asserting that some Cherokee Heritage Groups are encouraged but those that use words that imply governance are not.[18] In 2008 the leadership of the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians signed a resolution to oppose fabricated Cherokee 'tribes' and denounced state and federal recognition of any new "Cherokee" tribes or bands. The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians did not participate in the resolution.[19]

In 2000 the U.S. census report 729,533 people self identified as Cherokee Indian.[20] This figure is also more than twice the population of current estimates of all three federally recognized tribes combined.

Middle Eastern origin stories

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An organizer of the Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory, Beverly Baker Northup, self-published a book, We Are Not Yet Conquered (2001), and in the first chapter wrote her perspective on to the origins of the ancestry of the Cherokee people. Northup explains in this chapter that she believes that a group of Middle Eastern people (she suggests they could have been Sicarii and surviving defenders of Masada) crossed the Atlantic Ocean and intermarried with Indian peoples making up the Cherokee.[21] Northup's suggestion of Jewish ancestry for Cherokee people was featured in the book Weird Missouri and was compared to the Mormon belief system;[22] a similar idea also forms part of the beliefs of Christian Identity and British Israelism. The claimed connection between Amerindians and the Ten Lost Tribes has spread on Indian and Israelite oriented websites alike and has sparked disdain as well as approval.[23][24][25][26]

Membership controversy

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Dr. Carol Morrow from the Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau suggested that eligibility for membership is determined by Beverly Baker Northup who has been voted out of office more than once and who has obtained $120,000 in federal grant money to be used for completing the tribe's federal recognition process, which has not yet been completed.[27] Northup believes that Governor Mel Carnahan's bill of acknowledgment speaks to her legitimacy in office as the question of her having been voted out of office predated 1996.[28]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Northern Cherokee Nation". Tax Exempt Organization Search. Internal Revenue Search. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d Nagle, Rebecca (2 Apr 2019). "How 'pretendians' undermine the rights of Indigenous people". High Country News. Archived from the original on 19 June 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d ASSOCIATED PRESS. "Missouri lawmakers try to define real Native American art". Cherokee Phoenix. Cherokee Phoenix. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  4. ^ "Articles of Incorporation of a General Not For Profit Corporation". Northern Cherokee Tribe of Indians. State of Missouri, Office of Secretary of State. September 15, 1978. [dead link‍]
  5. ^ "Articles of Amendment for a Nonprofit Corporation". Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory. State of Missouri Corporation Division. March 17, 2014. [dead link‍]
  6. ^ Russell, Steve. "Fake Indian Terry Lee Whetstone Convicted Under Indian Arts and Crafts Act". Indian Country Today. Archived from the original on 2018-05-13. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
  7. ^ ICT Staff. "Feds: Artist Terry Lee Whetstone Is a Fake Indian". Indian Country Today. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  8. ^ "Berryville is Home to Cherokee Headquarters". Baxter Bulletin (Mountain Home, Arkansas). November 8, 1996. p. 5.
  9. ^ "Indian Entities Recognized by and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs Archived 2020-05-05 at the Wayback Machine". Indian Affairs Bureau. Federal Register. January 30, 2020.
  10. ^ Federalism and the State Recognition of Native American Tribes: A Survey of State-Recognized Tribes and State Recognition Processes Across the United States By Alexa Koenig and Jonathan Stein pages 16-30
  11. ^ Federalism and the State Recognition of Native American Tribes: A Survey of State-Recognized Tribes and State Recognition Processes Across the United States By Alexa Koenig and Jonathan Stein pages 24-30, 61 and 62 url= https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1123&context=lawreview Archived 2018-05-13 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Fleming, R. Lee (2008-09-22). "List of Petitioners by State" (PDF). Bureau of Indian Affairs. p. 30. Retrieved 2009-05-30. [dead link‍]
  13. ^ Office of Federal Acknowledgement (2007-02-15). "Status Summary of Acknowledgement Cases" (PDF). Bureau of Indian Affairs. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 13, 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
  14. ^ a b Williams, Mary Elizabeth. "Two prominent Native Americans accused of faking their Cherokee heritage: "They're just trying to make a buck off of us"". Salon. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  15. ^ Munro, Cait. "Kansas City Artist Accused of Posing as Native American to Sell His Art". ArtNet News. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  16. ^ Russell, Steve. "Fake Indian Terry Lee Whetstone Convicted Under Indian Arts and Crafts Act". Indian Country Today. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  17. ^ "Odessa Man Sentenced for Selling Fake Indian Art". Department of Justice. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  18. ^ Official Statement Cherokee Nation 2000, Pierpoint 2000.
  19. ^ Joint Council of the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Resolution #00-08. A Resolution Opposing Fabricated Cherokee "Tribes" and "Indians."
  20. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2009-05-09. Retrieved 2017-12-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. ^ Northup, Beverly Baker (2001-07-26). We Are Not Yet Conquered. Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing Company. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-56311-673-5.
  22. ^ Strait, James; Mark Moran; Mark Sceurman (2008-11-04). Weird Missouri. New York City: Sterling Publishing. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-1-4027-4555-3.
  23. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-02-11. Retrieved 2009-09-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  24. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-10-31. Retrieved 2009-09-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-06-04. Retrieved 2009-09-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  26. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-06-09. Retrieved 2009-07-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  27. ^ "Native American Indian identity remains in question"
  28. ^ Northup, Beverly Baker (2001-07-26). We Are Not Yet Conquered. Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing Company. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-56311-673-5.

References

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Category:Cherokee heritage groups Category:Non-profit organizations based in Missouri Category:Non-recognized Native American tribes Category:Groups claiming Israelite descent

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