Got a dime?
Chad Smith flew in to LA today to meet with the local Cherokees. I just got the fall-out. Here's the money graph:
If the second-largest tribe in the country can be threatened with termination and bullied by Congress -- then no one is safe -- including you.
The expectation is that every Indian is under the impression that Oklahoma Statehood didn't happen and the Cherokee Nation wasn't dissolved in 1907, and the Principal Chiefs Act didn't happen and Richard Nixon didn't recreate the Cherokee Nation in 1970, and that every Indian Tribe shares a Treaty History with the United States just as fungible as the CNO's as a barrel of sweet light crude from any West Texas or Oklahoma well or pipeline.
As if that weren't funny enough, Chad manages to under-inform the people he lobbies for support. Here's one result, from someone I've known via the TribalLaw list for a decade:
Please note that Senator Barak Obama is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Someone needs to ask him how he can reconcile his support of the efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus and his rhetoric about supporting Tribal Governments.
Pushing the CNO off a cliff and restoring the Clinton Executive Order concerning consultation would be a wicked big win, for everyone except Chad's 4,210 voters. Making Chad King-for-Life and leaving everything as is would not be a wicked big win, except for Chad's 4,210 voters. And why the heck can't Chad and his sock puppets ask their own damn push-poll questions? Because the media might ask "Chad, was your election more, or less rigged, than any of the other five Jack Abramoff client/contributor tribal executives who used to control Indian Gaming operations and rubber stamp legislatures and who are now behind bars or lobbyists for non-Indian casino operators or writing their memoirs?"
Brad Carson handled the Obama vote for Oklahoma. Brad is employed by the CNO as the "CEO of Cherokee Nation Businesses". You'd think the contract would cover a phone call. You'd think that Chad might disclose that his guy ran Obama's campaign in OK, and he doesn't need help getting a memo thrown over the transom to the Obama campaign's policy staff.
Corrections from the original version.
