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Tribe can change constitution, not freedmen treaty, BIA says

By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau
8/11/2007

WASHINGTON -- The head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs endorsed the
Cherokee Nation's right to amend its constitution without federal approval,
but he made it clear Friday that the action does nothing to alter the
tribal membership of freedmen descendants.

"By approving this constitutional amendment, it doesn't change the
freedmen's status," Carl Artman said. "The 1866 treaty between the United
States and the Cherokee Nation affirms their rights.

"Until the treaty of 1866 is abrogated, the freedmen will remain members of
the tribe."

Making his comments during an interview, Artman said his agency would
consider taking the Cherokee Nation to court to enforce that treaty if the
tribe once again moved to expel certain descendants of former slaves from
its membership rolls.

"I am not sure that court action is the way to go," he said. "We would look
at all of our options."

Artman's Aug. 9 letter to the tribe, which announced his approval of the
constitutional change taking the federal government out of its amendment
process and his comments about that decision, stressed that the tribe still
must follow the law.

"In approving the amendment, it affirmed tribal
sovereignty," Artman said, adding that tribal sovereignty, just like the
sovereignty of the federal government or a state government, can be limited
by a constitution.

"It can also be limited by treaties, and in this case, sovereignty is
limited, guided by the 1866 treaty," he said.

Cherokee officials said Artman's approval ends an eight-year "struggle" to
remove the federal agency from the tribe's constitutional process.

Cherokee Nation voters passed a constitutional amendment removing federal
oversight on June 23.

Artman and Principal Chief Chad Smith clashed over a similar vote in 2003,
forcing the chief to set another vote.

Smith said Friday that Artman's approval of the June 23 vote validates
self-governance for tribes.

"We do appreciate that they (the BIA) acknowledge what our own courts have
already held to be true -- that the Cherokee people are the only people
with the right to decide what our constitution says," Smith said.

Meredith Frailey, the speaker of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council, said
federal approval affirms that the tribe is capable of making fundamental
government decisions.

"The BIA has told us what we already knew -- the Cherokee people do not
need a federal bureaucracy micromanaging our nation," she said.

Artman's decisions on the Cherokee Nation, specifically those pertaining to
freedmen descendants, are being watched closely by members of Congress.

U.S. Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., a member of the Congressional Black
Caucus and perhaps the tribe's most vocal congressional critic, is not
ready to let the matter drop.

"Assistant Secretary Artman's decision to approve the Cherokee Nation's
amended constitution is the wrong message at the wrong time," she said. "It
demonstrates the need for immediate and aggressive congressional oversight
of this matter."

Artman said he did not see the point of holding a congressional hearing.

"Oversight of what?" he asked. "The freedmen always have been part of the
Cherokee Nation, and they still are." pu,Also --- World staff writer S.E.
Ruckman contributed to this story.