Sovereignty Symposium
by Carter Camp, Ponca Nation
The recent Sovereignty Symposium which was held in Tulsa, consistently avoids the real questions of Tribal Sovereignty. It seems instead to have become a forum for anti-Indian politicians to come vent their spleen and spread their uninformed ideas about Indian Tribes in Oklahoma. Representative Largents' speech to the Symposium is only the most recent example of a totally misinformed politician talking out of the side of his mouth. He was so wrong on so many points that it is impossible to correct him without beginning at a grade school level and bringing his knowledge of our Nations up to at least introductory level. He, like most people who are ignorant of the facts, harped on Tribes to become "self-sufficient" as if we aren't now. The fact is that money flows out of Indian Country not, as
Largent seems to think, into Tribal treasuries. Why does he tax Indians to become self-sufficient but out of the other side of his mouth he encourages State and local governments to grab as much Federal aid as
possible. Could his attitude be the reason the Indian Health Service in Oklahoma is so badly under funded in
Americas time of plenty? Two of the important questions about Sovereignty the Symposium avoids are as follows:
First; Native people and our Governments have no representation in the United States Government. Of all the many sovereignties that make up this Government, only Indian Tribes are excluded from full
participation. We are Americas only half-citizens - we can vote, we pay taxes, we must obey laws, but we have no Representation. Virgin Islanders have representation in Congress, as do Samoans and Puerto Ricans. They do not have to go to another sovereignty (such as Oklahoma) and beg them to represent their interests in Congress.
Second; The most pressing question in Indian Country is the undemocratic and oppressive form of
Government the BIA forced upon the Tribes. These so-called Constitutions were written by unknown
bureaucrats and forced on the Tribes in order to carry out the "termination" and "relocation" policies of
that era. They have always been used to cheat Native people out of their land and wealth and to deny us our rights as Americans. The Constitution of my Ponca tribe is a typical case; The first paragraph states that "all Legislative, Judicial and Executive powers shall be held by a Council of seven members"! How does one describe a government in which all power is held by seven people? Oligarchy? Politburo?
Certainly not a Democracy. Indian people deserve democracy just as much as any other American but we have been saddled with the endemic, despotic, corruption of all governments that rule without democratic checks and balances. Indian people are denied their basic American civil rights by a very simple legalistic/bureaucratic subterfuge. They tell us that"it"s your government now, it's up to you to change it". The same thing they tell the Iraqi people about Saddam Husseim, who holds similar powers. Like the Iraqi, we have tried almost every tactic to gain either American democracy or a return to a Traditional Indian form of Government. Since 1934 there have been literally hundreds and hundreds of protests and rebellions all across Indian Country against this oppressive form of government. Some are in progress today. All attempts to reform from the bottom-up have failed. The Ponca Constitution and hundreds of similar Tribal Constitutions across the land of the free, still say what they say. The question becomes: What good is Sovereignty without Democracy?
Remember, these Tribal Constitutions are in no way Indian nor do they address Indian needs and
aspirations. These are documents written within the bowels of the BIA at a time and place where no
one dreamed the Tribes would even exist into a new millennium. Tribal Sovereignty itself was only a
distant dream within the minds of a few dogged Indians. Within the greater scheme of things America,
we were supposed to vanish!
The solution to the second problem is as simple as the problem itself; America should refuse to recognize or fund non-democratic, non-Traditional forms of Tribal of Governments. That's all. The mere threat of a budget cut would cause some democratic reform to begin. A threat to Recognition would bring out some native Thomas Jefferson in each Tribe to write new,
democratic, Constitutions. This simple solution could be easily done top-down by Presidential decree or by Act of Congress, since formal American recognition is the bedrock of our limited Sovereignty. Kevin Gover as
Asst. Sec. in charge of the BIA could do by fiat what 66 years of bottom-up attempts at reform have failed to do. By insisting on democratic, open Constitutions he could save those of us at the bottom another many decades of fighting for democracy.
The solution to the first problem is still a distant dream within the minds of a few dogged Indians. We dream of a day when Indian Country will be represented in Congress. Oklahoma Indians once tried to join the Union as the State of Sequoia so our idea is not new. In this modern time "Indian Country" is a legal term which Congress and the Courts use to describe the
entire boundaries of our many Nations. The two million citizens of "Indian Country" deserve actual
Representation in the Congress of the United States. Congressional Districts allocated according to our population and representing contiguous geographic areas of equal population within Indian Country. In 1924 Indians became the last of Americas people to be granted the right to vote. In 1934 our Tribal Governments were recognized in their modern form within the American system. It is now time for my people to be given full citizenship in America and the Representation that is our right as Americans.
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