Cherokee Nation presses for nonvoting House seat. edited

[elleng]

Last edited Sun Sep 25, 2022, 05:35 PM - Edit history (1)

'The Cherokee Nation has kickstarted a campaign pressing Congress to honor a 19th century treaty and provide it with a nonvoting House seat before the end of this legislative session.

The move would be a long-delayed honoring of the Treaty of New Echota, an 1835 agreement that asked the Cherokee people to move west and cede land to the United States and offered, in return, the right to send a delegate to the House of Representatives.

“We often get asked, ‘Why now?’ ‘Why 200 years?’ Well, it’s because forced removal means all that we had developed in the east, all that wealth, the housing, all of that — we had nothing when we came here,” Kimberly Teehee, the designated delegate of the sought-after seat, said in a campaign video released Thursday.

Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. nominated Teehee to be the designated delegate in 2019, and the Council of the Cherokee Nation unanimously confirmed her, but the push to place her in Congress was put off by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a release.

“It is past time for the United States government to honor its promise and seat the Cherokee Nation’s delegate … our history cannot be ignored any longer,” said Hoskin in a statement.

Teehee was the White House Domestic Policy Council’s senior policy adviser for Native American Affairs under former President Obama. . .

The Cherokee Nation is asking the House Rules Committee to hold a hearing on the matter and subsequently pass a resolution to establish the seat before Congress adjourns in December.

The new campaign is pushing for people to contact their representatives and call for the Cherokee Nation’s seat. The effort is also set to include public events and grassroots mobilization.'

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3656660-cherokee-nation-presses-for-non-voting-house-seat/?

EDIT:

INFO:Native Americans Weren't Guaranteed the Right to Vote in Every State Until 1962.
Native people won citizenship in 1924, but the struggle for voting rights stretched on much longer.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217193866

[Jenny von Westphalen]

1. All Native tribal governments should get their own at-large delegates to the parliamentary

Especially if they already pay taxes. It would be a step towards righting injustices.

[Cheezoholic]

3. 100% agree n/t

[wackadoo wabbit]

6. Absolutely! And these should be voting seats ... n/t

[brooklynite]

9. So they should get two House seats?

They're already voting for a member of the House based on State districts.

[Autumn]

12. Yes. A promise made by the government should be honored. They gave up a lot.

[Celerity]

19. The only way to get them a voting House Rep is to either make them a State or amend the

Constitution, both of which are very unlikely to happen.

Same for 2 Senators for them.

Statehood for Puerto Rico is also problematic, as they have not officially requested it (backed via a binding referendum), as well as (from my partisan, pro-Dem standpoint) it is so NOT a lock they will elect only Dems.

DC statehood and a split of CA into 2 States (North California and South California) are the only two sure ways to increase the net number of Dems in Congress that are also remotely doable.

Spitting CA intp NoCal and SoCal would most likely require both their legislature and also Congress to approve it (both of which CAN be done, albeit not all that easy, look at DC's struggles):

https://lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis/Initiative/2017-018

“Consent of the Legislature” Required for State Splits. As noted above, Section 3 of Article IV of the U.S. Constitution requires the “Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress” for specified acts to create new states. When West Virginia became a state in 1863, Section 3 generally was interpreted to require the consent of the state legislature and the Congress in order to split Virginia. (President Lincoln and some others recognized a unionist legislature—established in West Virginia after the rest of Virginia joined the Confederacy—as the body then empowered to give the required state legislative consent.) There have been other interpretations of Section 3 over time. Based on the most recent precedent from 1863, it appears most likely that the U.S. Constitution requires a state’s legislature—along with the Congress—to consent before that state is split into two or more new states.


A final, wild card way to increase Dems in Congress would be to grant statehood to the inhabited US unincorporated territories (except for PR), plus the 3 entities in the Compact of Free Association and combine them all into a new State (I suggest the name Oceania, lolol)

U.S. Virgin Islands (the major geographical outlier)
American Samoa
Guam
Northern Mariana Islands

and offer to include the 3 in the Compact of Free Association

Marshall Islands
Federated States of Micronesia
Palau

The total population for those combined 7 is around 550,000 and would rapidly grow (especially, I wager, the US Virgin islands) if they were all made a new US State.

[Hangingon]

15. What a great idea!

There are currently 574 recognized tribes, etc. Do we pay them? Where will they meet? Remember, the House of Representatives currently has 435 voting members. Exactly what will they do?

[Retrograde]

21. Representation based on ethnicity?

I don't think we want to start down that road

[Jenny von Westphalen]

24. They already live in systematically impoverished, disenfranchised reservations "based on ethnicity"

"That road" has long been travelled now, I'd reckon.

[live love laugh]

25. Isn't the representation based on a written agreement?

Seems all that’s asked is to honor the agreement.

[Hekate]

2. I hope they get it. It's about time.

[Beartracks]

4. Cross-posted this in the Oklahoma Group.

I hope you don't mind.

(It's just a link back to your OP here.)



=============

[elleng]

13. Thanks

[DFW]

5. I would hope that the status changes to "voting" soon

They were living in North America before the Europeans came, they pay US taxes, and they are more “American” than anyone in Congress except Sharice Davids.

[Zeitghost]

14. Yes

They pay taxes and have the right to vote for members of Congress. What gave you the idea that they did not?

[Retrograde]

22. There are other Native American reps in the current congress

including 3 Republicans from various Cherokee groups: Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma is a less than sterling example.

[Bucky]

7. Would they be appointed or elected?

As far as I know, all the other non-voting delegates to the US House are elected, not appointed, to their positions.

Also wonder that means that people who are represented by the Cherokee Nation delegate would be then disallowed from participating in state elections.

[Hangingon]

16. I would assume that would be up to each of the 574 tribes.

[Hangingon]

17. I would assume that would be up to each of the 574 tribes.

[Bucky]

18. Not in a democracy, my friend.

[Hangingon]

20. Please explain

It is proposed to give special representation to special interest groups to the disadvantage of the electorate as a whole. These special interests exist as distinct entities. They have their own laws, their own leaders and their own. Legislatures. Though they vary almost all say who belongs to the entity. This is special interest for a special few. The special interest that should come first is the American citizens. You proposal has nothing to do with Democracy. Look it up..

[Samrob]

8. Why no voting rep? Isn't time to change that for Puerto Rico and the Nation's?

Don't they pay taxes Federal income taxes?

[brooklynite]

10. They do and they have a voting rep.

Every citizen in the 50 States is in a congressional district.

[brooklynite]

11. nb: Puerto Ricans do NOT pay federal tax.

[roamer65]

23. They should have voting seats.