Tribes prevail, kill proposed coal terminal at Cherry Point

[suffragette]

20. They were busy trying to keep their culture and land

http://whatcomwatch.org/wpww/?p=348


1823 Johnson v. M’Intosh – first claim of discovery ruling
1832 Cherokee v. Georgia – ruling that Indians are like wards to the guardian
1855 Point Elliot Treaty defines agreement between US government and Pacific northwest Tribes
1859 Point Elliot Treaty proclaimed law of the land
1872 President Grant shrinks Lummi reservation land by Executive Order
1883 Religious Crimes Code bans religious freedom for Native Americans (unless Christian)
1923 Circular 1665 – banned Native American ceremonial dancing
1950 Last termination era – residential schools, forced relocations, extermination of tribalism
1955 Tee-Hit-Ton termination era case – all Indians declared to have been conquered
1970 Lummi refuse $58,000 offer for San Juan Islands and mainland Lummi home areas
1974 Boldt decision – reestablishes Native American treaty claims
1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act allows aboriginal ceremonies
1979 Lummi tribe closes commercial herring fishery for conservation purposes
1979 Supreme Court ruling on Boldt decision reaffirms rights to treaty fisheries
1988 Supreme Court strikes down American Indian Religious Freedom Act
2011 Pacific International Terminals illegally bulldozes and drills on GPT land

In the case of the territory of the Lummi Indians, the United States offered to pay $58,000 in the early 1970s for the San Juan Islands and mainland homeland areas in Whatcom County. When the Lummi refused this offer the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), as the tribe’s “guardian,” accepted the money on behalf of the tribe (their “wards”) and placed it in the U.S. Treasury. The BIA argued with the Lummi, saying the tribe could use this money to build a school, a hospital, or homes for their people. The Lummi response was to order the BIA off the reservation. After their unceremonious departure, the BIA made it clear that they would hold the money until the tribe “came to its senses.”

At the time of this “offer” the United States was still in the fever of the Termination era, conveniently terminating treaty duties and responsibilities owed to the tribes. During this most recent cycle of termination, which began in the early 1950s, the United States (through overt actions as well as subterfuge) sought to disband all tribes and exterminate tribalism. The BIA was busy relocating the individual Indians as well as whole families into major metropolitan areas to break apart their kinship ties and separate them from their collective tradition of tribalism.9 Adding insult to injury, the BIA was shamelessly paternalistic and accepted offers by non-Indians to buy Lummi land. The ultimate goal of the BIA, an agent and agency of the United States, was to make our exile permanent. Though they are the Bureau of Indian Affairs, their allegiance is first and foremost to the federal government, not the tribes. In other words, the United States attempted to pay itself to gain control of our lands. This action was as corrupt and unconscionable as the perverse application of the Discovery Doctrine in the M’Intosh decision and the twisted principle of wardship in the Cherokee ruling.