Choctaw-Chickasaw Freedmen Make Donation to Diane Watson Re-Election Campaign

The Choctaw-Chickasaw Freedmen Association is honored to present Congresswoman Diane Watson’s re-election campaign with a donation of $500.

The members feel that by contributing to the Congresswoman’s campaign we are affirming our commitment to Dr. Watson and we thank her for responding to our petition for Congressional intervention concerning the March 3 vote to expel the Cherokee Freedmen descendants from the nation of their ancestor’s birth.

  As Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen descendants we recognized the importance of joining this struggle to bring attention and Congressional oversight to all of the so called Five Civilized Tribes known as the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek (Muskogee) and Seminole Nations. As Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen Descendants we have a shared history and vital interest to ensure all five of the slave holding tribes are held responsible for adhering to their legal responsibilities and live up to the agreement granting citizenship for the descendants of their former slaves.

America did not remove blacks from this land when slavery was dismantled. World-wide, nations do not remove oppressed people when the system oppressing them comes to an end. If the former slave-holding tribe’s desire recognition as sovereign nations with integrity, then their heinous race-based practices should be abolished, particularly since the descendants of those enslaved human beings, who are tax-paying citizens are the only people forced to pay for their own alienation and disenfranchisement.
 

The Choctaw-Chickasaw Freedmen Association of Oklahoma recognizes Congresswoman Watson’s dedication to Civil Rights during her tenure in Congress. We are confidant that she will continue to be a champion for defending the Constitution of the United States, by enforcing the stipulations for citizenship articulated in the Treaties of 1866 that originally established our citizenship among the five tribes.

Some people view the Congresswoman’s action in a negative way, but we have adequate evidence that by defending the rights of a minority of people, she is acting in the best interest and ideals of the framers of the Constitution. The Choctaw-Chickasaw Freedmen Association of Oklahoma, as the organization that sent the petition to Congress immediately after the March 3^rd vote, wishes to thank the Honorable Diane Watson for becoming the point person on this issue by proposing HR2824.  We respectfully request that an additional amendment be included in HR2824 that Congress convenes a hearing and investigation into the enrollment practices in the Choctaw & Chickasaw Nations. In this regard, we extend to the Congresswoman our research and advocacy in all of her efforts.

Photograph taken by Allen Mitchell

Pictured: Terry Ligon and Congresswoman Diane Watson

November 17, 2007