How Treaty Tribes Are Federally Recognized and Placed on the List
There are three possible ways a Tribe can be placed on the List. Path 1 is the Part 83 Process administered by the Office of Federal Acknowledgement (Highly Documented). This path is actually illegal for The Chickamauga since the law is specifically to determine if a Tribe is Federally Recognized. Since we are A Treaty Tribe which is Federally Recognized, then it is illegal for us to go this path. Path 2 is the Legislative Path. This is where the Congress of the United States places a Tribe on the List (Historical and Anthropological Documentation). Path 3 is the Executive Path where the Secretary of Interior can place Tribes on the List who meet the requirements of Recognition (Historical and Anthropological Documentation).
In accordance with the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (Public Law 383 of June 1934 Section 19 “The term “Indian” as used in this Act shall include all persons of Indian descent who are members of any recognized Indian Tribe now under Federal Jurisdiction . . .”) THEREFORE: The Chickamauga Nation is on the List of Federally Recognized Tribes since ALL Indian Tribes under the Authority of the United States are Recognized. The Chickamauga Nation is a dependent sovereign according to the US Supreme Court as a Treaty Tribe as established in the 7 Stat. 18 Treaty of 1785. The Chickamauga Nation therefore possesses a government-to-government status with the United States as demonstrated in the 7 Stat. 478 Treaty of 1835 guaranteeing The Chickamauga Nation the right to form their own government and possess lands in Indian Territory which were already occupied by their forefathers who migrated to Arkansas under a lands trade treaty and two separate treaties and relinquished the land in 1828 for lands in the North Eastern part of Indian Territory. Those were Lower Town Chickamauga Chiefs signing that 1835 Treaty, NOT cherokee. As recorded in the American State Papers, the cherokee refused to sign the Treaty when it was presented to them by the United States in early 1835 in Washington DC., that is when the United States went to the Lower Town Chickamauga Chiefs who became known as the “Treaty Party” to sign the Treaty which they did in December of 1835.
Path 1 is the Office of Federal Acknowledgement (OFA) Part 83 Process which requires approximately 40 years in which the OFA takes the Citizenship rolls of a Tribe and does their own extensive research of the history and anthropology of a Tribe and a long-drawn-out sampling of a percentage of the Tribes rolls. The Statute for this process is named Part 83 which states that the purpose of this process is to determine if a Tribe is recognized by the United States government. The law itself makes it illegal for The Chickamauga Nation to go through since The Chickamauga Nation is already a Recognized Treaty Tribe, under the authority of the United States and has been recognized by acts of the Executive and Legislative branches of the United States toward The Chickamauga Nation.
Path 2 is called the Legislative process. This process is where the House and Senate of the Congress of the United States passes legislation and the President signs the legislation placing a Tribe on the LIST. This is the major process The Chickamauga Nation continues to pursue. We are currently and have been in contact with, met with, and email contact with dozens of the members of the House Committee on Indigenous People and the Natural Resources Committee and their counterpart in the Senate the Committee on Indian Affairs along with the Representaatives and Senators of Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
Path 3 is called the judicial path which divides into three divergent paths. The first divergent path that can be taken is to sue the Secretary of Interior for failure to keep the List accurate because we have not been placed on the List. We are currently contacting lawyers for this option. The second divergent path is to sue the Secretary of Interior, every agency Department head, and every federally elected official for Civil Rights violations against the Chickamauga for continuing to promote illegal laws which discriminate against the Chickamauga as well as laws which continue Ethnic Cleansing. We are currently contacting lawyers for this option as well. The third divergent path, which we are now consulting with treaty experts and Indian Law experts is to sue the President of the United States for failure to uphold Treaties which placed us under the authority of the United States and allowed the Cherokee Nation and the United States military to commit Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing against us in 1838 after the 1835 Treaty guaranteed us lands and the right to form a government of our own choice with the forefathers who were already here. This divergent path would also name the Cherokee Nation and we would be in pursuit of the restoration of our government and lands prior to July 1, 1838 and restoration of all monies and concession paid or provided to the wrong government since July 1, 1838.
(C) This document was produced at the request of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on July 18, 2019, to document the History, Anthropology, Culture, Religion, and Archaeology of The Chickamauga Nation.