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By Line: Fort Smith, Arkansas
June 24, 2025 5:30 AM
The Role of the Congress, Secretary of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and State Governments in Dealing with Original Nations People
Congress
First, Congress's role in dealing with the Original Nations People is provided within the original text of the Constitution of the United States. Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 is specific in stating, “Indians not taxed.” This Section deals with the representation of the Citizens of the United States, which excludes “Indians not taxed” because they are not Citizens of the United States; they are Citizens of their own sovereign Tribe.
Second, Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 3, enumerates the power to Congress to “regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” This power is demonstrated in the Treaties that The Chickamauga Nation signed with the United States. The 1785 Treaty, 7 Stat 18 Article 9 states, “For the benefit and comfort of the Indians, and for the prevention of injuries or oppressions on the part of the citizens or Indians, the United States in Congress assembled shall have the sole and exclusive right of regulating the trade with the Indians, and managing all their affairs in such manner as they think proper.” Article 3 of this treaty places The Chickamauga Nation under the protection of the United States and of no other sovereigns. This can only be determined to mean that the United States has jurisdiction over the Chickamauga Nation and that The Chickamauga Nation is under the jurisdiction of the United States.
Third, Amendment 14, Section 2 uses the “Indians not taxed” language again to identify Indians as being excluded from Citizenship within the United States. There is nothing mystical or magical about the original language of the United States Constitution concerning Original Nations peoples being excluded as Citizens of the United States.
As understood at the time of the signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787, Sovereign Nations could only sign treaties with other Sovereign Nations. This is significant in that the Sovereign nation-state of the United States asked another Sovereign nation-state to be obligated to be under its jurisdiction. The Original Nations people had no idea that this was not an international norm long established between the sovereign nation-states of the world. By signing the 1785, 7 Stat 18 Treaty, The Chickamauga Nation did not sign away their sovereignty but agreed to live within the roles of the Two-Row Wampum where each country would walk along beside the other with mutual respect and honor.
The Congress itself, in 1785, 7 Stat 18 Article 12, states, “That the Indians may have full confidence in the justice of the United States, respecting their interests, they shall have the right to send a deputy of their choice, whenever they think fit, to Congress.” We have treaty rights to go to Congress whenever we see fit, and we see fit. We do not agree to speak with a committee; we have treaty rights declaring we have the right to speak to Congress. As sovereigns, we have the right to speak to Congress, and we intend to do so soon.
While Congress asserts it has Plenary Power over Indian Affairs under the Commerce Clause, the Courts provide additional language. The Marshal Trilogy, Johnson v M’Intosh (1823), Cherokee Nation v Georgia (1831), and Worcester v Georgia (1832) provide the inclusion in American jurisprudence of the Doctrines of Discovery, which include conquest and diminished mental capacity requiring oversight or tutelage.
This section must conclude with the question, “Has Congress retained its actual Plenary Power, of has it allowed the Secretary of Interior and the BIA to usurp its role?”
The Secretary of the Interior
The role of the Secretary of Indian Affairs originated within the role of the Secretary of War. On March 11, 1824, John C. Calhoun created the Office of Indian Affairs within the Department of War. In 1849, the Office of Indian Affairs became the Department of the Interior. The Secretary of the Interior is an oversight role of the various sub-agencies which make up the Department, of which the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is one.
Modern statutes and codes of the United States require the Secretary of the Interior to maintain an accurate list of all Federally Recognized Tribes. The language does not provide an exception. The Language is not being followed by the Secretary of the Interior when it comes to The Chickamauga Nation
1994 Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act
SEC. 103. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that--
(1) the Constitution, as interpreted by Federal case law, invests Congress with plenary authority over Indian Affairs;
(2) ancillary to that authority, the United States has a trust responsibility to recognized Indian tribes, maintains a government-to-government relationship with those tribes, and recognizes the
sovereignty of those tribes;
(3) Indian tribes presently may be recognized by Act of Congress; by the administrative procedures set forth in part 83 of the Code of Federal Regulations denominated ``Procedures for
Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe;'' or by a decision of a United States court;
(4) a tribe which has been recognized in one of these manners may not be terminated except by an Act of Congress;
(5) Congress has expressly repudiated the policy of terminating recognized Indian tribes, and has actively sought to restore recognition to tribes that previously have been terminated;
(6) the Secretary of the Interior is charged with the responsibility of keeping a list of all federally recognized tribes;
(7) the list published by the Secretary should be accurate, regularly updated, and regularly published, since it is used by the various departments and agencies of the United States to determine the eligibility of certain groups to receive services from the United States; and
(8) the list of federally recognized tribes which the Secretary publishes should reflect all of the federally recognized Indian tribes in the United States which are eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians.
SEC. 104. PUBLICATION OF LIST OF RECOGNIZED TRIBES.
(a) Publication of the List.--The Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register a list of all Indian tribes which the Secretary recognizes to be eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians.
SEC. 202. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds and declares that--
(1) the United States has acknowledged the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska pursuant to the Act of June 19, 1935 (49 Stat. 388, as amended, commonly referred to as
the ``Jurisdiction Act''), as a federally recognized Indian tribe;
(2) on October 21, 1993, the Secretary of the Interior published a list of federally recognized Indian tribes pursuant to part 83 of title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations which omitted the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska;
(3) the Secretary does not have the authority to terminate the federally recognized status of an Indian tribe as determined by Congress;
(4) the Secretary may not administratively diminish the privileges and immunities of federally recognized Indian tribes without the consent of Congress; and
(5) the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska continues to be a federally recognized Indian tribe.
Modern Indian Law revolves around the Secretary of the Interior, not the Congress of the United States. Do the Courts recognize the Secretary of the Interior as having obtained Plenary Power over Indian Affairs from the Congress of the United States? Has the Congress delegated to the Secretary of the Interior its Plenary Powers vested to it in the Constitution?
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
The BIA is the modern equivalent of the Indian Scouts. It serves no actual purpose except to guide the United States military and militias to where the Indians are so they can be executed, starved, or put on reservations. The childhood game of “Cowboys and Indians” best describes the BIA. It is a useless organization.
The BIA has legislative authority to serve Tribes, but it has created a bureaucracy to wrap itself with the air of dominion over Indians. Loper Bright Enterprises et al. v Raimondo, No. 22–451, Argued January 17, 2024—Decided June 28, 2024 decimates the self-determined superiority of the BIA and has rendered it toothless.
The Chickamauga Nation will not talk to nor negotiate with the BIA because the BIA has no statute authority to speak to the Federally Recognized The Chickamauga Nation.
State Governments
States have little to no jurisdiction over Federally Recognized Tribes. When they want to deal with a tribe, states must almost always deal with the United States Government. As a Federally Recognized Sovereign Treaty Tribe with Treaty Lands, Promised Lands, and Land Patents, within the jurisdictions of at least 10 states, your complaint should not be with The Chickamauga Nation; your complaint should be with the Congress of the United States and the more than 22 Treaties we have with the United States.
As we begin asserting our jurisdiction over the Treaty Lands, Promised Lands, and Land Patent Lands, the promises made to us by the United States of America predate the existence of almost all of the states within our jurisdiction. It is our intent to apply every law passed by Congress and every Supreme Court ruling to its fullest extent in our favor as we prepare to reap the benefits our ancestors pre-paid for in blood, sweat, and tears. We will not take what is not owed to us, but be assured that we intend to take what our ancestors pre-paid for and is owed to us.
Under McGirt, we intend to return to each of our treaties and reassert our jurisdiction over our Treaty Lands that are called Trust Lands under the 1953 PL. 83-280. We intend to return our jurisdiction over our original hunting, fishing, and gathering grounds, which we never ceded to the United States.
Please make no mistake. We have never been terminated like some of the Tribes that self-terminated through Congress between 1900 and 1905 and then were terminated by Congress again in 1906. We have never relinquished our government, which signed those treaties. Those Tribes whose governments were terminated have no Treaty rights under their corporations, which are not Tribes. We are the sole remaining Tribal government signatories on all of those 22 plus Treaties, and under McGirt, we will be taking what is owed to us and belongs to us.