Who circumvented enough congressional support to forbid us from being placed on the List of Tribes? Who has intentionally deceived the Congress of the United States into being beguiled of the true history of the Chickamauga and the United States? Who has such political sway over the Congress as to be a Svengali in their ear leading them away from their Original Intent to Treaty with the Chickamauga?
We were so well known at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence that we left a scar on the Declaration in that it defines us as the Merciless Savage Indians. We were so well known to the Continental Congress that during the week before the July 4, 1776 signing, Rutherford’s army began gathering soldiers to attack the Chickamauga Lower Towns. The reason this information is so readily available is that the United States paid these soldiers annuities to commit genocide against the Chickamauga.
On July 18, 2019 in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, Part 83 was not mentioned to us because every elementary, high school, and college student has been exposed to United States history and should know it. Our shared history is replete with mentions of the Chickamauga Wars and the Massacres of the Lower Towns. The Chickamauga History is so intertwined with Revolutionary War era and Antebellum era history, even the staff of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs knew the Part 83 process was not warranted under existing law. Our history had been so documented in the National Registry’s numerous National Archives that it is self-evident we are a Treaty Tribe.
Now it is time where we must begin asking some very pointed questions. Since it is self-evident that the Original Intent of Congress concerning The Chickamauga Nation is to first commit genocide against us and second, then when we survived to make treaties with us. Further, the evidence is overwhelming that the Original Intent of the Congress in 1785 was to Treat with The Chickamauga Nation to quieten the Southwestern frontiers. If the Original Intent of Congress is to commit genocide and then to Treaty with The Chickamauga Nation, what current factors are in place which circumvent enough congressional support to forbid The Chickamauga Nation from placement on the List?
Have we not peacefully requested the Congress of the United States to honor our Treaties? Have we not peacefully complied with the Senate to have our history, archaeology, and anthropology academically verified? Have we not followed every peaceful path at our disposal? Now we must ask, has the time come that we must now question the Original Intent of the Congress? Has the Original Intent reverted back to genocide and ethnic cleansing instead of peaceful co-existence? Congress has taken the extreme role of intentional denial of Treaty rights and privileges from The Chickamauga Nation, but at what cost?
The Congress, in its reversion back to genocide and ethnic cleansing as an attempt to eradicate The Chickamauga Nation once again will fail. We have been underestimated and treated as though we are invisible, but we are not. We now must ask, since the United States fails to uphold its laws and treaties with The Chickamauga Nation, “Are we no longer obligated to function under the laws, statutes, codes, policies, protocols and procedures of the United States of America?” Must we answer our being ignored by Congress with such force that it leaves a mark? Not physical, but on the very fiber of this nation. A mark so deep it scars again.
Do not forget our identity so recognized by the Continental Congress, the United States Congress, the War Department, and all of the illegal immigrant settlers along the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. We are the Merciless Savage Indians that left that scar that none should forget.
(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.