They murdered our mother...

The Cherokee Nation was declared dead today. She passed away without anyone really noticing (except the Cornsilks). Her care was charged to several appointed and elected leaders including J.B. Milam, W.W. Keeler, Ross O. Swimmer, Wilma P. Mankiller, Joe Byrd and Chad Smith. The federal government gave those caretakers the medicine she needed to be healed and restored (OIWA), but out of arrogance, greed and neglect, she did not get what she needed. Chad Smith, the last Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, began his first term in office, opinions had been published and he was informed, as were his predecessors, Byrd and Mankiller, that when the last Dawes enrollee dies, so too shall the Cherokee Nation pass away. The federal government has today announced that with the passing of the Dawes enrollees, the Cherokee Nation is no more. We are left with her successors or heirs at law, the CNO and the UKB. Where once the CNO had declared itself to be the elder brother, with all rights and priviledges of the Cherokee Nation, now the situation is equalized. The UKB, once the younger brother has now become the twin. With this announcement the situation of the Cherokee people has become dire. Our future is at stake. Can we exist in a house divided? Could our ancestors have existed in 1839 with a Western and Eastern Cherokee governments claiming rights and jurisdiction. Or would our natural inclination to fight among ourselves have precluded our development. Will we now descend into an internal family squabble that will destroy any chance of either the CNO or UKB advancing politically and socially? It is more important now than ever that the the CNO and the UKB find some common ground. We are currently one people in a house divided. Our ancestors were able to put together an "Act of Union" under circumstances much more difficult than those we live in now. So what is wrong with us? What i$$ keeping the CNO and UKB from even $$itting down at the $$ame table? Again, the solution to these problems, while vexing and complex have a simple solution. All we need do is draw from our past and bring that forward. We must have a new "Act of Union" wherein the rights of the CNO and the UKB are protected as equal successors of the inheritance from our mother The Cherokee Nation. Only then shall the Cherokee people move forward as one family.