Is the CNO PC and the CN PC the same person?...

I have been pondering the ramifications of the creation of a "new tribe" in the most recent fiasco created by the Keeler/Swimmer/Mankiller/Smith (KSMS)political machine. The U.S. government has opined that the CNO and the Cherokee Nation are NOT the same thing, meaning the CNO is a new tribe. In dicta of the opinion the head of the BIA stated it to be his belief that the Cherokee Nation had ceased to exist as a distinct political entity. That may not be true. Stay with me and I'll see if I can explain it to you.

According to the 1970 Principal Chiefs Act (PCA) the people of the Cherokee Nation (as defined by the Dawes Roll) were to select their principal officer, which in the case of the Cherokee Nation was the Principal Chief, an office created by the Constitution of 1839. Thus the 1970 PCA recognized the continued validity of the 1839 Constitution, or what was left of it after the destructive effects of the 1898 Curtis Act abolished tribal courts.

In accordance with the terms of the PCA then appointed Principal Chief W.W. Keeler was popularly selected by the Dawes enrollees as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (the CNO had not been born yet). Keeler then supposedly retired from tribal political life and endorsed tribal attorney Ross O. Swimmer as his successor in the 1975 selection.

Swimmer, recieving less than 50 percent of the vote, but at the same time getting the highest number of votes, was selected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Because Keeler had not provided for a runoff in the event of no candidate recieving 50 percent plus one votes, Swimmer took the office despite the fact that a majority of Cherokee voters had not voted for him.

Swimmer then set out to create his new organization, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, which was accomplished and recognized by the BIA in 1976. Now here is where you will need to pay close attention. Swimmer was "elected" to serve a four year term as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) in 1979. He did not carry out another "popular selection" of the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in accordance with terms of the PCA.

We know that the CNO and the CN are two different entities. And as such, two separate elections would have been required. That did not take place. Not since the popular selection of Ross O. Swimmer to the office of Principal Chief in 1975 has a chief of the Cherokee Nation been selected. The only voting that has taken place was for the position of the PC of the CNO. The office of the PC for the CN remained vacant for a number of years.

The question then is whether or not the office of the PC of the CN has ever been filled since Ross Swimmer left office and abandoned the CN in 1979. The Cherokee people did not lose their sovereignty simply because the bozos running the CNO neglected to carry out the popular selection. For that to happen, Congress would have been required to pass legislation ending the life of the Cherokee Nation or the last Dawes enrollee would have to be declared dead. The Cherokee people picked up the pieces themselves and popularly selected a Prinicpal Chief. When did that happen?

A few years ago a group of Cherokee people, brandishing the sovereignty of the Cherokee people, long neglected by the CNO leadership and UKB, met in convention at Tahlequah, our national capital. Cherokees of all walks of life were notified of the convention, no Cherokee was turned away and the vote included both by blood and adopted citizens. At that convention the Cherokee people reaffirmed the validity and continued authority of the Constitution of 1839, treaties with the United States, rights of citizenship of the Freedmen and popularly selected Robin Mayes as the Principal Chief. Numerous citizens of the Cherokee Nation (Dawes enrollees) were yet living and participated in the vote. Since that time the Cherokee Nation, still organized under its official Constitution of 1839 and subsequent amendments, has functioned in accordance with federal and tribal law.