Citizens Equal Rights Foundation
We are happy to inform you that since our May meeting in Washington, D.C. the Citizens Equal Rights Foundation received a favorable 501(C3) tax exempt ruling from the Internal Revenue Service. This very important ruling will give us the opportunity to raise money from corporations and foundations that by law could not give tax-deductible money to CERA. Individuals will also be able to make tax-deductible donations to CERF, which will enable them to give more. For those of you with a stock portfolio you should now consider giving CERF an annual gift of stock. You can then deduct 100% of its fair market value from your taxes effective the day CERF sells the stock.
Putting Land in Trust
Transferring land from fee to trust status can cause many problems for local citizens and governments. Some of these problems include land use and zoning conflicts, a reduction in the local tax base, and jurisdiction and law enforcement conflicts. The BIA is currently reviewing its regulations regarding this process. At its St. Paul meeting, CERA discussed this situation, and the problems it creates, and decided to send the letter printed below to the BIA. Copies of the letter were also sent to President Clinton, Vice-President Gore, Sec. of Interior Babbitt, Sen. Campbell, and the Judicial Committees of both the House and Senate.
Mille Lacs Treaty Case
The Supreme Courts' Chief Justice, William Renquist, wrote the following dissent to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's much disputed 5-4 majority opinion. He argued that the only way the Chippewa retained a right to hunt and fish on non-reservation land is if these three things were true.
"(1) an 1850 Executive Order explicitly revoking the privilege as authorized by the 1837 Treaty was unlawful;
"(2) an 1855 Treaty under which certain Chippewa Bands ceded 'all' interests to the land does not include the treaty right to come onto the land and hunt; and
"(3) the admission of Minnesota into the Union in 1858 did not terminate the discretionary hunting privilege, despite established precedent of this Court to the contrary.
"Because I believe that each one of these three conclusions is demonstrably wrong, I dissent."
In his strong dissent, Justice Renquist goes on to use the words "jurisprudential
legerdemain" (sleight-of-hand magic) and " bait
and switch," so you can see there were strong feelings and nothing was
"cut and dried" about this case so many people called a waste of time
and money.
For
those of us who are educated about the horrors of Federal Indian Policy we can
only wonder how Justices O'Connor, Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer have
invented a new special interest property right using assumed (plucked from thin
air) extra constitutional powers by ruling for the Mille Lacs Band in this
treaty case.
The
ruling also prompted a letter from CERF President Scott Kayla Morrison to
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor which included the following comments;
"The decision is a case of the federal-tribal symbiotic relationship.
Tribes have no legitimacy-legally or economically-without the federal
government. The federal government uses tribes as a vehicle to expand federal
authority extra-constitutionally. Nowhere in the decision is tribal sovereignty
or tribal regulation mentioned. The Supreme Court said that the federal and
state governments share regulatory authority. Nonetheless, the federal
government delegated its regulatory authority to the tribe. This means the tribe
is exercising federal authority without any safeguards or accountability.
Tribes, by this process, have become a land-laundering, power-laundering and
money-laundering operation for the federal government.
"As a lawyer and a Choctaw woman, I am deeply concerned
by the implementation of the court's decision.
It perpetuates the myth of inherent tribal sovereignty, when the reality
is tribes are wards of the government. By hiding behind tribal authority that is
not accountable under the U.S. Constitution, the federal government may develop
two sets of laws to govern Indians and non-Indians with no liberty guarantees.
It perpetuates separatism and divisiveness which is not allowed with any other
group of people. With the assistance of the federal government, tribal law
becomes 'separate but superior.'"
We Don't Want to be Like Canada
According to the Fraser Institute of Vancouver, treaty lawsuits have plunged Canada's economy and public finances into dysfunction and resulted in a Canadian dollar that recently was worth only 60 cents. Over the past decade, Canada's government has been turning huge percentages of its territory and natural resources over to the exclusive control of one group of citizens. Band members are then allowed to do things like commercially gillnet public waters to the detriment of the sport-fishing economy. Gillnetted fish sell for a couple dollars a pound. Tourists staying at a resort will spend a couple hundred dollars a pound for the same fillets. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Tell all of your friends to join CERA or CERF and read the books and newspaper featured on page three. As they learn more about the American Indian Movement's agenda, they can help save our country from Canada's fate.