NPR reports that the Cherokee Nation is finally following up on the 1835 treaty pledge granting it the right to send a delegate to the House of Representatives. Delegate Kimberly Teehee of Oklahoma would not get to vote, but she would get to attend committee meetings and advocate for the Cherokee and all other tribes…
…which gets me thinking about today’s wild idea: what if we extended this right to every federally recognized tribe? What if we went one better and said that the route to reconciliation with our Native neighbors requires one simple political step: seating one member of each federally recognized tribe as a voting member of the House of Representatives?
There are 573 federally recognized tribes. We’d need a few more chairs and desks in the House. But such tribal apportionment would give indigenous Americans a 57% voting majority in a 1,008-member chamber.
To keep some balance (not to mention to keep the plan simple), don’t change the Senate; let membership there remain state-based, two per. Our Native neighbors controlling the House would have to seek workable compromise with the Senate, but they would have the opportunity to drive a legislative agenda that pays far more attention to the folks who were here first than the current Congress does.
And simple, moral measures like rescinding the Medals of Honor for the butchers of Wounded Knee would pass with ease.
They can vote when the laws apply to the reservations.
What a splendid idea! After all these years, the Cherokee have decided enough is enough and will send a representative. I couldn’t agree more Cory, all tribes should do the same to at least put a face in the place that would not be possible without them.
Drumpf and McCTurtle will accuse Dems of trying to get Indians to vote for them, while wingnuts do everything in their power to prevent minorities from voting. How is it wingnuts expect the people they stomp on the most would ever vote for their party?
I think we should take California and New York and give those states to the Native Americans and allow two new countries.
Dwight, tribal members are subject to federal, state, and local laws:
So, you’re good with voting tribal Representatives in Congress, right?
Steve, then who would pay your taxes for you?
What do you call Steve Pearson in his Mother’s basement? A Drumpf loving whinery.
Good point, O! California and New York provide us great subsidies!
It’s too bad Steve can only speak in terms of excluding people from the American dream, not including them and giving them more voice.
What would it take for the tribes and their respective reservations to become territories of The United States and join the union? Wouldn’t they then get two seats apiece in the Senate, and representation in the house proportional to the population?
If we’re going to give voice to unrepresented Americans, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and Guam need reps too. Better yet, their reps ought to have the right to vote. Statehood!
Statehood would require the approval of Congress. Statehood would provide greater power, given the opportunity to control the Senate as well as the House.
Wikipedia tells me the Cherokee did try to form the state of Sequoyah with four other tribes in 1905; Congress turned them down and folded them into Oklahoma.
You really need to understand the reservations, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and Guam are not white so none of this will happen in our lifetime.( possible if you were born yesterday)
Mr. Dale, you can’t be a “sovereign nation” and a state of the United States of America. That didn’t work so well for Texas, or that time Nebraska tried it back in the ’80s.
But, like my good friend Lar always says, Statehood for New Mexico, and Canada too!
Here’s an election kerfuffle we may be headed straight at, courtesy of the archaic electoral college, nonpopular vote winning presidents, the NPV Compact, Larry Lessig, the courts and it gets more complicated from there. This is definitely worth the read and not long.
is.gd/E4ytqH
Debbo – We create layers of indirection in software all the time to prevent hack-ability or enhance performance or scalability.
The Electoral college prevents the tyranny of the majority, a hallmark of any effective democratic republic.
Defraying or diluting the power of population centers protects the country from being overtaken politically through psychological/mind control techniques that are most effective in population dense areas.
As we learned from Nazi Germany, DO NOT LISTEN TO THE PSYCHOLOGISTS. They are mostly power hungry sociopaths, seeking fulfillment without building, and completely full of isht.
Cory – “1905”
Maybe time for another run, but would that also not open the reservations up for anyone to live there?
Dale could be a Scientologist. They’re convinced the field of psychology is an evil plot. Too bad psychologists aren’t in on it. That’s similar to the Gay Agenda. I know of no LBTGs who’ve been able to get a copy.
Thank you Dale, for explaining what I already know, something you do regularly and masterfully. What the EC has brought us is national elections by the minority. That’s not democracy and election by the majority is not tyranny.
The Cherokee and other unrepresented Americans can take seats being vacated by the rats deserting the sinking ship.
From 538’s Significant Digits newsletter:
More House Republicans are checking out. Texas Rep. Bill Flores announced Wednesday that he will not seek reelection in 2020, becoming the state’s fifth House Republican to announce plans to retire. Nationally, 15 House Republicans have made similar announcements. As GOP lawmakers flee, Democrats hope to use the state’s changing demographics to move in on the open seats. [The New York Times]
Debbo – I don’t like predictions.
That said, a better analysis of what is happening is a purge of neo-cons.
As to your other comments, it’s mostly FUD and AH attacks as usual, although I will address this:
“They’re convinced the field of psychology is an evil plot”
Just because you’re paranoid, Debbo, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. You conveniently ignore the psychological historical record.
How’s that field of associationism working-out?
I think the biggest mistake being made about Psychology, just like with any religion, it becomes dogmatic and weaponized.
The field of Psychology was utilized heavily by the advertising industry. If that weren’t disqualifying enough ..
I didn’t find industry wide figures in the time I had to research, but I did determine that psychology wages paid in 2018 was somewhere around $14,356,117,000.
Head shrinkers are doing pretty good in this economy making an average of $70,000/yr.
Wisky’s Senselessbrenner is cashing out as well, Debbo.
Thanks for continuing to provide entertainment Dale. 😆😆
Debbo, on territories, statehood, and election kerfuffles, consider these advantages of Representatives for every Tribe:
(1) An indigenous-majority House might be far more inclined to grant statehood to largely-minority territories.
(2) If the Electoral College fails to elect a President, the House picks. To win the Presidency, the Cherokee could run Kimberly Teehee as an Independent, get her to win just a handful of key states to deny either main party candidate an Electoral College majority, and then sail to a majority vote in the tribally dominated House.
John Dale asks about people moving to reservations, which brings up a tricky question about tribal representation: would we grant it based on tribal membership or on where people live? Does a Rosebud Sioux tribal member living in Sioux Falls vote for the Rosebud Representative or for Dusty Johnson’s Democratic opponent? For which seat does a white man living on the Rosebud get to cast his vote? Can we decouple representation from geography and make it depend on (gulp!) ethnic background?
Before anyone screams “Racism!” keep in mind that identity as a member of the Rosebud Tribe isn’t purely ethnic/racial. They were a group of people who lived together. They roamed about but occupied and used territory as a group. Our invasion changed their way of life and hampered their ability to define themselves as a nation. Members of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe have a claim to nationhood and identity warranting representation that Norwegians and Hmong and Karen who left their countries to become Americans cannot.
Cory – in Arizona we know something about tribal relations. I worked with the college of Ag for 10 years. I learned a lot during that time.
“Can we decouple representation from geography and make it depend on (gulp!) ethnic background”
This is exactly what I was getting-at, although rather than allowing people to live wherever and claim “I’m a Native State reservation”, I think the more reasonable option would be to create a super state with incongruent boundaries.
It’s interesting to think about how this might work. Practically, each reservation might need to be another state and push for that for decades before representation in Congress might become a reality.
There would be a threshold that would need to be met – an unwritten rule likely – that the tribal states must not use their representation as leverage to try to undermine the continuity of the republic.
Very interesting!
sorry – “reservation” should read “resident”
Interesting ideas, but apportionment and the issue of “super-vote” in representation remain thorny issues.
But why now?
The authority for a Cherokee representative at Congress has been embedded in treaty since 1835; the authority for a Choctaw representative embedded in The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830.
Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District currently encompasses the eastern portion of Oklahoma, including the Cherokee Nation, Osage, and Choctaw Reservations. While the 2nd congressional seat flipped from a Democrat to a Republican in 2013, the current Congressman, Markwayne Mullin is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, and is one of four Native Americans in the 116th Congress.
How will adding a non-voting representative from the Cherokee Nation improve their representation in Congress, when one of their own currently is a voting representative?
Why are the Choctaw not also pursuing filling their own seat?
THE ONLY WILD IDEA I am aware of is the RC effort to anoint Val Magilllacuddy as Crazy Horse’s bff and turn his joint into a tourist attraction on Mt Rushmore Rd. Bison rancher/author Dan O’Brien says so in his novel(s) I’ve yet to read. Lonesome Dove novelist Larry McMurtry heartily agrees as wasicu writers often do. Cultural appropriation big time? Eliz Warren faced this down in her own world.
I know, Harney Peak has been so named “forever” (name change opposition commenter-kinda like a climate denier). :)
forEVER