Cordney McClain in "Black Wall Street Burning" film premiere, Tulsa Feb. 15, 2020

Cherokee Scholars colleague Cordney McClain is an actor in "Black Wall Street Burning. " The film will be premiered in Tulsa Feb. 14-20 at Circle Cinema, 10 S Lewis Ave, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The February 15th evening show will also include a Q&A session. For tickets and information, click here.

Cordney McClain is both a university administrator and an educator. He serves as Director of Diversity and Inclusion at University of Oklahoma’s Price College of Business and teaches at OU and UCO. Check out his bio on the Cherokee Scholars page.

Clint Carroll Elected to NAISA Nominations Committee

Congratulations to Clint Carroll, Cherokee Nation citizen and Associate Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at University of Colorado Boulder on his election to the Nominations Committee of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA).

New Book By Harry Oosahwee

New arrival:  Cherokee Book One for Beginners by Harry Oosahwee.

New Cherokee Faculty at Arkansas

Sean Teuton has joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas's Fulbright College (yes, that Fulbright).  See his comments regarding recent about campus events.   

ICWA Case before US Supreme Court 2013

As promised, here's more detail on the Baby Veronica case involving the Cherokee Nation.  The Supreme Court of South Carolina declined to finalize the adoption and the biological father, a Cherokee citizen, now has custody of the child.  Here's the South Carolina decision.  The United States Supreme Court granted cert and will hear the case in April.  Two provisions of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act are at issue.  

Baby Veronica Case before US Supreme Court

We'll be posting updates as the briefs are filed on the Indian Child Welfare Case pending before the US Supreme Court involving the Cherokee Nation.  Here are the resources about the case on the National Indian Child Welfare Association's website, but stay tuned . . . .

10th Circuit Case on Cherokee Nation's Newborn Citizenship Law

The Cherokee Nation has an automatic 240 day citizenship that attaches to any newborn who is a descendant of the Dawes Rolls.  This was enacted to ensure that newborns are Cherokee citizens subject to the Indian Child Welfare Act's protections and presumes that the parents will make a decision whether the enroll the child as a Cherokee citizen during their infancy.  I would like to see our Nation go one step further and simply have natural born citizenship laws like other sovereigns throughout the globe, but that's an aside.  The decision from the the Tenth Circuit is here.  The federal court does not like the idea of this "temporary citizenship" for inclusion in protections of a federal statute. My question for tribal legal reform:  why have people "enroll" a child as a citizen in the first place?  Why not have Cherokee Nation laws that automatically extend citizenship to children who are eligible for citizenship and if someone chooses to disavow their citizenship, go thru the administrative process to renounce citizenship?  When tribes requires someone to "enroll" as members/citizens of the Nation, it contributes to the idea the tribal citizenship is inferior to other citizenship.  I envision this sequence:  Citizenship by birth, followed by a Cherokee Nation Birth Certificate and/Cherokee Nation ID card for documentation purposes, followed by a Cherokee Nation driver's license to operate a vehicle.

Announcing New Blog About Native American Art History and Writing

Congrats to Cherokee artist and scholar America Meredith on the new blog. Click here to check it out.

Steve Russell's New Book

2016

Cherokee author Steve Russell's new book is out - as blogged by Matthew Fletcher.  Steve humbly failed to shamelessly self-promote this, so I'll do it for him.  Congrats Steve and happy semi-retirement!  The book can be purchased (at a very reasonable price) by Carolina Academic Press here.

Sequoyah Commission Annual Conference

The annual conference of the Sequoyah Commission will be held September 2-3, 2010 in Tahlequah.  Congrats to Richard Allen for another job well done in putting together this event.  Agenda can be downloaded here:  State of Sequoyah Commission Conference Agenda 2010 (2)