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By Chuck Hoskin Jr
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Guest opinion. For most of the last two centuries, the failure of the country’s Indian Federal Policy has inflicted great injustice on the Cherokee nation. Here in the 21stst Century we retaliated, prevailed and are ready to strengthen our own justice system.
Since the country’s foundation, the United States has affirmed different levels of control over the resources of Cherokee Nation. Over time, the United States has become administrators of the natural resources of our country and were responsible for managing them. The United States has failed in this responsibility.
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In the 1970s, our government was not fhacklé. Cherokee leaders began to take a closer look at generations of negligence by the United States. Cherokee Nation began to examine what was not there: an accounting of our resources, such as wood, coal and terrestrial leases.
In 2016, as Secretary of State, I witnessed the daring management of my predecessor, the main chef John Baker. Chef Baker simply said: if we believe that the United States could not explain our natural resources in his role as a trustee, he is right to think that the United States has probably wasted these resources. The only way to test this, he said, was to demand accounting and, if the federal government has failed or refused, to prosecute the United States.
Our legal action against the United States has called on the brilliant spirits of our legal team and the leaders of the administration of chief Baker, my administration and the Cherkee nation council. The prosecutors Todd Hembe, Sara Hill and Chad Harsha carefully built a case of historical proportions, supported by a team of lawyers, staff and researchers.
The vision of Chef Baker and the work of our whole team have borne fruit. Last week, in front of our powerful case in Cherokee Nation c. United States Department of InteriorThe United States of America has focused and agreed with a historic regulation of $ 80 million with Cherokee Nation. Although this regulation can only resolve the many injuries inflicted on the Cherokee nation in the hands of the United States, it rests to rest an important.
The regulations also exposed the thinking underlying the Indian Federal Policy for a large part of the country’s history. The United States thought that its government system was so superior to that of the Cherokee nation that it was simply in our interest to place our resources in the hands of a federal tutor. However, this supposed “superior” federal government could not even succeed in following these resources.
Regulation in hand, we are now faced with a question: how to invest $ 60 million in the product of the net regulations? This investment must be useful for our nation.
The deputy chief Bryan Warner and I proposed to invest the settlement in our own justice system. The time of the colony and the current challenges we face the offer.
In the wake of history McGirt Box reaffirming the Cherokee nation reserve, we worked hard to seize new opportunities. Faced with the challenges of expanding our criminal justice system in the 7,000 square miles of our reserve, we have invested millions of dollars in our courts, our prosecutor, our marshal service and our victims protection programs .
With so much game for public security and justice for all, we know that more resources are required. We need more space for our courts and we have to expand access to our courts through booking.
Our current office space of the judicial system is largely made up of the second floor of our main tribal complex in Tahlequah. It was designed for a pre-McGirt ERA in which our system has managed a small number of criminal cases per year. It has never been designed for a daily flow of accused, including those accused of violent crimes, to regularly enter the same building that houses programs for elders and children. The space is simply too small to meet our growing needs.
The deputy chief Warner and I sent legislation to the council to use the regulation of confidence to move our courts and the AG staff of an insufficient and undersized space in a new “Center de Justice Cherokee Nation” which can serve the people Cherokee for generations.
Our proposal locks $ 50 million in settlement funds for the Center of Justice in Tahlequah. Our plan also guarantees $ 10 million for a district judicial installation in a peripheral area of ​​the reserve, the first of many we need in the coming years to ensure that justice is within all our citizens .
I am proud that daring leaders have done justice to the Cherokee people and provided us with the opportunity to invest in something that goes to the heart of our sovereignty: a justice system for the Cherokee people.
Chuck Hoskin, Jr. is the main chief of the Cherkee nation.
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