Law suit threatening Cherokee chief
(Continued from page 1)
clared.
Anthropologists and sociologists see two distinct Cherokee groups in Oklahoma.
There are the English speaking mixed-bloods who became "Oklahoma whites of Cherokee extraction" to which Wax alleged Keeler and a large number of the members of the "official" Cherokee Nation organization belong.
The OCCO contends Keeler's and the mixed-blood's assimilation into a white society, a society away from the tribal communities of full-blooded and Cherokee-speaking Indians, makes it impossible for them to perceive and understand present Cherokee problems. There are literally thousands of mixed-bloods in the state.
Brandt asks party backup
(Continued from page 1) many in March.
Kiesinger's Christian Democrats, the party of the late Konrad Adenauer, sought a formula that would enable it to continue in power.
A Free Democrat coalition with Brandt's party would give the Social Democrats 254 seats, five more than the required majority. A linkup with the Christian Democrats would give Kiesinger's forces 272 seats, 23 over the majority.
Political observers predicted no dramatic, immediate policy changes no matter who heads the next four-year government.
SHOCK ON SHOCK
ST. CATHERINE'S POINT, Isle of Wight (UPI) — Dr. Charles Vaughan, 53, smashed his 30-foot boat on the rocks.
When he scrambled up the shore to safety, he stumbled into a nudists' colony.
The nudists revived him.
12 KANSAN Sept. 29 1969
There are some 10,000 "tribal" Cherokeees who remain in essentially tribal communities and speak Cherokee. They are characterized by their participation in Cherokee - speaking religious ceremonies and by their abject poverty. Wax said, "Most are very, very poor. These are poor people in poor counties."
Trapp and Wax claim these "tribal" Cherokees are entitled to a say in the distribution of funds and the running of tribal affairs which is supposedly not accorded them by Keeler and the other alleged mixed-bloods of the Cherokee Nation organization. It is also the "tribal" people the OCCO claims as its membership
The OCCO case against Keeler and the government which supports him revolves around: (1) what they feel is the illegal appointment of Keeler (they argue the act of Congress allowing the President to appoint a principal chief is a violation of the 5th and 15th amendments); (2) the illegality of Keeler's "rubber stamp" Cherokee Nation Executive Committee (3) the allegation he is a "Texas Cherokee" rather than a member of the Oklahoma tribe (4) the allegation he is only part Cherokee and, therefore, not a Cherokee. The OCCO contends recognition of mixed-bloods as Cherokees would "damage the self-identity of the Cherokee people and the development of Cherokees as leaders of the "Cherokee people"); (5) the claim Keeler has attempted to "suppress the efforts of the management of the affairs of the Cherokee people by "Cherokee."
Keeler was born in Dalhart, Tex., while his parents were on a cattle buying trip. His boyhood was spent on his father's ranch in northern Oklahoma on land which, prior to statehood, was part of the Cherokee Nation. Secondly, Keeler is only one-fourth Indian—his grandfathers being white, his grandmothers being Cherokees of the northeast Oklahoma tribe.
But, Keeler's record would seem to indicate a devotion to youth and minority groups. He has been a member of the White House Youth Conference, a member-at-large of the Boy Scouts of America's National Council and a member of the scout's inter-racial council. He served on
President Johnson's National Advisory Committee in the War on Poverty, and in both 1957 and 1961, was given the All-American Indian Award which is presented annually to the most outstanding American Indian.
In 1961, Secretary of the Interior Udall selected Keeler as his chief advisor on Indian Affairs and offered him the permanent post of commissioner of Indian affairs. Though declining the commission post, Keeler did take a leave of absence from his job and worked on the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Perhaps Keeler's most important accomplishment was his role in a lawsuit against the federal government. The suit, brought under Keeler's direction, resulted in a $14,798,000 award to the Cherokee Nation in 1961. Through his personal efforts, Keeler has been able to persuade three companies to establish plants in the economically depressed region and to hire primarily from the Indian labor force. A heavy equipment training center, a welding school, and a bulldozer training program also were established.
September 17, Keeler told why these projects were undertaken.
"The cultural status of members of the Cherokee Tribe ranges from persons who are highly educated, and possess culture comparable to the most advanced non-Indian of the world to those who are wholly uneducated and living at a very low level of existence. This is due, primarily to the lack of training, which would prepare them for better job opportunities, and thereby permit them to improve their social and economic status.
"Along with poverty is often found the language handicap, illiteracy, bad health conditions and other elements of minority adjustments which have left some communities behind. There are those older Cherokees who would prefer to adhere to the old tribal patterns and are reluctant to change. We must, however, understand and appreciate this because the traditions, ways and customs of the Cherokees are just as dear to them as were the ways and customs of the European immigrant.
ment of the Cheroke population to which plans have been directed in order to help them to help themselves and to become self-sustaining citizens."
The newspapers of northeast Oklahoma hint the influx of out-of-state professors and foundations is some kind of communist plot and another case of outsiders causing agitation where it is not needed.
"It is the under privileged seg-
The Muskogee Daily Phoenix has claimed Dr. Sol Tax, the man responsible for the Carnegie Foundation's first studies in the area, "has been the subject of recent investigations for possibly attempting to overthrow the United States government by inciting Indians and Negroes."
Tax is a former dean of the University of Chicago; an executive of the Smithsonian Institute (a government institution), past president of the American Anthropological Association and the editor of "Current Anthropology."
W. G. Angel, Keeler's personal secretary, commenting on the problem said: "The people down there did not have money for years, but now they finally have some. It's a case of a group of people, supported by out-of-staters such as the anthropologists, wanting to control that money."