Black Indians United
Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund
5 Tribes Embassy
1866 Treaties-Ethnic (Black) Indians and Freedmen
Documenting Racism Issues
George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States (January 20, 2001-January 20, 2009), was having a banner year in 2006, which was coincidently U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s last year of service in his second 5 year term. He was the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations. Memorable about the relationship of these two unforgettable political adversaries was their very perceptable political disagreements. Bush raged about International Agencies daring to tell America what do, seemingly in an effort to chip away at the teflon exterior and moxie of the U.N. Secretary-General.
Kofi Annan of Ghana was a 2001 Nobel Peace Prize Winner recognized by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for his “work for a better organized and more peaceful world.”
As he bowed out of U.N. service on December 12, 2006, Annan lobbed a stinging parting salvo aimed at Bush in an address delivered at the U.N. He accused the United States of Human Rights Abuses, cautioned against misuse of the U.N. and re-emphasized the obligations of the U.N. with regard to human rights.
Kofi Annan, also made clear that Member States cannot indulge in abuse of vulnerable populations, then shield themselves from prosecution and reparations, as he said “that sovereignty can not be a shield behind which Member States conceal their violations.” Finally, Annan said, “No nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others.” [The Guardian, Tuesday, December 12, 2006].
That was an indictment of American Foreign Policy.
In the same year, 2006, on the watch of George W. Bush and the tenure of Gale Norton, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Indian Country would enter landmark legal claims documenting surprising U.S. Domestic Racism in full swing, complete with Racial Discrimination, Civil Rights Violations, Treaty Rights Violations and Human Rights Abuses committed against Ethnic Native Americans, Mixed-Bloods, Black Indians and Freedmen. Leading the charge against high level racism was Mixed Blood Utes, Members of Harvest Institute Freedmen Federation and Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund (comprised of Lineal Descendants of Ethnic Black Indians and Freedmen of the 5 Civilized Tribes). Each Tribal entity committed to raising the issue of Racial Discrimination in Indian Country, seeking award for damages sustained by wrongly supported by Discriminatory Laws, Codified United States Federal Indian Policy and Unequal Rules of Access.
On 1.27.2006, A Class Action was filed in United States District Court For The District of Columbia, Civil Action No. 02-2156 (RWR), by “Mixed-Blood” members of the Ute Band of Indians, to address injuries suffered as a result of wrongful unlawful termination of their status as federally recognized Indians under the “Ute Partition & Termination Act” (UPA), a relationship documented from 1869 (mixed Ute ’Uinta Band of Indians from Utah, White River Band from Colorado and Uncompaghre Bands, also from Colorado) forced to remove and relocate to the Uinta and Ouray Reservation set aside for their use and occupation.
The Ute Partition & Termination Act (UPA) was a discriminatory and harmful Congressional Act, passed on August 27, 1954, under which Full-Bloods were defined as Ute Members who ancestry was at least one-half Ute Indian and over one-half Indian.
Mixed-Bloods were defined as Ute Members who did not have sufficient Ute or Indian ancestry to qualify as Full-Bloods.
The (UPA) distributed the Tribe’s assets between the Full-Bloods and Mixed Bloods and made them eligible for distributions of certain judgments, but it codified the position that Mixed-Bloods were no longer considered members of the tribe and terminated, Federal Supervision of their affairs, and consequently terminated their Federal Recognition Status. So by direct Congressional Action, the Federal Government rendered 490 persons of historical Ute Ancestral of their juridical identity, nationality and fostered their exile into mixed-blood purgatory.
The Secretary of the Interior subsequently published in the Federal Register the list of 490 mixed-bloods and the corresponding federal policy of terminating supervision over the affairs of Ute Mixed-Bloods and their status as federally recognized Indians on August 27, 1961.
To add insult to injury, the Federal Judge dismissed the claim of the mixed-blood by indicating that they had not stated a claim. There are many contending that as Federal Monies began flowing into the Tribe, it became more of issue to deny benefit to mixed-blood members of the tribe.