One Nation leader may be kicked out of tribe

Others question legitimacy of claim

Sam Lewin 7/6/2005

The head of the anti-tribal sovereignty group One Nation may no longer be able to say she is a member of a tribe.

And that tribe she claims to be a part is not even legitimate, others say.

Barbara Lindsay faxed the Native American Times an enrollment card saying she is a member of the Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri, a non-federally recognized tribe.

Lola Smith Scholl, president of the tribe, said Lindsay, 57, has been on the tribe's rolls for "about three years" and that the tribe is now considering removing her.

"We probably will disenroll her," Scholl said. "It is ridiculous for her to be doing what she is doing and also claiming she is a member. I don't want anybody enrolled who is like that."

What has Scholl and other Natives upset is One Nation's hostile approach to Indian sovereignty.

Mike Graham, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, wrote earlier this year that the organization is "just another fear mongering group focused on American Indian sovereignty... What is really the case with One Nation is they want Indian nations out of the way. Companies affiliated with this group would have access to millions of acres of land held in federal trust for Indians, thus they would have a free hand in getting access to more land for their companies to develop for their profit. Eliminating tribal sovereignty competition would bring in hundreds of billions of dollars each year for companies associated with One Nation and their stated goals."

Scholl said Lindsay could be kicked out of the tribe on the grounds that she has acted in a "treasonous" manner.

"She is not authorized to go around using us and saying what she is saying. I believe in the sovereignty of the Indian," Scholl said. "I didn't know she was doing any of this business."

Lindsay's enrollment card states she is one-eighth Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri. Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma spokesman Mike Miller said that the Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri is not a real tribe, and that the Cherokee Nation, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees and the Eastern Band of Cherokees are the only groups that qualify as legitimate Cherokees.

"[The Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri] is one of 200 hundred or so groups around the United States that call themselves some kind of Cherokee band or tribe," he said. "They have no history or treaty recognition. They are not Indian tribes. You have people in different parts of the country that represent themselves as Cherokee historians and they have no connection to us. It's frustrating."

As for One Nation, Miller said the group is "obviously trying to abolish sovereignty. We thought we were past fighting that fight."

Thanks to Kim Collins of One Nation Lies for the lead.

One Nation Lies

July Reports

Last updated on July 11, 2005