A petition is circulating to remove the Muskogee Public Schools Director of Indian Education.
This comes after the director, David Walkingstick, introduced a bill in Cherokee Tribal Council to appeal a federal judge’s ruling allowing decedents of freed slaves to become Cherokee citizens.
It’s Walkingstick’s bill and his role as an Indian education director that has this petition circulating.
“We should be done with this. the ruling came in and it was victorious, but right now i feel that he’s letting us know exactly really how he feels there’s prejudice going on he does not want us in the tribe,” said Rodslen Brown-King, a Cherokee Freedmen advocate helping organize the petition.
Walkingstick said his bill in tribal council is about protecting the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation.
“Cherokee Nation is a democracy and we can’t ignore 8,700 people and their voice and our constitution and me as an elected official in the Cherokee Nation I have to uphold and protect our constitution,” said Walkingstick.
Walkingstick said he wants the Cherokee Nation attorney general to appeal the Freedmen ruling to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The group getting the signatures will drop off the petitions at Muskogee Public Schools on Monday.
Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. told 2 Works For You in a statement, “Tribal Councilor David Walkingstick’s position on the Freedmen issue does not reflect that of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee Nation continues to fully comply with the federal and tribal court orders in place and has begun the healing process in this longstanding case.”
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