Ray Cook: Don't trade sovereignty for 'political assimilation'

Thursday, January 19, 2012  

"The Haudenosaunee, as a general rule and certainly as governments, do not participate in another government’s election processes. Those are not sovereign acts.

In that paradigm, it is bad strategy for a Native government or national Native representative organization to urge their people to participate in another government’s election. The cost is too high.

Not to ignore the current relevancy of America’s Congress on tribal realities, but, wouldn’t voting in Congressional elections and Presidential elections be the equivalent to accepting as truth the plenary power they mistakenly claim to have over us? Of course it does.

The reality is that we already have representatives and we elect them on a regular basis utilizing Tribal election rules and laws. It is the job of our elected representatives to protect our nations and our resources from harm and to promote our survival, and ensure our prosperity. That is not the job of another government’s Congress. Voting in American elections does not empower us, it accomplishes quite the opposite; it politically assimilates us."

Get the Story:
Ray Cook: Beware the Voices of Political Assimilation (Indian Country Today 1/19)