Four Socialist Horsemen of our Apocalypse
There are four forces that have been moving across our country for decades, on separate but parallel paths, and are in full assault today. All four threaten individual liberty, property rights, and the relationship between the citizen, our states and the federal government: 1) massive illegal immigration; 2) rapid expansions of federal Indian policy; 3) a verifiable Deep State transitioning a republic form of government to a centralized and socialized system of government; and 4) Globalists pushing forward with the One World Order.
Two of the above forces (immigration and globalism) are external pressures on our country, and two are internal (Indian policy and the Deep State). What do these forces have in common? Socialism, the fluffy word for communism. Socialism comes through persuasion, opening the door to communism, by force.
A military term, Pincer Movement, is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as: an attack by two coordinated forces that close in on an enemy position from different directions. We have four “coordinated forces” taking down our Constitutional protections and form of government.
Any one of these movements is deeply concerning, but the cumulative impact in 2018 and moving forward is the tyranny taking down the Founding principles of the U.S. Constitution…the voice and guaranteed protections of We the People.
Federal Indian Policy
This article focuses on the impact of federal Indian policy as it affects the balance of power between the federal government and the states. However, this discussion needs to be viewed with the awareness of at least three other forces simultaneously tearing at the fabric of our country’s governing system:
“Imagine a country that has a corrupt authoritarian government. In that country no one knows about checks and balances or an independent court system. Private property is not recognized in that country either. Neither can one buy or sell land. And businesses are reluctant to bring investments into this country. Those who have jobs usually work for the public sector. Those who don’t have jobs subsist on entitlements that provide basic food. At the same time, this country sports a free health care system and free access to education. Can you guess what country it is? It could be the former Soviet Union, Cuba, or any other socialist country of the past. Yet, I want to assure you that such a country exists right here in the United States…And its name is Indian Country.”
– Native American Reservations: “Socialist Archipelagos” by Andrei Znamenski
As stated in Professor Znamenski’s illuminating article, the reservation system serves 22% of some 5 million Indians, and polka-dots thirty-eight states in America, but less than 1% of America’s population. Currently, 567 tribes are federally recognized in this scheme that entirely disrupts the balance of power between the federal government and the states.
For decades the Department of Justice and Department of Interior have been using the “plenary” authority of Congress, combined with federal War Powers to create and utilize “Federal Reserve Rights” over land and water. The War Powers Act is never to be used against states but has been the underlying force exercised in federal Indian policy by the Department of Interior since at least the early1900s.
Federal Indian policy is decision-making enacted by Congress, federal agencies, and states. Tribal governments are not the source; they are the recipients. Tribes are recipients as the sole ethnicity that owns the American Eagle and its feathers, for example, unavailable to other Americans. In the Northwest tribes control another species, the Salmon, diminishing the availability of salmon to non-tribal sources. Working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, tribes are claiming certain plants within national forests as their indigenous foods, to be restrained from non-tribal forest visitors. Apparently, there’s no Hispanic or Settlers foods of any consequence. Using this mentality, tribes can soon claim that timber and wood sustains their cultural as well, and there goes the national forests completely, pushed through the legislative and legal system.
The Facilitators of Indian Socialism
Two key industries are facilitating the expansion of tribal control over state lands, waters and resources:
- Timid, coin-operated elected officials at every level of government; and
- A massive, profiteering legal industry incessantly working to revise and reverse America’s history with Indians, all of whom are full citizens with full rights under the Constitution.
Elected officials are timid because should they dare to deny tribal government demands, they are immediately labeled as racist, shamed or intentionally run out of office by tribal government funding of opponents and tribal government block voting. An example of this would be former Washington State Senator Slade Gorton, replaced by Senator Maria Cantwell when Senator Gorton had the nerve to suggest that federal funding be reduced and redirected from wealthy gaming tribes to poorer non-gaming tribes (means testing).
Another example would be Montana’s Senator Jon Tester, who caters to all things tribal, ignoring his Oath and duty to other Montanans because he can count on massive tribal election funding, and election shenanigans. On numerous Indian reservations block voting occurs, and many polling precincts are exempt from any State oversight. Stuffing ballot boxes and individually purchased votes on Indian reservations put Tester in office in 2006 and has kept him in office ever since.
The Federal Election Commission in Advisory Opinion of 2000-05 determined that tribal governments may directly, financially contribute to political parties, incumbents or candidates. No other American governments may do so.
Conflict is marketing power for attorneys and the stuff of litigation. As tribal governments reach back to reverse history, law firms across the country are only too happy to help. Though taxpayers fund these socialist tribal governments to the tune of billions of dollars annually, the same tribal governments seem to have limited resources with which to upgrade the quality of life among their people on reservations, yet there seems to be no limit on tribal funding availability for lawyers to go after the United States.
Attorneys prosper and love this stuff and wealthy tribes are more than happy to push America back to “pre-colonizing” days. Tribes are magnificently succeeding in biting the hand that feeds them, with the full cooperation of the hands – legislators, lawyers and the federal government.
The Constitutional Disruption of Socialism
How is all of this disrupting the Constitutional balance of power between the federal government and states? The Constitution never contemplated separate, quasi-sovereign nations within land ceded to a state. The Constitution prohibits War powers against a state. States hosting Indian tribes have no “Equal footing” with states that have no Indian reservations. Today, several states have governors, attorneys general and legislators who make decisions that elevate tribal “sovereignty” as superior to its own Constitutional state sovereignty. Money talks. Attorneys will argue anything for a dime. Liberal judges will play ball with their colleague legal industry. What Constitution? That outdated old rag?
Thanks to our legislators and litigators, tribal government authority is penetrating national parks, national monuments, national forests, and incrementally removing state taxable lands from lands ceded to the respective states and transferring them into tax-exempt federal lands. The sovereignty and jurisdictional authority of states are in severe trouble. All of America is as well, beginning with the total erosion of our Constitution.
Attempts at Restoring the Constitution
Several states are finally turning to the U.S. Supreme Court arena to protect what’s left of their state sovereignty:
- Washington. The Washington Culvert case is based upon a collection of tribes asserting tribal sovereignty over Washington lands and waters (culverts) as superior to State sovereignty (Washington State v. United States, 584 U.S. ___ (2018).
- Wyoming is currently defending its state sovereign authority from a Montana tribe, the Crow that is claiming its members have treaty rights in Wyoming; rights that were long ago abandoned with Wyoming’s statehood (Herrera v. Wyoming, USSC 17-532).
- New Jersey prevailed in a recent ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court (Murphy v. NCAA, 16-476) reasserting the “anti-commandeering” doctrine: “As the Tenth Amendment confirms, all legislative power not conferred on Congress by the Constitution is reserved for the States. Absent from the list of conferred powers is the power to issue direct orders to the governments of the States…Congress may not simply ‘commandeer the legislative process of the States by directly compelling them to enact and enforce a federal regulatory program.”
- Oklahoma is defending its statehood that ended the reservation system in Oklahoma from a tribe claiming its reservation boundaries never went away (Carpenter v. Murphy, USSC citation pending). This Oklahoma case, should Oklahoma be defeated, will resurrect half of the state’s lands for the five Civilized tribes.
- Wisconsin. A Wisconsin tribe is claiming that their reservation fully allotted and disestablished in 1892, never happened. The Oneida tribe now claims in 2018 that their former reservation is Indian Country and should govern the counties and towns within it. (Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin v. Village of Hobart, US Fed. Distr. 16C-1217). (Note: In this case, the tribe hired six highly-paid national legal counsel to take on one municipal attorney). A ruling is pending.
Conclusion
There is hope on perhaps the not-so-distant horizon. In the very recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has started taking a hard look and reining in federal government over-reach, working diligently to restore the infrastructure of our government to comport with the framework and intent of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is now questioning the federal governments use of war powers and asking federal attorneys to locate the plenary (omnipotent) power of Congress within the text of the Constitution. It isn’t there. It is these two tools, plenary authority and war powers, that are the linchpins of federal Indian policy.
The incremental expansion of tribal jurisdiction and authority over state lands, waters and ecosystems, facilitated by federal statutes, regulations and regulatory agencies, is akin to federal commandeering states to blindly accept tribal sovereign authority as preferential, if not outright superior to the Constitutional sovereignty of the respective States.
While the four Pincer forces described herein are spreading socialism across our lands and infiltrating our government, the least known of these is federal Indian policy. It’s a best-kept secret between elected officials and tribal governments. Sometimes, the least known, most secretive and least addressed assault is the most successful.
Action is needed. More information, more public education, and more vocal citizens would elevate the conversation on federal Indian policy to the levels now occurring with illegal immigration, the Deep State and the One World Order.
Elaine Willman, MPA, is the author of Going to Pieces: The Dismantling of the United States of America (2005) and Slumbering Thunder: A Primer for Confronting the Spread of Federal Indian Policy and Tribalism Overwhelming America (2016).
Ms. Willman received a master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) from Cal State University in 1991 and has obtained 96 credits towards a doctoral work in public policy. Ms. Willman is of strong Cherokee ancestry; her spouse is of Shoshone ancestry and a descendant of Sacajawea’s adopted son, Basil. She served as National Chair of Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) from 2001 – 2007 and remains an active Board Member. She has lived on three Indian reservations over the past 30 years: the Yakama, the Oneida in Wisconsin, and currently resides on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana
Ms. Willman is available for speaking engagements, workshop presentations or one-on-one consultations at any time. Contact her at toppin@aol.com.
