re: #644 Obdicut

Hey, he’s fought for gay rights in the Cherokee nation as well. He may just be an opportunist, or he may actually have a vision of what the Cherokee Nation should be and really believe in it. But he doesn’t represent all Cherokees, and often puts himself out as though he does.

Here is what he has done for the Cherokee nation acording to Wiki:

Career

Cornsilk was hired by the Cherokee Nation as a research analyst to perform genealogical research on Cherokee families seeking registration in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. From 1989 to 1994, he also was assistant director of admissions at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma .

Cornsilk has supported citizenship for the Cherokee Freedmen, whose status had been revoked in the 1980s. The Freedmen have challenged tribal laws and orders with litigation. Cornsilk wrote to Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller in 1988 asking her to take a larger issue of Cherokee nationalism.

In 1990 he worked with John Guthrie to expose the problem of Indian art fraud in eastern Oklahoma. As hundreds of artists were claiming to be Cherokee with no proof, he and Guthrie worked to bring the issue to the attention of the public. They handed out fliers and wrote letters to the editors of local papers. Some of the purported Cherokee artists protested and one attacked Cornsilk physically, resulting in the incident being called the “Indian Art War.” The US Congress passed the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.

David Cornsilk, Marvin Summerfield, and Thomas Fourkiller formed the non-profit “WhitePath Foundation” in 1991. It was the first organization to publish information on HIV/AIDS in the Cherokee language.

Seeking to remain independent, the three men created an independent news outlet in 1992 for events in the Cherokee Nation and United Keetoowah Band. They published the first issue of The Cherokee Observer in January 1993. Cornsilk was managing editor, Summerfield as language editor, and Fourkiller as religion editor. In addition, Marvin’s wife Linda Summerfield became health editor, Sandra Sac Parker was a reporter, Robin Mayes a political satirist, and Franklin McLain an opinion editor.
In 1995 Cornsilk filed a lawsuit on behalf of Bernice Riggs in the Cherokee district court, which was taken to the CNO Judicial Appeals Tribunal.

Although Riggs lost that case, it was demonstrated in court that Riggs had documentation of Cherokee blood. This had been ignored by the Dawes Commission, when it classified her parents as “Freedmen” rather than “Cherokee by blood”.

Cornsilk left The Cherokee Observer staff in December 1999, and served as a delegate to the CNO Constitutional Convention. He had participated in all aspects of the development of the 1999 constitution as a delegate appointed by the judicial branch of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

In 2004 Cornsilk filed another case before the JAT: Allen v. Council, on behalf of Lucy Allen, a Cherokee Freedman. They won that case, which overturned the negative ruling in Riggs, and struck down CNO law that imposed requirements for membership above and beyond those set by the Constitution.

Cornsilk continues to work as a political activist and lay advocate for Cherokee Freedmen.