What follows is essentially a cross-post from BlueJersy.com with a wee bit of additional commentary and links from me.
My friend Carol Hoernlein has been writing on progressive NJ politics, health care issues and the plight of the Sand Hill Band of Indians for years. I highly recommend that anyone interested in any of these broader areas, go back and check out all of her diaries on Blue Jersey!
This latest chapter is all about the specific responses that the Sand Hill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians have made to an attempt on the part of the State government to have their lawsuit dismissed.
Carol's diary contains voluminous documentation, but for anyone who is seriously concerned about Indian Affairs and the ways that Native American have been screwed over throughout our history and into the present day; these diaries will be of great interest.
Meanwhile, here's the latest in the case....
Pandora's Box - The Sand Hills Respond
by: carolh
Sat Aug 22, 2009 at 05:57:23 PM EDT
The following documents were just filed yesterday by the Sand Hill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1...
To get everyone up to speed here, in February, the tribe filed a major lawsuit charging the Corzine Administration with acts of genocide because of a pattern of actions on the part of the NJ Commission on Indian Affairs that appear designed to remove all mention of the Sand Hill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians from existence. This is despite the fact that historians and even Smithsonian reports from the 1940's prove the existence of the Sand Hill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians as the oldest indigenous tribe in the state.
Although the lawsuit was filed in February against the state and all 21 counties in NJ, many of the defendants blew it off and ignored it - missing the deadline to respond. The judge in Newark gave the defendants an extension to respond. She also gave the Sand Hills a chance to amend their first complaint, which was done in May. The State and the Counties then filed motions to dismiss. The filing on August 21, is the tribe's response to the Motions to Dismiss.
This epic tale of stolen identity reminds me of that movie The Net. NOBODY else is covering this story.
For more on the whole story, see below:
carolh :: Pandora's Box - The Sand Hills Respond
Diaries about Pandora's Box:
An Interview with Chairman Ronald Yonaguska Holloway:
http://www.bluejersey.com/...
Here is my diary leading up to the lawsuit. I had been blogging about the situation since last year. But here is a good diary with a lot of video clips that lay out how this all went down.
http://www.bluejersey.com/...
Here is my diary from February:
http://www.bluejersey.com/...
In the meantime, funding was cut for the museum and Indian office that the Sand Hill had operated since the 1950's, and veteran's and retirement benefits for tribe members who had been in the Military or worked for the government were also mysteriously cut. It appears to be an act of retribution against the tribe for speaking up about their mistreatment and the lawsuit.
For more about the apparent retaliation against the tribe see:
http://www.bluejersey.com/...
For information about the tribe appealing to the UN:
http://www.bluejersey.com/...
The August 21, 2009 filings from yesterday:
The First Document concerns the case against the State, the second set of documents - the case against the Counties.
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That ends the text of Carol's diary. To actually see the documents filed in the response, please go to the original diary and scroll down to the bottom and they are all there.
I realize this is a lot of information to digest if you haven't been following the case; but rest assured this is an extremely important matter that deserves to be well attended to for all manner of good reasons.
Thank You!