Jay Daniels: Indian Country faces many threats to sovereignty

Looking back at the hot issues facing Indian country, it amazes me that we still can't move forward for moving backward. There is an onslaught of the attempts to diminish tribal sovereignty throughout the country.

The Freedmen and some in Congress believe that the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma must adhere to the Cherokee Treaty of 1866 which provided tribal member’s rights to Freedmen. Wow, tribes are expected to honor and comply with treaties, but the Federal Government generally has failed to honor and comply with their agreement within the treaties. It's a double standard which penalizes tribes but rewards the federal government for non-adherance to each and every requirement.

Even now, the federal government is trying to shuffle treaty educational promises from their educational programs to the Cobell settlement partially. In 2007, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) offered in a letter to settle the claim by offering to jettison a bill through Congress to settle for about $8 billion plus. But Cobell's legal counsel was smarter than the government and held out for a final $3.4 billion settlement. That truly is "fuzzy math." Cobell negotiators are really magnificent. And to add injury to insult, each class member agreed, knowing or unknowingly, to forever absolve or forgive past claims against the government. Did you know that? It was in the fine print.