Delaware tribe still seeking official status

By S.E. Ruckman
Tulsa World

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — They are the descendants of the same tribe that sold Manhattan Island centuries ago. The Delaware Tribe of Indians has its own tribal language, customs, offices and council meetings.

But it hasn’t had federal recognition since the Bureau of Indian Affairs removed its official tribal status after the group lost a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to the Cherokee Nation over treaty stipulations in 2004.

“No matter what the government says, I’ll always be Delaware,” said tribal elder Evelyn Kay Anderson of Bartlesville.

The Delaware, who number around 10,000, are on a short list of Oklahoma’s nonfederally recognized tribes. There are 37 federally recognized tribes in the state, many which relocated to Oklahoma during the 1800s.

Recognition is the gold standard for Indian groups, bringing with it federal subsidies, grant monies, health care, housing and tribal citizenship. Oklahoma does not grant state recognition, although some states, like California, do.
Without recognition, Indian groups have no claim to trust property or to Indian gaming.

Other Oklahoma groups without recognition include the Euchees in Sapulpa, who petitioned in the 1990s, and a Cherokee-based group called the Northern Chicamunga Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri, which also filed for recognition in the 1990s, according to the Manataka American Indian Council.

Andrew Skeeter is the chairman of the Euchee/Yuchi group that is also a distinct, separate group that wants federal recognition. The Euchees are affiliated with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, although their languages are different.

“Of course, I am listed on the Creek rolls, but I am Euchee first,” he said. “That’s the way we Euchees were raised.”

Skeeter said there are about 300 self-identified Euchees and the number grows close to 1,000 when counting those who claim some Euchee, he said. An earlier attempt by the Euchees for recognition through the Bureau of Indian Affairs failed because many Euchees are on the Muscogee (Creek) rolls.

Still, the Euchee group receives federal grants to help preserve its distinct and dying language. This year, it was removed with the Delaware Tribe of Indians from a state list drawn up by the Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission.
One federal official holds sway over most recognition decisions.

Carl Artman, the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs secretary, recently visited area tribes and agencies. He told the Tulsa World that the Bureau of Indian Affairs receives an average of 12 requests annually from groups that want to make their tribal identification official.

“We’ve got 10 on the ready list,” he said. “Right now there are about 260 seeking recognition in the country, but 2,493 are only in the beginning stages.”

Artman said the department has noticed no correlation between recognition requests and gaming, although the two issues are related. To conduct tribal gaming, federal statutes require a tribe to have land in trust, which can only be requested by recognized tribes.

“Recognition takes a while,” Artman said. “I think some of the files we have are getting kind of dusty. We have to be careful before we start dishing that (recognition) out.”

Meanwhile, the Delawares’ recognition remains in limbo.

They are counting on another avenue that leads to recognition. U.S. Rep. John Sullivan has been drafting a bill that could restore the Delawares’ recognition. Efforts to move that bill forward have stalled due to disagreements over the bill’s language.

“I am still working with the tribes to come to an agreement,” Sullivan said.

At the Delaware Community Center, Anderson and her aunt, one of the last full-blood Delawares, are hopeful that they can see their recognition restored.

“We’ve got to keep our traditions going,” Anderson said.
“If we didn’t, it’d just all be for nothing,” said 78-year-old Emma Jean Kirkendall.