Offlist to avoid cluttering it... but....
Yep. That's right. You said it better than I, and you eliminated all the maddening
references to tribal politics, which truly are the worst politics (interesting aside - it
was less than 8 years ago that the Cherokee Nation broke into two factions over a tribal
election in which one faction occupied the square in the town of Tahlequah, the winning
candidate in the election was arrested, and finally federal marshals, the BIA, SWAT teams
and the CARTER CENTER were called in to sort the whole damned thing out.)
Philippe
----- Original Message -----
From: Fred Bauder
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 4:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Native American Tribes Policy
The proposed policy does not conform with Wikipedia:Neutral point of view which
contemplates fair representation of all viewpoints which can be verified by reference to
reliable sources. If a controversy exists regarding the legal status of a particular
individual or group, we would report both sides of the controversy. The opinion of the
Federal government is an important but not determining viewpoint with respect to
knowledge.
Fred
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey V. Merkey [mailto:jmerkey@wolfmountaingroup.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 11:47 AM
To: 'Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List'
Subject: [Foundation-l] Native American Tribes Policy
I started a policy which was subsequently rejected by Wikiality based
concensus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Native_American_Tribes
The basic problem here is that non-Federally recognized groups claiming
to be Indian Tribes can expose the Foundation and Wikipedia to
considerable liability and negative publicity. By way of example, when
James Mooney was indicted in Utah for impersonating an Indian not only
was he charged, so was the person running his websites and posting the
false information. Mooney was indicted for 19 first degree felony
counts for operating a CEE (Continuing Criminal Enterprise) for the
purposes of distributing peyote. The Southern Cherokee Nation (which is
not a real tribe) under currently operating illegal riverboat casinos
and using their claims of being a Federally recognized tribe to justify
their activities.
Wikipedia needs to exclude these fake tribe from the project. Any of
these tribes can bring legal action against the Foundation, as can the
Federal Government if fake groups are allowed to claim they are indian
tribes, then use Wikipedia as a basis to claim credibility and break the
law. This can have two possible outcomes. The genuine tribes (who
have Federal support and Federal funding) can withdraw financial support
from the project and/or Wikipedia can be exposed to negative publicity
and loss of public trust by the legitimate tribes, as well as being
exposed to Federal Prosecution if these groups use the project to
violate US laws.
I am of Cherokee, German, and English ancestry, but I do not claim I am
a citizen of Germany or the UK., even though I am of these bloodlines as
well as Cherokee. The same applies to Native Tribes recognized by the
US Government. These tribes are sovereign governments, and members are
citizens. For someone who claims Indian ancestry to set themselves up
as a tribe purports claims they are citizens of a non-recgnized
sovereign. It would be the same as for me to claim I am a German or UK
citizen just because I have ancestry from these groups, which would be a
false claim. The same applies to Indian Nations.
I will be unable to garner support from the tribes to publicly support
Wikipedia from other tribes if such a policy does not exist, since any
fake group can claim they are an indian tribe when they are not. Please
read the text of the policy, and the Foundation needs to make a decision
about this matter. Tribes which are not Federally recognized in the US
are NOT indian tribes, and numerous legal liabilities are created if we
allow these groups to post false information into the project.
Jeff
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