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Regular Session, 2012 ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 149
BY SENATOR LAFLEUR
A RESOLUTION
To urge and request the United States government, particularly the Assistant Secretary-
Indian Affairs of the United States Department of the Interior and the members of
the Louisiana congressional delegation, to take appropriate action to formally
recognize the Louisiana Precinct of the Southern Band of the Cherokee Nation of
Webbers Falls, Oklahoma 74470, as an American Indian tribe.
WHEREAS, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced many American Indians living
east of the Mississippi River to sell their land and move to less fertile lands on a western
reservation, and the five tribes most affected were the Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw,
Seminole, and Cherokee; and
WHEREAS, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 caused these five American Indian
tribes to embark on what came to be known as "The Trail of Tears" from 1830 to 1842; and
WHEREAS, as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, many small groups of
the five American Indian tribes escaped and crossed the Mississippi River into Louisiana,
settling near the central and western part of Louisiana in Rapides, Vernon, Old Imperial
Calcasieu, and Natchitoches parishes, in an area known as "No Man's Land" or "Rio Hondo";
and
WHEREAS, federal and state jurisprudence recognizes that a child born of a white
father and American Indian mother who is a recognized member of the tribe of American
Indians to which his mother belongs, is also an American Indian; and
WHEREAS, the Louisiana Precinct of the Southern Band of the Cherokee Nation of
Webbers Falls, Oklahoma 74470, whose local address is 2506 Sam Cloud Road, Oakdale,
Louisiana 71463, is a domestic tribe, that has participated in Native American Month
ceremonies at Fort Polk's invitation.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the government of the United States of America, particularly the Assistant
Secretary-Indian Affairs of the United States Department of the Interior and the members
of the Louisiana congressional delegation, to take all necessary steps to formally recognize SR NO. 149 ENROLLED
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the Louisiana Precinct of the Southern Band of the Cherokee Nation of Webbers Falls,
Oklahoma 74470, whose local address is 2506 Sam Cloud Road, Oakdale, Louisiana 71463,
and to acknowledge that the rights of the Louisiana Precinct of the Southern Band of the
Cherokee Nation are no less than that of other Indian tribes in the United States.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the
President of the United States, the presiding officers of the Senate and the House of
Representatives of the Congress of the United States, the members of Louisiana's
congressional delegation, and the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs of the United States
Department of the Interior.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE