John Kane to Address “Inherent Sovereignty” at Arizona State University

WASHINGTON – John Kane, Mohawk activist and national commentator on Native issues, will be a featured speaker at “Who Decides You’re Real? Fixing the Federal Recognition Process,” a two-day conference at Arizona State University in Tempe. Kane will be one of four experts speaking on a panel addressing “Inherent Sovereignty” from 9 to 10 a.m. MST (11 a.m. to noon EST) on Thursday, Jan. 16.

“I will explain sovereignty from a Haudenosaunee perspective and then challenge the notion that there was ever a transfer of our sovereignty or any consent to subjugation to the U.S.,” says Kane. “Sovereignty cannot be adjudicated away or legislated away. There must be consent.”

“The Indian Citizenship Act cannot declare that our sovereignty is dead; and that also holds true for the opinion in Johnson v. M’Intosh and a single man’s determination that our sovereignty was necessarily diminished upon discovery by Christians,” says Kane. “Dependency cannot be the test either for the following questions must be asked — Are we wards of the state? Or does the U.S. owe an obligation? Are we recipients of charity or are we creditors?”

Kane’s panel and the rest of the first day of the conference will be webcast at http://bit.ly/KV3VKY. The second day will be webcast at http://bit.ly/Kf7mLZ.

The conference is hosted by the Indian Legal Clinic at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. For more information about the conference, visit http://conferences.asucollegeoflaw.com/triberecognition/.