OSTV Strategic Plan

Confidential -- Preliminary

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THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS SOME OF OUR EVIDENCE

FOR OUR COURT CASE

Timeline of Events

  • Website operational 2023 and 2024
  • Get back on the NC VA pow wow circuit--dancing and singing
  • Taste of Brunswick Festival Sept 2024
  • Get involves in Native Activists activities
  • Get involved in canoe trips and other Native activities.
  • Begin getting funding from from BDXP
  • Pow Wow Sept 2024
  • Hire grant writer 2025
  • Open Native Store and museum in Lawrenceville Nov 2024
  • Begin making inquiries regarding state recognition 2025

 

2024 Pow Wow:  
Last year 2023 we started planning for our pow wow this year. There are lots of ways that we can do this. Celest has the most experience with pow wows. So it would be good get a lot of input from Celest.  Joey said he will MC the pow wow for us. I have been thinking of a couple of formats. 

Option 1:  One would be to make it a homecoming pow wow for inviting all of the Siouan Tribes to our home the Saponi Reservation..  The advantage to this is that these tribes by attending are recognizing us as Native, Also it will assure lots of good dances especially if we can provide money for them in some format. The down size is we could be permanently sharing the Saponi reservation which is our unique and primary strength Date Last weekend in Sept 

Option 2: Do the pow wow as part of the Taste of Brunswick Festival.  We will have a great crowd if we do this.  Some pow wows in VA have very very low attendance.  The event is at the airport and we could move the pow wow far enough away that there would be no music conflict.  

The pow wow will be done in conjunction with our tribe OSTV and the YSDA.

 

Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation Strategic Plan

 

Summary of Plan

This plan lays out OSTV short and long term strategic plan. In summary we will seek state and federal recognition in the short term.  We will sue and eventually win our recognition based upon the recognition criterial being genocidal. Instead of focusing narrowly on our own selfish agenda, like most other tribes, we will be suing the government with the end result being to end the genocide against Natives in the USA.  We will begin an annual power in Brunswick County on the reservation land in 2024.  We will in 2024 begin a series of public events, collaborations with other tribes and associations, environmental activist work all as shown here.

It has taken me 20 years to design a capable system that can succeed, at many key objectives, given all of the barriers, all of the givens, all of the variables and the full situation that we have to deal with. We cannot take the path of the other tribes that have gotten recognition in the pass decades because our interests are far broader than most south eastern tribes. Land back, civil rights and social justice and environment justice, confronting white supremacy are all as important or more important to us than government recognition.  And we are not willing to sell out these critical things for some form of recognition.  

Structure

The structure is one that will allow the tribe to accomplish its mission and vision. There will be one tribal chief, a tribal council and council of elders.  The council will advise the chief with the intent of showing the chief various perspectives regarding various issues, to ensure that all angles have been considered. The position of chief is 100% based upon the ability to strategize, to out think and out maneuver white supremacists in their efforts to genocide us and to achieve the tribes short and long term mission and vision.  The chief shall have broad latitude to establish the vision and mission and strategic for the tribe based upon:

  • A foundation of pre-1492 principals as the end goal.
  • Getting the tribe in position for land back as the opportunity unfolds in the coming decades and centuries.
  • Long term survival of the tribe calculating in the social changes coming it the next seven generations.
  • Getting the tribe state and federal recognition
  • Getting the tribe recognized and/or accepted as Native nationwide and continent wide.

All council member will have say in the decisions of the tribe.  Due to the high political nature of the modern Native world the council members with the most experience navigating the Native world will carry more weight. 

When the opportunity presents itself the tribe may adopt Yesah Natives or other Natives not from Greentown when they have demonstrated a long term track record of support for the tribe, has decades of knowledge and experienced in the Native world, has demonstrated a solid track record of support for tribe over decades.  

Recognition

To be clear we are seeking recognition now, where we were oppose to it for decades, because before we refused to go to white people and ask for them to recognize us after the holocaust that they intentionally inflicted upon our people.  What has changed is that Natives are becoming the majority in the USA and thus we are not asking white people for recognition.  We are asking people of color to recognize us.  And perhaps by the time we receive recognition we will be a majority Native nation and receiving our recognition from a Native majority country as shown later in this document..  

What this plan navigates may not seem like a lot of variables but it is quite an impossible task and number of variable and the plan below is very capable in doing just that.  The plan addresses:

  • How to create a foundation and structure that will enable the tribe to survive, thrive and grow over the seven generations (the next 200 to 300 years) calculating the changes of the coming many decades.
  • How to create a foundation and structure that will position the tribe for land back in a very big way and be in a position for our people to organize and land in our homeland.
  • How to create a structure that provides a place for all POC with Yesah Native ancestry to reside and build.
  • How to get recognition without asking white people for recognition.
  • How to create a system that where it is self-evident and undeniable that we are Native where ever we go and whatever we do.
  • How to prevent MAGAS from being part of what we do.
  • How to create a that builds alliances with the other state recognized tribes,
  • How to create a system that does not step on other Natives toes.
  • How to end the genocide of Yesah Natives and move our people towards marrying Native
  • How to create a tribe where we will be accept as Native anywhere we go on the continent without question.
  • How to break the back of white supremacy on our Native land which accomplishing the above and below.

Many of todays tribes will not survive over the next 100 years because they are out of alignment with the coming social change.  They are only planning for today and to working within the white supremacy system largely for mere trinkets from it.  This is our Native land and the majority of the state of Virginia is our homeland.

Government Recognition: In the next 2 to 3 years we plan to apply for state recognition and also federal recognition for The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation. We expect to be rejected for both since we don’t meet the criteria.  But rather than taking the political route like most tribes do at this point we plan to sue the state of VA and the USA BIA on the grounds that the criteria for recognition is intentionally genocidal towards Natives along with the one drop rule and current racial classifications in the USA.

Our position is that like EVERYTHING else in our world recognition should be based upon a ponderance of empirical evidence and not falsified records. And the primary empirical evidence that we will use is phenotype and location being that we still live on the Saponi Reservation. In a court of law what counts is a preponderance of the empirical evidence.  Part of the case will be that the fed gov cannot genocide the tribes, erasing our history and then benefit from it by denying recognition because they genocided us and erased our history.

We will show that documentation is not appropriate to make the decision regarding recognition given the paper genocide, one drop rule genocide, etc that has occurred. The plan is to force the Federal and State governments to stop using  the genocidal criteria and blow the entire recognition process apart.  And make the process like all other aspects of life where one must make a case based upon a preponderance of evidence. We will show that the one drop rule that is so ingrained in everyone’s mind is genocidal towards Natives and we will be asking for the government to fix this white supremacist brainwashing that has been implanted in everyone’s head regarding Native identity.  And an off shoot of this will be to end the Hispanic / Latino classifications which are erasure and genocidal and the primary tools keeping Natives disempowered in the USA.

Initially we expect to lose in court because the court system is racist and based upon white supremacy but we will persist with the case until POC have enough pull in the court system with POC judges in place to win and or we have the votes in the political system to change the laws. We are not just looking for recognition for ourselves but to end the system that keeps us powerless.  Time is on our side as the country turns brown and POC become the majority and then the vast majority.  Just like the anti-abortionists persisted for 50 years until the courts turned in their favor on Roe vs Wade we will do the same thing.  We will persist until the white racist majority has died off and replaced with enough Brown people.

The difference between our lawsuit and what the OBSN did, they sued the NCCIA, who are the other tribes in NC and this is one reason they became so hated. We are suing the BIA and the state of VA.  This plan accomplishes many things at one time:

  1. It gets the The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation (OSTV) eventually recognized and in line for land back as it occurs over the next hundred years or so as Natives become the majority in the USA as show on the graph below.
  2. In the short term the OSTV and YSDA gets various forms of significant recognition. 
  3. The it helps organize other Yesah Tribes coming out of the YSDA
  4. It demolishes the genocidal recognition system that keeps us powerless and replaces it with a fair system.
  5. It gives a form of recognition to those Yesah Native descendants in the YSDA without a strong enough case for government recognition,
  6. It delivery’s a devasting blow to white domination in the usa,
  7. It get us in line for land back and things shift over the next 100 to 200 years.
  8. It makes us very popular with all of the state recognized tribes because most of them likely will get federal recognition out of this process if we are successful.
  9. It forces southern Natives to accept their true identity as Natives.
  10. Protections and safegaurds between families where some people have been saying and doing things that are no-nos in the native world
  11. It forces everyone to accept that there are 67 million Natives currently in the USA.  And makes Natives a powerhouse and soon to be majority and moves natives into a power position in the USA.  Immediately Natives in the USA go from 3% of the population to 22% of the population growing to over 50% by the end of the century.  It takes Natives from zero economic power in the world to having the 5th largest economy in the world.  It will give Natives the political and economic power to take on white supremacy head on.

We have a precedence here in Mecklenburg county of successful lawsuit against the federal government.  John Boyd sued the federal government and won.  OJ’s lawyer Johnny Cochran said it was the biggest mistake of his life not taking John’s case.   We have the evidence to win this case, because the evidence and their genocidal actions were done in the open and is documented, as shown in this micro genocidal example where the hard evidence is still in Mecklenburg county right now for all to see: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02EaNQSa1ugRnJ1YnnyEyjkhGKmL3YuWaspuaXvdHUeYmRaXj6Z3PXvW3FUw1sMgsfl&id=171430679726825

We just have to get it in front of the right judges who are not white supremacists and the case wins itself.  And even with initial losses comes recognition, a powershift and pressure to change the system.

This plan is 100% guaranteed to get recognition for the The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation and likely other tribes that come out of the YSDA and other tribes that join the lawsuit.  It is just a matter of how long we have to wait.  I am already preparing my children to take over the fight if it comes to that.

But with each year that goes by our case grows stronger as my family continues to marry Native, produce Native children, learn our Tutelo language, document our history, return closer to living as our ancestors in SS VA, document more history, grow stronger financially, gets better connected in the Native world, repopulate the Saponi reservation with Natives, repopulate SSVA with Yesah Natives.

Some of the logic to our case is presented on our website with the YSDA page and the phenotype page as well as the main page.  

One question that we are considering is do we include other tribes in the lawsuit, such as the Tuscarora in NC, or the two Nottaway tribes in VA.  We need to think through this.  We could make it a class action suit but this makes it complicated because we may too much consensus,  However, we could do the lawsuit where we call the shots and we ask others if they want to join the lawsuit and we select who gets included based upon how strong their case is.

Other Forms of Recognition: Yes recognition may not happen for decades and  some want results sooner.  But it could happen in our lifetimes but maybe not.  In either case we will get a form of recognition from the system with the publicity from our efforts. 

We got significant recognition in 2004, as Native people, from activity such as the recognition that we got from the golf course issue. We were the most well known Natives in the state of Virginia in 2002 because of the publicity we got from the fight to stop the golf course.  We we had followed through and leveraged off of that recognition we would be in a completely different place now.  But we will leverage off of the publicity this time—but not just for our benefit but for the good of all Natives.

With the Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation sponsoring the Yesah-Saponi Descendants Association, as we get various forms of recognition. from the our activities by default, we are recognizing those in the Descendants Association. 

Pow Wows and Public Events:

We will begin public demonstrations, events and pow wows in order to have a significant public presence in Yesah Territory of Virginia.  Judges and politicians are human and they like all humans have a hard time ignoring the evidence of the five sense.  What if the judge in Hillsboro who decided on recognition for John and the OBSN attended the OBSN pow wow once or each year and walked away with the paradigm that yes these are Native people?  Who knows but all of the public events that I and my family were doing likely helped them get recognition.  And this is one area that we need help from everyone who reads this.

Another objective of public events is to locate and root out thousands of Yesah Native descendants through out Virginia and get many of these people supporting or participating in what we are doing.  In order to be successful each member of the YSDA, OSTV and allies must find some way to participate in pow wows and public events: Learning songs or dances or language or privative skills or story telling or regalia making or food vending or, arts and crafts or genealogy or history or something.

OSTV will have its first annual pow wow in Brunswick County Virginia in Sept 2024.  We also plan on creating a pow wow circuit similar to what John Blackfeather created except this would only be in Virginia.  And we are looking to create a full time group of people travelling VA giving demostrations at libraries, schools, museums, doing school days, putting on exhibitions.  The purpose is two fold: rooting out Yesah Native descendants and recruiting Native descendants for the YSDA and making our presence known through Virginia,  We have had people in our group who have done this type work for decades but since it was not connected to our tribe nothing long term sustained from it.

We need the people in the YSDA, OSTV and allies, who are experts in areas of Native skills to attend cultural classes and teach their knowledge to others:

  • Pow wow and Native Dancing - Emma, Blaine, Chris, Celest, Metztli
  • Pow wow dancing and drumming: Ami, Travis and Barry
  • Regalia knowledge: Emma, Celest, Blaine

Keep in mind that we will be successful only to the degree that the people above participate and share their knowledge and teach others in the alliance.  In the past this is an area where we have failed as we focused our efforts externally that did not build anything long term for our own families.

Yesah-Saponi Descendants Association 

With the YSDA we are bringing together hundreds and eventually thousands of Yesah native descendants in VA. Out of this we are forming tribes and building our political base of power.  We have two tribes with really strong cases right now. One of the goals is to show the massive population of Yesah Native descendants still in the state of VA, to organize them and to utilize this political power.

Ending the Genocide of Yesah Natives

As stated throughout this website white people sought to breed Natives out of existence by having us breed with other races.  The first step in ending the genocide is connecting with and awakening Yesah Native descendants in Virginia to their Native ancestry.  The second step is exposing them to the Native world that we create through our cultural classes and pow wows. 

The pow wow circuit that we will be creating in Virginia will include a significant number of Natives from below the Southern border, perhaps as many as 50%..  This helps awaken Southern Natives to reclaim their power in our homeland and it also gets Yesah Natives and descendants associating with more this natives. 

People marry others with whom they interact.  The circle of people that one interacts with on a daily weekly basis is the likely pool of people one will marry within.  By socializing with Natives on a weekly basis the plan if for our people to begin marrying native and having Native babies.  As I have stated many times Natives are the majority population on the continent with 660 million Natives so there is no shortage of Native spouses for Yesah Natives and descendants.  

Environmental Activism

As the Yesah people of Virginia we have an obligation to protect our homelands and to do this first over other people's or tribes homelands. Yes we want to help other tribes but we must take care of our family and thus homeland first.  Again we are deserving people and not just the Lakota or the OBSN.  Issues such as mountain top removal, clear cutting of trees especially on Federal or State property, pipelines, uranium mining are the type issues that we desire focusing on.

Our tribe has been THE leading Native voice for environmental and Native liberation causes in the state of VA for over 20 years.  The following are activists activities that we have lead over the past 20 years

 Articles

It is imperative that we acknowledge all that we are doing to lead in Virginia.  It is imperative for the tribes self-esteem and success.

We definitely want to stay in the lead in addressing environmental issues that affect our people and mother earth here in Virginia. This is our territory and we need maintain our leadership role in our home.

Environmental issues that we need to stay on top of listed from highest priority to lowest priority

  • Uranium mining
  • Mountain top removal
  • Sacred Sites
  • Clear cutting of indigenous forest
  • Private Landfills
  • Sludge dumping
  • Pipelines

 Native Liberation

  • Native babies in cages
  • Native Genocide
    • Recognition System
    • One drop rule
  • Land Back
  • Apartheid Border

If anyone has suggestions to add or suggestions in changes to priorities please bring them up

Tribal Complex in Brunswick and Mecklenburg County Virginia

In the coming years we have plans to build a tribal complex complete with the following on the Saponi Reservation land in Brunswick County VA,  This will be done using funds donated from BDX Performance, donations and grants. :

  • Museum and educational center
  • Yesah Native Store  
  • Pow Wow grounds
  • Tribal office building
  • Cultural center
  • Living Village
  • Yesah Native University
  • Ceremonial grounds

In the short term we are looking to completely revive our Yesah Native language commonly refereed to as Tutelo, our Yesah Names and our Yesah ceremonies.

In 2024 we plan to do our first OSTV public Pow Wow.  For the past two decades we have held private family pow wows in Greentown mostly for family members.

 

Income Source

BDX Performance will be funding the OSTV with donations.  OSTV is established as a non-profit.  With initial proceeds a grant writer will be hired and a Native online store will be established to generate income.

 

Long Term

The Occoneechee, Saponi, Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation is unique when it comes to tribes.  We are the only tribe in the USA who is committed to returning to the natural, balanced, sustainable, family-communal, spiritual ways of living of our ancestors from before 1492.  We are doing this because it is the only way for humanity to survive long term on the planet.  Most people have been conned into believing that the analytical-ego ways brought from Europe are advanced and progress but they are on the wrong path leading to extinction.

Since 2009 the Occoneechee, Saponi, Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation has been buying back its own homeland with this sole intent.  Yes today we participate in the western system to the fullest because it is the only way to live in the modern world.

However, as we grow our capability, in all areas, we are establishing sustainable communities on land bases in our original homeland where we live in and get our human needs met naturally and interdependently via our tribal members.  The thinking and ways brought from Europe as not sustainable and long term are bankrupt as already proven with the European Dark ages.  The Indigenous Ways are the only ways proven to sustain humanity over hundreds of thousands of years. 

We work each year to more and more get our human needs met from within our tribe and tribal members as our tribe grows.

 Accomplishments and Recognition that Has Already Occurred