Righting a longstanding wrong
OKLAHOMA’S congressional delegation deserves praise for helping right a longstanding wrong. Under a 1947 law known as the Stigler Act, members of the Five Tribes — Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Muskogee (Creeks) and Seminoles — were restricted from passing allotted land on to their heirs and keeping the property in restricted fee status when a descendant had less than one-half degree of
Indian blood. Tribal members who didn’t meet that controversial blood-quantum metric could have their interests sold, exchanged and taxed.
Most tellingly, the law applied only to members of these five tribes, not members of other tribal nations.
Officials with the Cherokee Nation said the federal law impacted 534 acres of Cherokee citizen-owned land between 2011 and 2015. Principal Chief Bill John Baker said, “For far too long, the blood quantum stipulation has tied up land titles and prevented families from keeping their inheritance.”
Rep. Tom Cole, a Moore Republican and Chickasaw citizen, sponsored the bill ending the blood-quantum restriction, which passed Congress without opposition. Cole declared that Native American heritage must be “protected, preserved and passed on.”
Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Westville and Cherokee citizen, said handing down land “allows families like mine to continually pass their family’s history on to the next generation.” Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, decried the old law’s “arbitrary congressionally created blood requirements for family land transfers” and said the law only created “unfair barriers for members of the Five Tribes.”
Kudos to all who worked to consign this discriminatory law to the ash heap.
Inaugural opportunities
Gov.-elect Kevin Stitt is giving people across the state, and of all ages, the chance to take part in his inaugural activities. Stitt will be sworn in Jan. 14 at the Capitol. The ceremony is open to the public, as is a reception immediately following. That evening, a $250-per-person inaugural dinner and ball will be held in Oklahoma City. In the leadup to inauguration day, Stitt will hold a “Bison Bash” on Jan. 10 in Lawton (cost: $75 per person). On Jan. 12, a Scissortail Children’s Festival is scheduled at the Oklahoma Aquarium in Tulsa ($25 per family), followed that evening in Tulsa by a preinaugural ball ($150 per person). The day after the inauguration, a free morning prayer service is scheduled at First Baptist Church of Moore. Tickets and additional information are available at www. OklahomaTurnaround.com.
Blind spot
Officials at the German publication Der Spiegel recently revealed that an internal investigation found one of their reporters, Claas Relotius, fabricated material in many articles, including fake interviews. Among other things, a piece by Relotius on rural America under President Trump was filled with madeup information that perpetuated stereotypes appealing to liberal readers, including a false claim that a sign outside Fergus Falls, Minnesota, declared, “Mexicans Keep Out.” It has since been learned Relotius also embezzled funds. After writing about orphaned Syrian children, Relotius spearheaded a campaign to raise funds for the kids, but reportedly directed the money to his own account. That could result in a criminal complaint. Some people insist liberal bias isn’t a problem at many news publications. Relotius’ case suggests bias not only existed at Der Spiegel but also was an institutional blind spot that allowed him to engage in major fraud.
An apt slogan
The litany of college football bowl games and their names can be dizzying, and utterly forgettable. The first ServPro First Responder Bowl managed to stick out. The game in Dallas, between Boston College and Boise State, was cancelled in the first quarter Wednesday due to lightning storms. Boston College led 7-0 at the time, but it goes into the books as a “no contest.” ServPro is a company that cleans up after fires and floods. Its slogan — “Like it never even happened” — turned out to be a perfect fit. Not so funny was the game’s executive director saying refunds wouldn’t be offered. “Our policy is all sales are final with this. This is a weather-related incident,” he said. Officials with the two schools helped ease the pain. Boise State and BC both said they would refund tickets purchased through their schools, and BC offered free tickets to any Eagles home sporting event in 2019 equal to the number of bowl tickets purchased.
Lamb chops, anyone?
TV Guide senior editor Kaitlin Thomas recently wrote a column declaring actor Chris Pratt “problematic.” Among other things, Thomas complained Pratt is “an avid hunter who has often spoken about his love of hunting” who also “currently raises lambs on his farm.” To make things worse, Pratt has even “posted a photo of several pieces of fresh lamb meat” after having commented on the fact that his lambs live happy lives before being butchered. It says a lot that knowing where meat comes from makes you “problematic” to some entertainment journalists. When those writers buy (no doubt) farm-raised, organic meat, do they not understand there’s a crucial step that occurs between the pasture and the meat aisle? Or do they think meat is generated in paper wrapping from birth to table? The fact that Pratt knows the correct answer to those questions is only to his credit.
An ever-growing problem
Seattle is often held up as a bastion of hipness and a beacon for millennials. Yet the Emerald City has its share of problems, too. A major one is homelessness. According to its 2017 point-in-time count of the homeless, a Seattle agency said more than 11,600 people were sleeping in shelters, tents and on the streets. Seattle also has seen its property crime rate climb during the past five years. This is despite the Seattle metro area spending more than $1 billion per year fighting homelessness, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. “That’s nearly $100,000 for every homeless man, woman and child in King County, yet the crisis seems only to have deepened …” reporter Christopher Rufo writes in City Journal magazine. “By any measure, the city’s efforts are not working.” It’s an example that simply spending more and more money on an issue doesn’t guarantee positive results.
Never too late
Each Christmas there are a rash of stories about individuals stealing figures from church Nativity scenes. A story this year from Hoboken, New Jersey, provided a pleasant variation. At Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, officials received a statue of baby Jesus in a package with no return address. The package included a note explaining the statue had been stolen from the church’s Nativity display in the early 1930s. The note’s anonymous author said the statue had come into a grandfather’s possession and was later passed on to the author’s mother. After the mother and grandfather passed away, the NBC-TV affiliate in New York reports, the author wrote, “Knowing the story, I felt it should be returned to the rightful owner, and you will find it enclosed.” Officials consider the event a reminder that it’s never too late to do the right thing.