Moral Courage in a world that yields painful change

The quest for Federal Sovereignty by the Virginia Indian Tribes is a task that adds a new vista to the landscape in Virginia. In a global village the United States help to forge; the world is watching the Virginia Indian Tribes struggle in their quest. It is our history that dictates who we are, but it is our moral compass intertwined with conquest, development, and the creation of a new nation that provides the many challenges ahead.

To quote Robert Kennedy, "moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change...and those [who] enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the world."

A man who's influence has inspired many through out the years. Who will take up the flag for a cause that everyone agrees is morally right, but can not agree on how to accomplish "the right thing to do"? I believe it is this type of thought that brings merit to the theory of using International law related to indigenous people to complete the circle for the Virginia Indian tribes pursuit for federal sovereignty. Forging thoughts and ideas to lay a foundation cemented with International Law that would bring support from the four corners of the earth to breath life into the combination of law and moral rights to force this issue in new light.

The dawn of a new era should embrace new ideas and new concepts where men come to an agreement using tools shaped during the last 400 years together with a desire and understanding for peace, respect, and prosperity. It is these ideas that will force America and polish it for all times to come. With the help and support of the right people whose new ideas would bring justice to this issue.

The Virginia General Assembly has accomplished a portion of that which is necessary to make this dream by granting state recognition. It is now incumbent upon the United States Government to recognize the final and important last mile; granting federal sovereignty to the Virginia Indian Tribes.

Remember, John Marshal developed the "Doctrine of Discovery" based upon a moral theory not a rule of law by using the Inter Cetera bulls to establish Johnson v. McIntosh.

Indigenous "Sovereignty" and International Law

The indigenous community greeted the United Nations' decision to officially proclaim 1993 as the "International Year of the World's Indigenous Peoples" rather warily. Fourteen years later the United Nations created the Working Group on Indigenous Populations.

The purpose of this group was to formally address global indigenous issues. The gain has been more than an international symbolic response to a quest for cultural, social, economic, and political autonomy. The focus should be more on the human rights using international law to gain this perspective of a normative world development concept.

To gain a better understanding of this concept read:

• Indigenous "Sovereignty" and International Law: Revised Strategies for Pursuing "Self-Determination". Human Rights Quarterly - Volume 17, Number 2, May 1995, pp. 343-365
• Researching Indigenous People's Rights Under International Law
  

What is the term "sovereignty"?

There are at least 13 different overlapping meaning of the term sovereignty.
Sovereignty may refer to:

1. Sovereignty as a personalized monarch (real or ritualized);
2. Sovereignty as a symbol for absolute, unlimited control or power;
3. Sovereignty as a symbol of political legitimacy;
4. Sovereignty as a symbol of political authority;
5. Sovereignty as a symbol of self-determined, national independence;
6. Sovereignty as a symbol of governance and constitutional order;
7. Sovereignty as a criterion of jurisprudential validation of all law (grundnorm, rule of recognition, sovereign);
8. Sovereignty as a symbol of the juridical personality of Sovereign Equality;
9. Sovereignty as a symbol of "recogintion";
10. Sovereignty as a formal unit of legal system;
11. Sovereignty as symbol of powers, immunities, or privileges;
12. Sovereignty as a symbol of jurisdictional competence to make and/or apply law; and
13. Sovereignty as a symbol of basic governance competencies (constitutive process).

In regards to the Virginia Indian Tribes a historical basis of sovereign immunity doctrine in 1831, the United States Supreme Court first recognized that native Indian tribes possess sovereignty that is different from foreign countries and is subject to the dominion of the United States.

United States v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.

With respect to International Law the character of sovereignty is changing.

Read "The Changing Character of Sovereignty in International Law and International Relations."
By Winston P. Nagan and Craig Hammer

International law is an avenue the Virginia Indians could pursue in their quest for Federal Sovereignty.

Virginia's Influence on International Law

In Johnson & Graham's Lessee v. McIntosh, John Marshal laid down the law with reference to Indian titles in this country.

In The Antelope, Marshal laid down the rule that a rule of international law can be changed unanimously. Not confusing law with justice, but asserting what a court must assert that it is governed by the law of the government to which that court belongs, not by any doctrine of natural rights.

Most Nations belong to either the League of Nations and the Permanent Organization of Labor. The Permanent Court of International Justice is the judicial body of these two organizations, and is bound to apply the law of these organizations in cases arising under the provisions of the Treaty under Article 26, and under Part XIII, Article 422 of the Treaty these two articles provide the method of changing the rules of international law.

Virginia statute provided a definite means over the act of Congress by which the right of expatriation could be exercised, namely a deed approved in court, or a declaration in open court relinquishing the character of the citizen.

Compare the Virginia Statute with the Act of Congress of 1868. Virginia law are based on judicial and court basis.

This is one of the basis that Virginia Indians are having to fight for Federal Recognition.

Read the article in its entirety,
Virginia's Influence on International Law
Edward A. Harriman
Virginia Law Review, Vol. 12, No.2 (Dec., 1925), pp. 135-145.

Jim Web supports Virginia Indians

Jim Webb October 16, 2007 memo in support of Thomasian E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2007 (H.R. 1294)
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