THE HARVEST INSTITUTE ALERT ON INDIAN LAWSUIT
Leatrice Tanner et al v Ryan Zinke, et al 
Case #16-5040 in the Federal Court of Appeals
10-6-17

	All supporters of PowerNomics® and The Harvest Institute are summoned to appear in person at the Federal Court of Appeals at 9:30 a.m., Friday, November 17, 2017 to hear oral arguments in case number 16-5040, Leatrice Tanner et al v Ryan Zinke, et al. This class action lawsuit was originally filed in 2006 by the Harvest Institute Freedmen Federation (HIFF), of which The Harvest Institute is a party. The Court of Appeals is located at 333 Constitution Ave. in Washington, D.C.

We need your presence. Come early.

BACKGROUND:	
	Most Americans are totally unaware that Black enslavement existed with the full support and involvement of those called Native American Indians. The Five Civilized Tribes (Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole) and many other Indian tribes were slave holders and fought with the Southern Confederacy to maintain Black enslavement. After the Civil War ended in 1865, those tribes refused to release their slaves. In 1866, the federal government met with the Five Indian Tribes and required that they sign the 1866 Indian Treaties. Those treaties mandated that Indian tribes free the slaves they owned and treat the freedmen, Black Indians and all their future descendants in the very same manner, in all things, just as so-called Native Indians were to be treated. The 1866 Treaties mandated specific duties and responsibilities of the Indian Tribes and the U., S. government to Black Freedmen and Black Indians. They were to be placed in a protected class by the government, admitted as members of the tribes, given 150 acres of land, access to reservation resources, $150, the right to free education and tax-exempt status. The United States of America was founded as a nation of laws and a treaty is the highest form of law. 

THE ISSUE:
	Neither the government nor the tribes have abided by the law. They have not fulfilled the fiduciary obligations mandated in the 1866 Treaties to Black freedmen or the Black Indians who lived with the Tribes. The U. S. Department of Interior is the government agency assigned the responsibility to manage assets for Indians - non-Black and Black Indians and the Black Freedmen. 

	The Harvest Institute joined with the Black Indians United Legal Education Fund to form the Harvest Institute Freedmen Federation to file this lawsuit which charges that the government has not carried out the mandates of the 1866 Treaties with respect to Black Freedmen or Black Indians. Leatrice Tanner Brown is the principle in the class action lawsuit and is the point of the spear to gain resources long denied or stolen from Black Freedmen and Black Indians and their descendants. The suit charges that the U.S. Department of Interior, in which the Bureau of Indian Affairs is located, has not provided an accounting of the assets the Department was responsible to manage for Ms Leatrice Tanner-Brown’s grandfather, a freedman. Extensive legal documentation reveals how assets such as land, mineral and oil rights were stolen from him. 

	Although the main requirement of the 1866 Treaties was to force the slave-holding tribes to release their slaves, the U. S. Department of Interior was responsible to manage benefits and assets for non-Black, Black Indians and Freedmen. The non-Black Indians filed lawsuits to contest the government’s administration of those benefits. President Obama took up their cause, invited the non-Black tribes annually to the White House at Christmas time, settled nearly all of their hundreds of pending lawsuits and awarded them over $20 billion during his two terms in office. His administration would not address the similar issues of the Black Freedmen and Black Indians.

CALL TO ACTION:

	We need your physical presence. The government has not provided an accounting of its management of the Tanner family’s assets, and other Black families have similar circumstances. 

	After more than 10 years of moving slowly through the legal system, On Friday November 17, 2017, the Court will hear oral arguments and the HIFF will have an opportunity to officially state its case.  Presentation of oral arguments is a major milestone in our fight to correct the economic injustice and the overt racial discrimination with which the descendants of Black Freedmen and Black Indians have been treated. Your presence is required to make a public political demonstration that Blacks are aware of the 1866 Treaties, demand a favorable ruling and will not allow the issue to be ignored. We must pack the court room and the court house. We need you to be there.

COME STAND WITH US 
in Washington, D.C. on November 17 at the 
U.S. Federal Court of Appeal, at 9:30 AM.

	For more in depth information on the issue, see questions 44, 66, 83, 85, 86 and 89 in A Black History Reader: 101 Questions You Never Thought to Ask by Dr. Claud Anderson or see his lecture in the DVD 1866 Indian Treaties available at www.powernomics.com.