I don't know that we have properly and sufficiently thanked Congresswoman Maxine Waters for bringing much needed attention as well as Congressional oversight into the issues of Indian Territory Freedmen Descendants.
Those who live in her district should call her offices and those of us outside her district can at least write her and thank her for the efforts she and her staff have performed in our name.
As they say in Congress, I would like to take a moment of personal privilege to thank the Congresswoman for including the statements of Freedmen Descendant activists; Angela Walton-Raji, Damario Solomon-Simmons, @Sharon Lenzy, Several Seminole Freedmen and their Band Chief as well as me, Terry Ligon into the record with the statement she gave at the hearing Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
One of the things I promised my father when he began telling me the story of his "Indian Grandmother" was I had to share her story, the family artifacts and my research with my siblings and their children.
I did not see myself sitting across the table from the Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee sharing the story of his Indian Grandmother. I didn't see the work I've been doing now for practically half my life, to be entered on the record of a Senate Hearing that would take into account the struggle and battle of his grandmother then and now to properly recognize her identity, heritage and value as a human, as well as a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.
Again, let me thank publicly Congresswoman Maxine Waters D-43 District Los Angeles for the hope and dignity of telling my father’s story about his “Indian Grandmother, Bettie Ligon and having it on the record of this committee.
https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/chairwoman_waters_testimony_scia_.pdf
Write to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
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