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From: Amanda Proctor
Date: 3/8/2006
Time: 4:05:53 PM
Remote Name: 70.182.222.154
A "Pro Constitution" website has challenged the Osage Shareholders Association to formally answer to the Commission as to why we hope to derail the Tribe and terminate its relationship with the federal government in the name of big oil. First, those who oppose the Constitution are not entirely shareholders. I am not a shareholder, but I do have eyes and ears and an able mind. I think that we ("the opposition movement") would all agree that we want a Constitution in theory. What we don't want is THIS PARTICULAR CONSTITUTION. Likewise, the object of government reform (in the eye of the federal government) was to constitute a government. If the federal government did indeed require the Tribe to implement a Constitution, it did not require us to pass THIS PARTICULAR DOCUMENT. I would add that, according to Webster's Dictionary, a Constitution need not even be written, but can be ORAL, so long as it's understood by the people who are subject to it. With all the money and time that has been thrown at this process, there is no reason why we couldn't have something decent. I've researched the Constitutions of other Tribes, and I am currently helping a Tribe with its own law-mending, and the proposed Osage Constitution is NOT EVEN CLOSE TO PAR, and I will not accept it.