Coopers Denied Enrollment, Again, This Time ‘Forever’
Indian dancer by Ernie Lossiah, Cherokee reservation art.
Here’s the score on the longest-running disputed Indian enrollment case on record, Nancy Cooper v. The Choctaw Nation: Yes for 2 years, in Limbo for 7 years, No for 115 years, Yes for 6 months, No forever (or until we change our minds again)
Just in time to ruin people’s holiday hopes and avert any future accidental righting of wrongs, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma sent one of the recent Cooper enrollees a letter telling him he could keep his enrollment card but “there will be no more of the Cooper families allowed to be placed in the Choctaw Tribe.”
Yep, they’ve changed their minds again. And this time, according to the latest ukase, as our cousin Pam tells us, “the doors are closed FOREVER.”
It just goes to show you no good deed will go unpunished, no matter how insincere or thoughtless, especially when the BIA is looking over your shoulder.
