Summer Wesley | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 19, 1981 Antlers, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Other names | Chahta Summer |
| Alma mater | University of Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma School of Law |
| Occupations |
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| Political party | Democratic |
| Children | 5 [1] |
| Website | www |
Summer Wesley (born 1981 in Choctaw), who also goes by Chahta Summer, is an attorney, writer, and activist from Oklahoma. She is a member of the Choctaw Nation.
Summer Wesley was born and raised in rural Southeastern Oklahoma and is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation. She attended school in the small town of Rattan, graduating high school a year early, in 1998. [2]
Wesley earned four degrees from the University of Oklahoma: [3] A Bachelor of Liberal Studies (2005), a master's in Administrative Leadership (2008), during which time she also completed the course requirements for a master's in Interprofessional Health & Human Services. She completed her Juris Doctor and Master of Arts in Native American Studies as part of a dual-degree program. Additionally, Wesley received a Certificate in American Indian Law.
Wesley began writing early, publishing poetry while in her teens. [4] [5] [6]
During law school, Wesley spent a semester as a writer for the Oklahoma Journal of Law & Technology (OKJOLT) [7] and was on OKJOLT's 2012–13 board of editors. [8] Her published Master's thesis, "Trademarking Tradition: Intellectual Property and Native American Tribes" [9] is deposited in the University of Oklahoma's Bizzell Library.
In 2012, Wesley interned at Oklahoma Indian Legal Services, [10] where she developed her skills in Federal Indian Law and the Indian Child Welfare Act. [11] Since graduating law school, Wesley has been an advocate for Indian Country and has represented clients in tribal courts.
Prior to attending law school, Wesley was active as a volunteer, frequently speaking to Scout groups about racism and stereotypical representations of Native Americans in popular culture.
In addition to her professional work representing Native Americans, Wesley has become an activist on several issues affecting her people. She has taken part in campaigns to eliminate race-based mascots for sports teams, as well as advocating for positive representations of Indigenous peoples. [12] [13] [14]
Wesley is often quoted by her social media name of "Chahta Summer." [15] [16] [17] She was featured in the National Congress of American Indian's 2014 #ProudToBe project. [18]
In August 2014, Wesley criticized the Choctaw Nation's inviting Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to participate in their annual Labor Day Festival, stating: "Mary Fallin has demonstrated to not be an ally to Native tribes, yet has been chosen to not only appear at Choctaw Fest, but to unveil a statue in honor of our women . . .As a Choctaw woman, I am appalled that she is being given a platform for her insincere pandering and her participation in the unveiling causes the statue to lose all honor to me. Further, I think this sends the wrong message to Indian Country regarding the Choctaw Nation's priorities and loyalties. Fallin's participation implies that our Nation condones her anti-Native policies." [19] As a result of the social media protests, the tribe pulled its announcement about the Fallin appearance from its website and all mention of the appearance was removed from Fallin's social media accounts. In the end, Fallin made an appearance at the festival to sign a tribal tag compact, and left without participating in the honors she had previously been invited to. [20]
Days later, Wesley commented on the poor taste of Oklahoma State University students who made a banner with a flip reference to the Trail of Tears. [21]
In September 2014 Wesley was quoted as criticizing Governor Fallin for cancelling a second scheduled meeting with the mother of Mah-Hi-Vist (Redbird) Goodblanket, a young Cheyenne Arapaho man who had been killed by police. Reporters found that Fallin staged a media event instead. [22] Wesley was among Native American activists who expressed the belief that the Governor was sending "the message that the issue holds no importance to her. Indian Country had long felt that she is no ally, but this is a bigger issue. Police brutality affects all communities..." [23]
In November 2014, Wesley used social media to report on the federal trial of Jason Merida, former Executive Director of the Choctaw Nation, who was convicted on all but one charge of counts of embezzlement of tribal funds and corruption. [24] She criticized the media for not covering the trial adequately, leaving tribal citizens unaware of the serious case. She coined the hashtag #ChoctawCorruptionTrial and posted updates to various sites. [25]
Also in November 2014, Wesley spoke out [26] in support of three young rape victims from Norman, Oklahoma. They left school after being bullied following reporting the attacks on them. [27]
Wesley was quite vocal in her support of the Oklahoma City Public School's decisions to end land run reenactments, as well as the board's vote to eliminate the "redskins" mascot used by Capital Hill High School. Wesley live-tweeted meetings [28] on the topic and her account of a community educational forum on the topic was published. [29]
Wesley ran as a Democrat in the 2020 state elections for the Oklahoma House of Representatives to represent District 100. She lost in the general election on November 3, 2020 to Republican incumbent Marilyn Stark.
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana.
The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by the United States government in the early federal period of the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminoles. White Americans classified them as "civilized" because they had adopted attributes of the Anglo-American culture.
Mary Fallin is an American politician who served as the 27th governor of Oklahoma from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, she was elected in 2010 and reelected in 2014. She is the first and so far only woman to be elected governor of Oklahoma. She was the first woman to represent Oklahoma in Congress since Alice Mary Robertson left office in 1923.
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is a Native American reservation occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. At roughly 6,952,960 acres, it is the second-largest reservation in area after the Navajo, exceeding that of eight U.S. states. The seat of government is located in Durant, Oklahoma.
Suzan Shown Harjo is an American advocate for Native American rights. She is a poet, writer, lecturer, curator, and policy advocate who has helped Native peoples recover more than one million acres (4,000 km²) of tribal lands. After co-producing the first American Indian news show in the nation for WBAI radio while living in New York City, and producing other shows and theater, in 1974 she moved to Washington, D.C., to work on national policy issues. She served as Congressional liaison for Indian affairs in the President Jimmy Carter administration and later as president of the National Council of American Indians.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is one of three federally recognized tribes of Choctaw people, and the only one in the state of Mississippi. On April 20, 1945, this tribe organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Their reservation included lands in Neshoba, Leake, Newton, Scott, Jones, Attala, Kemper, and Winston counties. The Mississippi Choctaw regained stewardship of their mother mound, Nanih Waiya mounds and cave in 2008. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw have declared August 18 as a tribal holiday to celebrate their regaining control of the sacred site. The other two Choctaw groups are the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the third largest tribe in the United States, and the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, located in Louisiana.
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized Native American tribe with headquarters in Ada, Oklahoma, in the United States. They are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, originally from northern Mississippi, northwestern Alabama, southwestern Kentucky, and western Tennessee. Today, the Chickasaw Nation is the 13th largest tribe in the United States.
Allen Wright was Principal Chief of the Choctaw Republic from late 1866 to 1870. He had been ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1852 after graduating from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was very active in the Choctaw government, holding several elected positions. He has been credited with the name Oklahoma for the land that would become the state.
Peter Perkins Pitchlynn was a Choctaw chief of mixed Native and European heritage. He was principal chief of the Choctaw Republic from 1864-1866 and surrendered to the Union on behalf of the nation at the end of the Civil War.
The Jena Band of Choctaw Indians are one of three federally recognized Choctaw tribes in the United States. They are based in La Salle, Catahoula, and Grant parishes in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The Jena Band received federal recognition in 1995 and has a reservation in Grant Parish. Their headquarters are at Jena, Louisiana. Tribal membership totals 327.
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) is an agency in the government of Oklahoma under the Governor of Oklahoma. OWRB is responsible for managing and protection the water resources of Oklahoma as well as for planning for the state's long-range water needs. The Board is composed of nine members appointed by the Governor with the consent of the Oklahoma Senate. The Board, in turn, appoints an Executive Director to administer the agency.
Christina Marie Fallin is a singer and former lobbyist from Oklahoma and the daughter of former Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin. Fallin's lobbying career lasted from January 2010 until January 2011, when her mother was inaugurated. Her music career includes involvement with bands Milk on Milk and Pink Pony.
An Organic Act is a generic name for a statute used by the United States Congress to describe a territory, in anticipation of being admitted to the Union as a state. Because of Oklahoma's unique history an explanation of the Oklahoma Organic Act needs a historic perspective. In general, the Oklahoma Organic Act may be viewed as one of a series of legislative acts, from the time of Reconstruction, enacted by Congress in preparation for the creation of a united State of Oklahoma. The Organic Act created Oklahoma Territory, and Indian Territory that were Organized incorporated territories of the United States out of the old "unorganized" Indian Territory. The Oklahoma Organic Act was one of several acts whose intent was the assimilation of the tribes in Oklahoma and Indian Territories through the elimination of tribes' communal ownership of property.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Oklahoma since October 6, 2014, following the resolution of a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. On that day, following the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to review Bishop v. Smith, a case that had found the ban unconstitutional, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Oklahoma to recognize same-sex marriages. On January 14, 2014, Judge Terence C. Kern of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma declared the state's statutory and constitutional same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional. The case, Bishop v. Smith, was stayed pending appeal. On July 18, 2014, a panel of the Tenth Circuit upheld Kern's ruling overturning Oklahoma's same-sex marriage ban. However, the panel put its ruling on hold pending disposition of a petition for certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court. On October 6, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the request for review, leaving the Tenth Circuit Court's ruling in place. State officials responded by implementing the Tenth Circuit's ruling, recognizing same-sex marriage in the state.
The Choctaw Youth Movement (CYM) was a Choctaw nationalist grassroots movement born in the late 1960s in response to efforts by the federal government to terminate the Choctaw Nation. It was formed, in part, as a tribal-centric movement to counter the Pan-Indianism of other Native rights groups, such as the American Indian Movement. As opposed to AIM, the Choctaw Youth Movement practiced non-confrontational, peaceful activism, and advocated cultural revitalization and the readoption of tribal language, and taking pride in the distinctness of being Choctaw. The defense of the tribal culture and history took precedence over maintaining inter-tribal alliances.
Harry James Watson "Jimmy" Belvin was a Native American educator who served as an Oklahoma State Representative and Senator. He was the first elected principal chief of any of the Five Civilized Tribes in the 20th century, and the longest serving principal chief of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He saw his tribe through termination, restoration, and a rebirth of Native Pride. He was a polarizing leader, seen by some as a semi-dictator who held onto the office of principal chief and used his power to advocate for complete assimilation into the dominant society, suppressing Choctaw traditions, language and ceremonial practices as undesirable remnants of an unrefined history. To others, he was a well-liked, populist leader, who went door-to-door talking with tribe members, informing them on issues, and trying to develop the means the alleviate the poverty and unemployment they faced.
Czarina Conlan (1871-1958) was a Choctaw-Chickasaw archivist and museum curator. She worked at the Oklahoma Historical Society museum for 24 years. She founded the first woman's club in Indian Territory and served as the chair of the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Committee of the Oklahoma State Federation of Women's Clubs for 12 years. She was the first woman elected to serve on a school board in the state. Although the Attorney General of Oklahoma ruled she could not serve, she defied the order and completed a two-year term on the Lindsay School Board.
John Kevin Stitt is an American businessman and politician serving as the 28th governor of Oklahoma since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 2018, defeating Democrat and former state Attorney General Drew Edmondson with 54.3% of the vote. Stitt was reelected to a second term in 2022, defeating Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, a Republican turned Democrat, with 55.4% of the vote. A member of the Cherokee Nation, Stitt is the second Native American governor after former Oklahoma governor Johnston Murray.
Choctaw Academy was a historic Indian boarding school at Blue Spring in Scott County, Kentucky for Choctaw students. It existed from 1818 to 1842.