User:SusunW/sandbox

San Luis Potosi"

1. Sept., 2014 lesbian couple applied Ciudad Valles (state capital)denied. 2. November 23 announced: next week, two women will get married through the Civil Registry in the Potosi Capital. Paúl Ibarra Collazo with Red Diversificadores Sociales (Diversified Social Network) assisting them. http://pulsoslp.com.mx/2014/11/23/celebraran-boda-lesbica-en-san-luis/ 3. Paúl Ibarra Collazo of Diversified Social Network announced marriage of lesbian couple to take place in Registry of San Luis Potosi. Names, date and time not disclosed. The couple is hoping not to have to resort to amparo. In San Luis Potosi, have obtained two actions of Amparo http://elheraldoslp.com.mx/2014/11/22/dos-mujeres-concretaran-su-union-ante-el-registro-civil-de-san-luis-potosi/

Does not appear that these are the same lesbian couple. The one mentioned in #1 applied for a license in September. The one in November is just now applying. The only 2 amparos granted to date were to male couples.

Sonora: 1. In July 2012 male same-sex couple were married in Mexico City and returned to Sonora. Applied for spousal coverage with Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers Sonora, denied on October 8, 2012. Filed amparo 2564/2013 with Court of Culiacan, Sinaloa. 9 October, 2013 human rights exercise their right to form a family without discrimination were violated. http://www.sonoraciudadana.org.mx/post/1159/afilia-el-isssteson-a-primer-pareja-del-mismo-sexo

2. early May, female applicants ages 25 and 26 from city of Luis B. Sanchez denied. On 26 May filed injunction with Fifth District Court of the Fifteenth Circuit in Mexicali. Lawyer Victor Acosta Cid. Hearing August 11. http://www.lacronica.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Noticias/31072014/869895-A-un-paso-de-ser-realidad-primer-boda-gay-en-SLRC.html

3. July, female applicants from San Luis, awarded amparo. Marry in August. https://cadenanoticias.mx/nota.php?cont=notas&nota=12773

4. 11 August, 2014 (happened on a Monday, article is dated 14th) 2nd case filed. San Luis Rio Colorado, female couple of 22 and 28, lawyer Álvaro Francisco Colosio Fernández http://www.diarionoticias.info/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=402:surge-nuevo-caso-de-matrimonio-gay&Itemid=102

5. September, constitutional hearing held. Lawyer Víctor Acosta Cid http://www.oem.com.mx/tribunadesanluis/notas/n3546060.htm

6. October, favorable ruling, lawyer Victor Acosta Cid, the Fifth District Court in Mexicali. Directorate General of Civil Registration and Administrative Office of the municipality of Luis B. Sanchez falls under the jurisdiction of San Luis. Another case of marriage between same sex by the attorney Alvaro Colosio could also win. http://www.oem.com.mx/lavozdelafrontera/notas/n3582574.htm

7. October 22, 2014, Fifth District Court, based in Mexicali, protected the couple of women, 25, and 26 years of age, who tried to marry in the municipality of Luis B. Sanchez in early May http://www.diarionoticias.info/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=959:juez-da-luz-verde-a-primer-boda-gay

8. 21 October, 2014 decision. May 26th complaint date. http://www.lacronica.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Sonora/23102014/901398-Logran-sentencia-para-matrimonio-gay.html

9. Fifteenth Circuit. Attorney Victor Acosta Cid. Hearing on Sept 17. http://www.lacronica.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Noticias/09092014/884209-Otra-pareja-homosexual-interesada-en-matrimonio-en-SLRC.html

10. Refused by Registry Office of Luis B. Sanchez, complaint filed in Fifteenth District. Acosta Victor Cid, the couple's lawyer, reported hearing on Sept. 17th. http://sanluisdigital.mx/2014/esperan-resolucion-de-matrimonio-gay-24399.html

11. Luz Carrillo of Matrimonios Igualitarios AC reported that 150 people will launch a collective injunction in Sonora in August. http://beta.uniradionoticias.com/noticias/Hermosillo/283693/buscan-150-parejas-contraer-matrimonio-igualitario.html

12. 10/24/2014 150 people prepare a collective amparo that is standing in the Civil Court in Hermosillo, Sonora. http://www.uniradionoticias.com/noticias/hermosillo/302679/celebra-comunidad-lesbica-sentencia-a-favor-de-pareja-de-slrc.html

So, #1 is SS recognition

First case of marriage 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (3 appears to have been speculative.) Time line applied early May Filed for injunction 26 May Hearing 17 September Ruling 21 or 22 October. 22nd seems more plausible only because article states was on a Wednesday which correlates with calendar date.

Second case 4 confirmed by 6

3rd case, cannot tell if collective amparo has already been filed or if it is still a proposal.

Veracruz:

1. Javier Darío Olivares García y Víctor Manuel Durán Sáenz first amparo

• Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma Tribal Code Civil Procedure, Chapter Eleven - Family Relations at § 1101. Recording of Marriages and Divorces

"All marriages and divorces including common law marriages, to which an Indian person is a party, whether consummated in accordance with the State law or in accordance with Tribal law or custom, shall be recorded in writing executed by both parties thereto within three (3) months at the office of the Clerk of the Tribal District Court in the marriage record and a copy thereof delivered to the Bureau of Indian Affairs agency of the jurisdiction in which either or both of the parties reside for the agency records." http://www.narf.org/nill/Codes/absentee-shawnee/civil_procedure_ch_11.html

• Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, (aka Anishinaabe, Chippewa and Ojibwe) has 6 component bands.

1) Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake) Cannot find any tribal codes for the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa 2) Fond du Lac Band The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Ordinance #04/10, as amended (16 July, 2014) Marriage, Domestic Partnership & Divorce at §301 recognize as valid and binding any marriage between two persons which is formalized or solemnized in compliance with the laws of the place where it was formalized. Chapter 4 recognizes the relationship of two non-married, committed adult partners who have declared themselves as domestic partners provided that it is registered. 3) Grand Portage Band The Grand Portage Band of Chippewa follow state law with regard to marriages as they "do not have jurisdiction over domestic relations" per the Grand Portgage Judicial Code §1.3.e 4) Leech Lake Band The Family Relations Code of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Title 5 Family Relations Code, Chapter 2 - Marriages establishes at §2.A that the tribe has jurisdiction over all marriages performed within its boundaries and over the marriages of all tribal members regardless of where they reside. §3 defines marriage as a civil contract between two parties who are capable of solemnizing and consenting to marriage. §2.D.2 Requires that the parties declare in the presence of two witnesses, who must sign the declaration, that they take each other as spouses. 5) Mille Lacs Band The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Annotated Statues (7 February, 2014) Title 8 - Children and Families do not address marriages. They provide regulations for protection of children. It may well be that they allowed the State of Minnesota to control marriage relations as the stated purpose of the Children and Families Act was to reestablish the tribal jurisdiction since the state had properly failed to provide for children in the manner the tribe wished. 6) White Earth Band The Family Relations Code of the White Earth Nation defines only marriages which are voidable. Those include per §3.1.a bigamous marriages, those entered into by minors, and those prohibited by degrees of consanguinity. §3.2 a marriage could be declared voidable if the party lacked capacity to consent, consummate the marriage, or was under age at the time it was entered into.

Harry J. W. Belvin

Harry J. W. Belvin
Choctaw leader
Personal details
Born	(1900-12-11)December 11, 1900 Boswell, Indian Territory
Died	September 19, 1986(1986-09-19) (aged 85) Durant, Oklahoma
Resting place	Highland Cemetery, Durant, Oklahoma
Spouse(s)	Lucille Brightwell (1903-1991)
Children	Louise Belvin Frazier
Known for	Principal Chief (1948 - 1975)

Harry J. W. Belvin
Member of the Oklahoma Senate from the 20th district
In office 1961–1965
Preceded by	Keith Cartwright
Succeeded by	Roy Grantham
Member of the Oklahoma State House of Representatives
In office 1955–1961
Preceded by	James E. Douglas
Succeeded by	Sam Sullivan
Personal details
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Residence	Bryan County, Oklahoma
Alma mater	University of Oklahoma
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Principal Chief of the Choctaw

Harry James Watson "Jimmy" Belvin was an educator and 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.

Early Life

Jimmy Belvin was born in Boswell Choctaw County, Indian Territory on December 11, 1900 to Watson J. and Mabel Powers Belvin. He was a direct descendant of the original Belvins who were forced over the Trail of Tears from Mississippi to Indian Territory. He attended school in Boswell and graduated from Southeastern Teachers College with a Bachelor of Science degree, going on to earn a Master's of Education at the University of Oklahoma which he completed in 1941.

Belvin taught school at Mayhew, Bryan County and in Choctaw County from 1923 until 1939. In 1941 he was elected Bryan County Superintendent of Public Instruction, a position he held until 1952. He then began operating a Hereford cattle ranch in Bryan and Choctaw counties.

After his first successful election in 1955, Belvin served three terms in the Oklahoma State House of Representatives representing Bryan County. In 1961, he began serving as an Oklahoma State Senator.

Choctaw Principal Chief

As early as 1946, support for Belvin becoming principal chief had been growing. William Durant had served since 1937, and was seen as having made little headway on selling the asphalt lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw. Belvin was, on the other hand was seen as an educated, galvanized leader who wanted to revitalize the tribe.

At issue were coal and asphalt lands of some 400,000 acres that were jointly owned by the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes. Based on a 1902 agreement, the US has agreed to purchase these lands within three years, but had still not done so.

Belvin was first elected as Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation in 1948. In fact, he was the first elected chief of any of the Five Civilized Tribes and of the Choctaw Nation in the 20th century. All chiefs of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma since the implementation of the Dawes Act had been appointed by the president upon recommendation from the BIA. Until the 1970s the only two exceptions to presidential appointment were that in 1948 and again in 1954, the Choctaw were allowed to elect their chief. Both times, they elected Belvin, though voting was limited to a fraction of the eligible enrollees. He believed so strongly in the right of the tribes to elect their own leadership, that he tried to persuade the Chickasaw to press for their own elections.

Termination

As part of the Indian termination policy pursued by the US government from the 1940s through the 1960s, a series of laws were passed to enable the government to end its trust relationships with native tribes. One of the first of these laws passed on 13 August, 1946 -- the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, Pub. L. No. 79-726, ch. 959. Its purpose was to settle for all time any outstanding grievances or claims the tribes might have against the U.S. for treaty breaches, unauthorized taking of land, dishonorable or unfair dealings, or inadequate compensation. Claims had to be filed within a five year period, and most of the 370 complaints that were submitted[26] were filed at the approach of the 5-year deadline in August, 1951. In 1946, the government had appropriated funds for the tribal sale of coal and asphalt resources. Though they won their case, they were charged almost 10% of the $8.5 million award in administrative fees.

When Belvin became chief in 1948, he realized that only federally recognized tribes were allowed to file a claim with the Commission. If he wanted to get that money back, his tribe needed to reorganize. He created a democratically elected tribal council and a constitution to re-establish a government, but his efforts were opposed by the Area Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Ultimately, the tribe was able to file a claim for around $750,000 with the Commission on a technicality in 1951. The suit was classified as a renewal of the 1944 case against the US Court of Claims, but that did not stop the antagonism between Belvin and the area BIA officials. The BIA had had management issues for decades. Poorly trained personnel, inefficiency, corruption, and lack of consistent policy plagued the organization almost from its founding. For Belvin, relief from BIA oversight of policies and funds seemed as if it might pave the way for the Choctaw to maintain their own traditional ways of operating and reform their own governing council.

Early on, it may also be that Belvin believed termination was what the tribe wanted. In a 1954 presentation to the Intertribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes, he told the chiefs of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole nations that the majority of Choctaw were not interested in tribal affairs and supported discontinuance of the tribe. After eleven years as Choctaw chief, Belvin persuaded Representative Carl Albert of Oklahoma to introduce federal legislation to begin terminating the Choctaw tribe. What Belvin proposed was relief from the paternalistic watch of the BIA, which allowed the tribe to choose their own chiefs and handle tribal business and assets without federal supervision. On 23 April, 1959, the BIA confirmed that H.R.2722, had been submitted to Congress at the request of the tribe, and would sell all remaining tribal assets, but would not effect any individual Choctaw earnings. It also provided for retention of 1/2 of all mineral rights which could be managed by a tribal corporation.

On 25 August 1959, Congress passed a bill to terminate the tribe, which was later called Belvin's law, as he was the main advocate behind it. Belvin created overwhelming support for termination among tribespeople through his promotion of the bill, describing the process and expected outcomes. What Belvin envisioned was that the high unemployment and poverty which existed in the nation, would be offset by the per capita payment that tribe members would received from liquidation of the tribal assets. Tribal members later interviewed said that Belvin never used the word "termination" for what he was describing, and many people were unaware he was proposing termination. In actuality, the provisions of the bill were intended to be a final disposition of all trust obligations and a final "dissolution of the tribal governments."

The original Act was to have expired in 1962, but was amended twice to allow more time to sell the tribal assets. As time wore on, Belvin realized that the bill severed the tribe members access to government loans and other services, including the tribal tax exemption. By 1967, he had asked Oklahoma Congressman Ed Edmondson to try to repeal the termination act. Belvin's views were not just contained in private letters. In a 1967 newspaper account, he stated that the tribe needed to determine whether to outright repeal the 1959 Choctaw Termination Act or whether they wanted to form a tribal corporation to manage tribal affairs without supervision of the federal government.

By the late 1960s public sentiment was changing as well. The Choctaw people had seen what termination could do to tribes, since they witnessed the process with four other tribes in Oklahoma: the Wyandotte Nation, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma, and Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma. In 1969, ten years after passage of the Choctaw termination bill and one year before the Choctaws were to be terminated, word spread throughout the tribe that Belvin's law was a termination bill. Outrage over the bill generated a feeling of betrayal, and tribal activists formed resistance groups opposing termination. Groups such as the Choctaw Youth Movement in the late 1960s fought politically against the termination law. They helped create a new sense of tribal pride, especially among younger generations. Their protest delayed termination; Congress finally repealed the law on 24 August, 1970.

Choctaw Youth Movement

As the 1960s emerged a growing sensitivity to minority rights was born, spurred by Supreme Court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education, Gideon v. Wainwright, Loving v. Virginia and legislation including the Voting Rights Act of 1957, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act if 1968. Into this turbulent time, a pan-Indian movement developed predominantly with the goals of having the US government return native lands, right social ills, and provide funds for cultural education. The Red Power Movement and American Indian Movement were both born out of this pan-Indian awakening, which was, at least in the beginning, an urban phenomenon, an awareness of ones "Indian-ness" and the similarities of tribal customs. In cities, cut off from the tribe, one still experienced things that bound them to other native people because of an innate oneness of tribal behavior and kinship of tradition.

In 1969, one year before the termination bill was scheduled to go into effect (officially 25 August, 1970) Jim Wade, son of Talihina's police chief, told Charles E. Brown, that the government was dissolving the Choctaw tribe. Alarmed, and believing that most Choctaw did not realize "Belvin's law" was a termination bill rather than a per capita payment bill, Brown began organizing other urban Choctaw, primarily in the Oklahoma City area. Going door to door and working kinship networks, young Choctaw activists spread the word that the termination bill needed to be stopped and urged people to take pride in their Choctaw heritage. By October, 1969, activists had secured the support of Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity (OIO) and from OIO they learned leadership training, how to recruit, and were introduced to contacts in the Red Power and AIM Movements.

Brown founded a group, with his primary organizers -- Ed Anderson, Floyd Anderson, Robert Anderson, Alfeas Bond, Darryl Brown, Bobbi Curnutt, Dorothy D’Amato, Carol Gardner, V.W. “Buster” Jefferson, Vivian Postoak and Carrie Preston -- called OKChoctaws, Inc., which initially was for Choctaw living in the OKC metro area. They printed a newsletter called Hello Choctaws which styled itself as the voice of the “average Choctaw,” and regularly questioned Belvin’s actions. “For over 20 years the AVERAGE CHOCTAW has not known how much of his tribal land was sold or how much it was sold for. Government ‘appointed’ people had the power to sell the AVERAGE CHOCTAW’S TRIBAL LANDS without the AVERAGE CHOCTAW even knowing that his lands were being sold or how much they were being sold for.” The group's growth was so rapid, they could not continue to meet in each other's homes and rented a space from the Creek Nation on 34th Street in Oklahoma City. They began sending Hello Choctaws to relatives and kin contacts in California, Chicago, Dallas and around the US. Soon chapters of OKChoctaws began springing up throughout the traditional towns in the Choctaw Nation: Antlers, Atoka, Bethel, Broken Bow, Hugo, Idabel, McAlester, and Talihina, as activists traveled there and spoke to young people. Within two years, what had begun as an urban initiative, saw a shift in power from OKC to the Choctaw Nation homelands as youth joined local organizations in large numbers and assumed leadership positions.

Activists made calls, sent telegrams, and wrote letters of protest. They lobbied Congress, writing to every single member, and met with the Oklahoma delegation and staff at the BIA office in Muskogee and Washington, DC. An anti-termination petition was circulated, collecting signatures through kin networks. When the Secretary of the Interior spoke at Will Rogers Park in Oklahoma City, several hundred Choctaw attend and let him know they did not want termination. They also used their networks with the OIO to gather groups of people for community activities, such as organizing discount bulk purchases with grocers in the form of buying clubs and educational activities to teach political activism. Belvin, though he was on the Board of Directors of the OIO, increasingly saw these activities as "militant" and a direct challenge to tribal authority.

It is hard to judge the effectiveness of the Choctaw Youth Movement in actually overturning the termination legislation. It is clear that they felt Belvin was in favor of termination and that he was a traitor to tribal objectives. It is equally clear that Belvin felt that activists were personally attacking him and that he scheduled meetings throughout the Choctaw Nation to justify his actions. Public sentiment was changing with the passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Supreme Court ruling in the Menominee Tribe v. United States decision and even President Lyndon B. Johnson advocating for policy which "ends the old debate about "termination" of Indian programs and stresses self-determination". Belvin had been speaking publicly and pressing legislators to overturn the legislation for at least 2 years and he was a proponent of tribes having the autonomy to elect their own leadership. In those goals, he and the youth activists were not far apart. Tellingly, one of their primary goals, after stopping termination, was the ability to elect their own tribal chief. Activists saw the BIA appointment of their leadership as an an infringement on their identity as a sovereign people.

Where Belvin and youth activists differed was that Belvin seemed to see the tribe as a simple corporate entity whose role was to manage tribal assets. Activists saw the tribe as a multifaceted organization which spurred community development and fostered Choctaw identity. What the movement did in unequivocal terms was foster pride in being Choctaw and brought about a rebirth in Choctaw nationalism.

Choctaw Nation Housing Authority

In the 1960s as part of the War on Poverty programs introduced by Lyndon Johnson, Belvin submitted an application to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD to create a tribal housing authority. He realized that Federal programs administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs were aimed primarily at reservation communities, and the unique status of Oklahoma tribes without extensive land bases meant that many programs designed for Indians did not benefit the Five Civilized Tribes. He further had become aware that programs which the BIA had offered for loans, had evaporated with the enactment of the termination bill. HUD denied Belvin's application based on various reasons, but included that the Choctaw were not policing tribal lands. In 1966, he then resubmitted the application under the requirements for a state agency, rather than a tribal authority and designated himself, as chief, with the powers vested in a mayor for the purposes of the Act. According to the state requirements, a 5 person board of commissioners was appointed to oversee the housing authority.

By 1971, 364 homes designed for low-income Indian families to purchase or rehabilitate housing and 116 units of low-rent housing had been finished, with an additional 274 homes under construction. By 1973, 885 houses had been completed and were occupied and an additional 331 were under construction.

Tribal Election of 1971

The BIA selected an election committee of eight Choctaws to determine who would be eligible to vote in the first free election since the Dawes Act. The committee decided "to permit all lineal descendants of Choctaw by blood Dawes enrollees to vote," which resulted in about 25% of the ballots being from absentee voters. Though Belvin won the election, it would be his last term as chief. His efforts at rebuilding the tribal structure were seen as insignificant and not aggressive enough, his failure to define membership procedures to admit unenrolled descendants of enrolled members, and his lack of planning to develop the tribe led to his defeat in 1975.

Awards

• 1959 dedicated as the Outstanding American Indian by the Anadarko Indian Exposition.
• 6 October, 1968 was proclaimed by the University of Oklahoma as "Chief Belvin Day" in honor of his service to Indian Education.

Personal Life

On December 21, 1922, in Boswell, Oklahoma, Belvin married Lucille Brightwell (25 June, 1903 - 24 August, 1991). They had one child, Louise Belvin Frazier. Belvin was an elder in the Presbyterian Church.

He died 19 September, 1986 in Bryan Memorial Hospital and was buried in Highland Cemetery, Durant, Oklahoma.