Speaker offers apology to Cherokee chief

By Mick Hinton
Tulsa World

OKLAHOMA CITY — The speaker of the House said Thursday that he has apologized to the chief of the Cherokee Nation, who was prohibited from speaking about a bill to make English the state’s official language.

Speaker Chris Benge, himself a member of the Cherokee tribe, expressed concern that Chief Chad Smith did not get a chance to speak before the bill was approved Wednesday by the House General Government and Transportation Committee.

“I did express to the chief that it was unfortunate he was not able to give his opinion,” Benge said.

Committee Chairman Guy Liebmann, R-Oklahoma City, declared Wednesday that a committee meeting where Senate Bill 163 was heard did not constitute a “public meeting.”

Rep. Mike Brown, D-Tahlequah, asked Liebmann, “You will not allow the chief of the Cherokee Nation to speak?”
Liebmann replied “No,” noting neither side of the issue was being allowed to speak.

House sergeants had folded back partitions from two adjoining committee rooms to allow the crowd to view the proceedings. Liebmann said later he prohibited comment in an effort to keep control.

The bill by Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, would strike down current state law allowing written tests for a driver’s license to be administered in Spanish. State agencies also would be permitted to provide telephone services only in English, he said.

He stressed that the bill would make an exception for American Indian tribes and do nothing to prohibit them from speaking their languages.

Terrill said the bill would align state government “with what should be our federal government’s policy for all immigrants, and that’s one of assimilation.”

Then the chief interrupted the meeting, seeking to be allowed to speak.

Smith said later that he wanted to tell the lawmakers that “the Cherokee people have fought for centuries not to be forcibly assimilated.”

At one point, Liebmann said to the chief: “If you don’t be quiet, I’m going to have to call somebody to put you out. I’m sorry.”

Benge said that Liebmann did have the discretion of prohibiting public comment, but “I’d err on the side of making (committee meetings) as public as possible.”

On Thursday, the chief said that when his father attended a federal government board ing school, he and his siblings’ mouths were washed out with soap for speaking Cherokee on the playground.

He said basically everyone who came to Oklahoma after 1907 was an immigrant.

The committee approved the bill calling for a vote of the people on a constitutional amendment requiring that all official state government business be conducted in English. It now moves to consideration in the full House.