Chickamauga chief: ‘The time for silence is over’ on Franklin County land dispute

Story by George “Clay” Mitchell, Fort Smith Southwest Times Record

3 min read

In a press conference at the Charleston Community Center on Oct. 9, Chickamauga Medal Chief Justin Flanagan stated that the tribe will continue to “uphold our rights” to the Franklin County land that the state wants to place a 3,000-bed prison. 

In his remarks, Flanagan cited two Supreme Court rulings to support the Chickamauga Nation’s position. Montana v. United States (1981) limited tribal jurisdiction over non-members but affirmed a tribe’s right to protect its political and economic integrity. McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020) reaffirmed that treaty lands remain in effect unless Congress explicitly disestablishes them.

Flanagan said those principles apply to the Chickamauga Nation, which he argued still holds treaty-based jurisdictional and resource rights in Arkansas that have never been revoked.

His statement comes as the Arkansas Department of Corrections moves the Franklin County project into the design phase, raising questions about how the state’s plans intersect with historical and cultural claims to the site.

“We want what was promised to us. Promises made by the United States’ presidents to our ancestors,” said Flanagan. “If the territory known as Arkansas claims statehood, then it is subject to federal treaties, which traded land in Arkansas to the Chickamauga. The governor has declined to acknowledge, communicate, or recognize us in any way, shape, or form. What’s happening on Mill Creek Mountain has shown that private builders for the colonial government would push until there’s nothing left of Native Americans. I have seen how the governor has shown no interest in the will of the people.”

Mill Creek Mountain is located near the Cecil community in northern Franklin County. It lacks a sustainable water source and is primarily composed of shale rock. There are also no current utilities or infrastructure other than a two-lane county road. 

Flanagan said the lack of communication extends beyond the governor’s office to local officials, including the county judge and sheriff, as well as elected state leaders.

“This has spurred our tribe into action for the disregard shown for our promised land, our sacred sites, the graves of our ancestors, and the encroachment on the habitat of our sacred bird, the bald eagle,” Flanagan said. “It has inspired us to push harder for federal servicing.”

While only federally recognized tribes have legal sovereignty and a government-to-government relationship with the United States, many other Native groups maintain continuous cultural and community identities without being on the federal list. Federal recognition primarily affects access to federal programs and political status — not authenticity. Some tribes hold state or historical recognition, while others function as heritage or descendant communities preserving language, ceremony, and ancestry. Lack of federal recognition does not erase their history or legitimacy. It reflects how the government defines sovereignty, not how Native peoples define themselves.

The governor’s office has maintained that the Chickamauga are not recognized by either the state or federal government. However, the tribe points to several treaties signed between its leaders and the United States government and the Arkansas Territory.

The Chickamauga were even mentioned in President George Washington’s fourth annual address to Congress on Nov. 6, 1792. Washington, like others of his era, misidentified the group as Cherokee because the Chickamauga spoke a dialect of the Cherokee trade language but were not part of that tribe.

“We’re normal Arkansans, like the Western Cherokee or the Old Settler Cherokee. The Chickamauga Nation, through treaties, promises, and traded lands in Arkansas, still retains jurisdictional rights, mineral, water, timber, and grazing interests, rail rights, which no treaty has ever disestablished in accordance with McGrit v. Oklahoma. We, the Chickamauga Nation, will not allow any person, entity, organization, corporation, tribe, or state to interfere with our economic or political integrity as outlined in Montana v. the United States. This serves as a notice that the Chickamauga intends to defend its federally guaranteed treaty, constitution, and civil rights. We have waited long enough. The time for silence is over.”

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Chickamauga chief: ‘The time for silence is over’ on Franklin County land dispute