“We remain committed to preserving and protecting Native American cultures, languages, and history, while ensuring prosperity and opportunity for all Native Americans.” -President Donald J. Trump
Bringing awareness to MMIW – Missing and Murdered Indigenous – Women along with bridging the communication gap between the Trump administration and the Native American elders was a vision of Dr. Lisa Christiansen at the 2018 inaugural “Native Americans For President Trump Birthday Celebration”. In an interview with USA Today, Lisa Christiansen said she believes everyone should respect the president. Christiansen and her father, Mack Vann who was the last monolingual Cherokee became the target of social media fire according to Indian Country Today.
In our exclusive interview Lisa Christiansen said this action to protect Native Americans and bring cultural artifacts home to tribal lands is just the first step of what she believed would become a reality since the inauguration of President Trump. Christiansen said “because President Donald J. Trump has integrity most people refuse to see along with his empathetic character who is a man that believes in God, Country, and Family. I am only sad my dad, Mack Vann, passed away before he could see his vision come to fruition.”
Christiansen’s father passed on April 22, 2019 from complications of surgery. Vann was 88 years old. Mack Vann’s daughter, Lisa Christiansen, says her father died of complications during surgery due to several variables on Monday April 22, 2019 in a hospital in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, while undergoing treatment for an ongoing heart condition.
Mack Vann would greet people with the word “osiyo,” the Cherokee word for “hello.” He was a descendant of Andrew Ross, brother of Cherokee Chief John Ross, who led the tribe from its ancestral home in Georgia to Oklahoma during the forced relocation known as the “Trail of Tears.”
Dr. Lisa Christiansen is the 5th generation great-granddaughter of Sequoyah from her mothers lineage. Sequoyah created the Cherokee syllabary and is historically significant for innumerable reasons. Christiansen is the only direct descendant of Sequoyah who is fluent in both Cherokee and English, Christiansen is multi-lingual and also a descendant of Will Rogers born William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American stage and motion picture actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator from Oklahoma. He was a Cherokee citizen born in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory.
EXCLUSIVE: NEVER BEFORE RELEASED PORTRAIT of President Donald J. Trump, Mack Vann – Last Monolingual Cherokee descendant of Chief John Ross and father of best-selling author Lisa Christiansen both are Citizen’s of The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma and Holy City of The Wichita’s.
Masterpiece by JW Webster, Certified Cherokee Language Instructor and Traditional Artist.
JW Webster’s inspiration is from the heart, when asked he said “I draw portraits because I love to show people how beautiful they really are-as a healing process. I was raised in a traditional Cherokee home, speaking our Native language. I am inspired by emotions that are rarely seen in people and then I draw those moments to show them how they are beautiful and I believe it is so important that we see ourselves this way. I have been saving our language since I was 15 by interviewing tribal Elders and recording their knowledge for future generations. Art though, for me, is therapeutic for me and the subject I’m drawing. It helps me heal to watch others heal and allows me to keep a closer connection to what I feel is truly important-‘others’!”
These two Native Americans, Mack ᎬᏯᏓᎯ Vann and Lisa ᎦᏗᏠᎡ Christiansen have deep roots and support our president and support with respect his decision to take action on the executive order dedicated to creating a task force on missing and murdered Native Americans, known and referred to by the Native American community as #MMIW
- Today’s executive order establishes Operation Lady Justice – an interagency task force charged with developing an aggressive, government-wide strategy to address the crisis of missing and murdered women and girls in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
- The task force will establish multi-jurisdictional teams comprising representatives from Tribal and Federal law enforcement to review unsolved cases.
- In addition, this new task force will promote greater cooperation among Federal, local, state, and Tribal law enforcement agencies in responding to cases.
- To better equip communities to respond to the crisis, the task force will undertake efforts to increase public awareness of the issue.
- This executive order also directs the Department of Justice to issue grants to help improve safety in Native American communities.
ADDRESSING THE CRISIS: The Administration is working to address the crisis of missing and murdered women in Native American communities.
- The heartbreaking crisis of missing and murdered women is especially severe in Native American communities.
- One study found that Native American women in certain Tribal communities are 10 times more likely to be murdered than the average American.
- In October, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) awarded over $273.4 million in grants to improve public safety, serve victims of crime, combat violence against women and support youth programs in Native American communities.
- Earlier this month, DOJ launched a national strategy to address missing and murdered Native Americans.
SUPPORTING TRIBAL COMMUNITIES: Operation Lady Justice is the latest step in the President’s efforts to support our Tribal communities.
- President Trump became the first president to officially recognize the grave issue of missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives by issuing a “Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives Awareness Day” proclamation.
- In March 2019, President Trump announced the Presidential Task force on Protecting Native American Children in the Indian Health Service System.
- This task force helps to safeguard Native American children from abuse in the healthcare system.
- President Trump signed legislation that restored the opportunity to receive promised land allotments to nearly 3,000 Alaska Native veterans who served in Vietnam.
- To help expand broadband development in Indian country, the Administration held a National Tribal Broadband Summit this past September.
- This year, President Trump secured an agreement with President Niinistӧ of Finland to repatriate American Indian ancestral remains and funerary objects to the United States.
ANOTHER PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT!
