The decision to support or not support Formal State Recognition in Kentucky was a simple one among the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribal Council, no to formal state tribal recognition in Kentucky. It may surprise many who may read this that a state tribe would be against formal state recognition. The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians ARE NOT a "formal" state recognized tribe. We are "recognized" by the Kentucky State House of the Kentucky General Assembly. That's good enough for us, it gave us what we desired, true historical credibility.
Formal State Recognition is a very technical term that must be satisfied by certain criteria such as:
- Legislatively created criteria for state recognition
- A FUNDED governing body that would supervise the process and govern approved state tribes
- And legislation creating a formal recognition procedure (i.e. a vote by the Kentucky General Assembly)
So at this time: The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians, nor any of her delegates, will support, and or lobby for, any type of legislation that would create formal state tribal recognition UNLESS it met the criteria outlined above, which is likely NEVER to happen in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Furthermore: The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians will never support a streamlined process where the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission would serve as the approval mechanism and or the governing body of this process. This was not and will never be the intended legislative purview of the KNAHC.
The Executive Tribal Manager has notified Senate President Robert Stivers of our position and at this time the our position is solid and our decision made.
