Brett Chapman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 1983 (age 42) Oklahoma |
| Education | University of Oklahoma (BS) University of Tulsa (JD) |
| Occupation | Attorney |
| Years active | 2010–present |
| Known for | Native American advocacy |
| Website | brettachapman.com |
Brett Chapman (Oklahoma, 1983) is an American attorney, a direct lineal descendant ofChief White Eagle (1840 - 1914),[1] and a public figure who frequently is interviewed and speaks on Native American civil rights andself-determination.
Chapman was born and raised in Oklahoma and is ofPonca,Pawnee, andKiowa heritage.[2] He is a direct lineal descendant of Chief White Eagle,[3] "the celebrated chief of the Ponca tribe of Plains Indians, known for his vocal objection to the confinement of his people on reservations and his role in the subsequent ruling for equality for the Indian people in the 1870s."[4] White Eagle was hereditary chief during thePonca Trail of Tears in 1877.[5] This forced removal killed over 300 people.[6] Among the dead were White Eagle's wife and four of his children.[7] Also dead was White Eagle's father Chief Iron Whip who signed the broken treaty with PresidentAbraham Lincoln in 1865 and was the first Native American in a presidential inaugural parade at theSecond inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.[8]
White Eagle andStanding Bear fought the United States for the freedom to leave the confinements of their reservation in the Indian Territory and return to their ancestral lands in Nebraska. In the landmark 1879 civil rights caseStanding Bear v. Crook, the Ponca became the first Native Americans to be legally recognized as "persons" under the meaning of the law and granted civil rights under the Constitution. The controversy over the Ponca Trail of Tears[9] also forced PresidentRutherford B. Hayes to endAndrew Jackson's fifty year old policy ofIndian removal that began in 1830 with Jackson's now controversialIndian Removal Act.[10][11] White Eagle was credited for being responsible for the change in government policy.[12]
Chapman attended a public school in rural Oklahoma and earned his bachelor's degree at theUniversity of Oklahoma in 2007 and his J.D. degree at theUniversity of Tulsa College of Law in 2010.
Chapman began his career as an Assistant District Attorney in Oklahoma and prosecuted homicides, violence against women, and crimes against children.[13][14] In 2012, the Oklahoma rape crisis center Help in Crisis presented Chapman with the Mark Keeley Award for Most Outstanding Male Domestic Violence Advocate by an Oklahoma for championing the cause against violence in Eastern Oklahoma. In 2015, Chapman prosecuted two cases that resulted in published law in Oklahoma's highest appellate court. In the first, Chapman led an appeal that made Oklahoma law regarding when police officers may make arrests or conduct temporary detentions based on information provided byanonymous informants inState v. Alba, 341 F.3d 91, 401 (Okla. Crim. App 2015). On the appeal of the second case, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the constitutionality of a 2010 Oklahoma law that creates a zone of safety around certain locations frequented by children such as schools, childcare facilities, playgrounds, and parks by restricting registered sex offenders from being within 500 feet of those locations.Weeks v. State, 362 P.3d 650 (Okla. Crim. App. 2015).
Chapman later moved into civil practice where he represented railroad companies and now maintains a practice in Tulsa focused on criminal defense and civil rights litigation.[15]
Chapman is also a public advocate for Native Americans on the issues ofsovereignty,[16] theNative American mascot controversy, and the proper representation of Native Americans in both a historical and contemporary context.[17] He was interviewed by The Daily Oklahoman about the significance of the placement of a bronze statue of Chief Standing Bear in theNational Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol, as a central figure in Standing Bear v. Crook (1879)[18] for which Native Americans were recognized as persons with equal rights as other Americans.[19] Chapman stated in a December 2019 public radiointerview byPRI The World that Turkish presidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan was appropriating Native American history after Erdogan made a public statement that he would formally recognize Native American genocide in retaliation for the U.S. Senate recognition of the 1915Armenian genocide.[20]
In 2018, Chapman led the effort to retire a Native American mascot atMaine West High School inDes Plaines, Illinois after seeing an image of a student wearing aChief Illiniwek costume performing a leaping dance at a high school assembly. Chapman discovered that administrators at Maine West had been claiming for years to have the endorsement of theCherokee Nation to use the Native American imagery.[21] After verifying that no such endorsement ever existed, he contacted a journalist at theChicago Tribune, setting off social media chain reaction that brought Maine West into the long-running national debate overcultural appropriation.[22] TheTribune ran the story on the front page of the April 6, 2018 edition with Chapman saying the mascot "trades on stereotypical images to serve as entertainment." Chapman said this particular case was especially egregious because "these educators claim to have some moral authority from a nation, from a legally recognized tribe" to use the imagery, which he called "complete malarkey."[23] Maine West's Native American student population—though a small percentage of the overall population—backed the effort to remove the mascot and reached out to Chapman, providing him with other examples of offensive imagery from inside the school such as murals and totem poles by April 10. Chapman told reporters that "continuing to sanction the dance would be akin to the school choosing to honor a tradition of mockery over its students."[24] The controversy continued for the next three weeks until Maine West announced the retirement of the Native American mascot and imagery on May 1, 2018. Many in favour of keeping the mascot expressed dismay, saying the decision was "really disheartening" while others accused detractors of "wiping away history."[25] Chapman told theTribune, "I commend the local administration for taking action very quickly" after administrators said their decision to make a change was in keeping with "the broader cultural shift" over Native American-themed mascots. On June 19, 2019, theJournal & Topics reported that all signs of Native American-themed imagery at Maine West was "fading away" in an article that included a photograph of a worker painting over a large Native American mural inside the school.[26]
In 2019, Chapman advocated against the controversialLife of Washington mural byVictor Arnautoff in San Francisco and applauded the June 2019 decision to paint over offensive imagery ofGeorge Washington and American settlers stepping over the dead body of a Native American.[27][28]
In 2019, Chapman met with thePresident of CataloniaQuim Torra in Washington during the European leader's official visit to the United States.[note 1] Torra, Chapman, and linguistJosep Alay discussed mutual issues facing Native Americans andCatalonia includinglanguage revitalization,cultural identity,human rights, and Catalonia's non-violent movement todetermine its own future as a unique people in Europe.[30] Chapman also requested that the Government of Catalonia denounce allCatalan-speaking colonizers who participated in Spanish abuses during theSpanish colonization of the Americas. Afterward, Torra tweeted "Catalans always stand by the rights of Native American Nations,"[31] and on April 29, 2019 theGovernment of Catalonia issued a condemnation of "the abuses committed against the populations and original peoples of the Americas" during European colonization, saying it "deplored" the role played by Catalan slave-traders.[32]
On November 28, 2018, Chapman led Native American criticism of Spanish foreign ministerJosep Borrell after he claimed the United States "only had to kill four Indians" to achieve independence and national unity. According to European media, "After quoting what he describes as a 'shocking idiocy,' Chapman asked 'what's the matter with this man?'" andCarles Puigdemont — the former President of Catalonia now in exile following the2017 Catalan independence referendum — responded to Chapman, saying"'what's the matter with this man?' is exactly the same question most Catalans ask themselves."[33] In an interview with Barcelona media, Chapman said Borrell's comments exhibited "pure ignorance" and pointed to Spain's historical treatment of Native Americans saying, "Borrell should know that Spain killed a lot more people than four Indians."[34] The following day, Spanish Foreign Minister Borrell issued an apology to Native Americans — in English.[note 2]
Chapman criticizes unfair or historically inaccurate portrayals of Native Americans in popular culture, including in 2019 criticism of historianDavid McCollough following the release of his bookThe Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West. Chapman told the Associated Press that McCullough merely repeated the same stereotypes to justify stealing Native American land that the pioneers did when they stole it.[36]
Chapman advocates for Native Americans in the national debate over the removal of statues, memorials and murals.[37] Chapman points to the 2018 decision by the Republican-controlledNebraska Legislature to remove a statue of a white male (William Jennings Bryan) from theNational Statuary Hall Collection at theUnited States Capitol in favor of fellow Ponca Chief Standing Bear as setting the standard in representing Native Americans in the proper light, saying the non-partisan decision to honor a significant event in American history "will help spread the story and better help all Americans to understand our story."[3]
He advocates changing Columbus Day toNative American Day orIndigenous Peoples' Day. In 2018, the Republican-controlledOklahoma Legislature passed a law changing the name of Columbus Day to Native American Day; however, former Oklahoma governorMary Fallin vetoed that legislation[38] claiming that "combining a new Native American Day designation with the current Columbus Day holiday could be viewed as an intentional attempt to diminish the long-standing support of November being proclaimed annually as Native American Heritage Month." Chapman said Fallin's veto of a nonpartisan bill "defied logic" and was a slap in the face to Native Americans in Oklahoma to deny them a day to commemorate their unique history.[39]
In 2019, thePhiladelphia Inquirer interviewed Chapman for aMemorial Day article about 2nd Lt. Benjamin Hodgson, an officer with the 7th Cavalry buried inPhiladelphia. Hodgson died at theBattle of the Little Bighorn alongsideGeorge Armstrong Custer in 1876. Chapman was asked whether Americans should honor soldiers who fought not in defense of country, but to dispossess native peoples of their land and their lives. Chapman responded, "I don't think American soldiers who oppressed Native Americans should be honored, any more than Confederate soldiers should be honored for defending slavery. The excuse that American soldiers were just following orders during theIndian Wars is an excuse that is no longer acceptable. They knew what they were doing." Chapman proposed that any such memorial should feature an explanatory plaque to offer a native perspective on any American soldier involved in the Indian Wars: "They largely believed in the mission, which was fully rooted in white supremacism, as that was the foundation of theIndian policy of the United States. A full and fair understanding of history will help Americans understand Native Americans."[40]
My name is Brett Chapman. I'm a member of the Pawnee tribe and I also am Ponca and Kiowa.
'It is not only significant in Nebraska but also here in Oklahoma,' said Tulsa attorney Brett Chapman, the great-great-grandson of Ponca Chief White Eagle
Now this mistake has already cost the lives of over 300 innocent people
White Eagle was asked about his own family losses. He said that it was July when his wife died. A few weeks later one of his children died, three weeks after that another died, then another, and since then his fourth and last child died. He said he was himself self sick with chills
When he took office in 1877, Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes knew little about the forced relocation of the Indian tribes in the United States, but with new knowledge gained from the plight of the Poncas, Hayes ended the policy of removal before leaving office
The Poncas are the owners of a reservation of 96,000 acres in Dakota. They have been taken from it to the Indian Territory under a policy, now abandoned, of forcing the northern tribes into that Territory.
White Eagle, Responsible for Change in Government Policy, is Dead — The white man had his turn at coveting the lands of the poor Poncas, and they were removed by the government, much against their will, to Oklahoma. White Eagle went to Washington and made his protest in language which at the time aroused the sympathy of a large proportion of the American people — of all who were not selfishly interested in cheating the Indians in trade and robbing them of their lands. He went back to his people, and had been well-nigh forgotten, but his appeal had an effect which has been felt to this day. Public sentiment had been aroused, and the government entered upon a new policy in its treatment of the Indian problem
Last January, the Catalan president, Quim Torra, was photographed in Washington with a lawyer defending the rights of Native Americans, Brett A. Chapman, who tweeted that both had spoken of revitalization of the language, of "cultural identity, rights human beings and the non-violent movement of Catalonia to determine its own future as a unique people in Europe