The Philanthropist | Trustee | Tribal Government

Who Is Chief Mathias El?

(Press Release Format – Full Heritage Edition)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BIRTH:

• Gregorian Calendar: February 6, 1985
• Hebrew Calendar: 15 Shevat 5745 (Tu BiShvat – New Year of the Trees)

ORIGIN

Born in Detroit, Michigan — a city that became home to his family under the 1956 Indian Relocation Act — Chief Mathias El descends from Choctaw ancestors of Choctaw County, Alabama, with deep Southeastern U.S. roots extending into Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, and the Carolinas. These ancestral lands were traditionally home to cultures associated with the Mound Builders and their descendants, including connections to ancient Egyptian and Mayan civilizations, historically recognized as copper-colored people indigenous to America.

HERITAGE & HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The identity of Chief Mathias El and his family is deeply rooted in this cultural heritage. Early European explorers like Christopher Columbus and Américo Vespucci documented their encounters with the Indigenous peoples of these regions, using the term “Indian” based on Columbus’s mistaken belief that he had reached the Indies.

In the late 1800s, Ignatius Donnelly, in Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, posited that the pyramid builders of Mexico and the Mississippi Valley shared a common origin with the pyramid builders of Egypt, suggesting cultural and technological continuities. James Adair’s 1775 The History of the American Indians described these peoples as copper-colored, distinct from Africans, reinforcing the uniqueness of their identity.

Choctaw County, Alabama, remained a cultural homeland for Chief Mathias El’s family until the federal Indian Relocation Act of 1956 moved many, including his father and grandparents, to Detroit, where the community remains through four generations.

In 1978, a Supreme Court decision recognized Choctaw communities in Alabama and Mississippi as part of the federally recognized Choctaw people, based on findings by the American Indian Policy Review Commission (1977). This confirmed that even without land ownership, tribal remnants retain their inherent sovereignty and treaty rights.

TREATY RIGHTS & LEGAL CONTINUITY

Chief Mathias El’s leadership is grounded in the unbroken chain of treaty and legal recognition from the 19th century to present day:

• Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek (1830–31): First removal treaty under the Indian Removal Act; ceded Choctaw lands east of the Mississippi while preserving certain rights for those who remained.
• Treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw (1855): Resolved outstanding land claims and reaffirmed self-governance.
• McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020) & Sizemore v. Oklahoma (2021): U.S. Supreme Court and subsequent rulings confirmed that reservations and treaty rights remain intact unless Congress explicitly disestablishes them — a principle equally applicable to the Choctaw Nation and its descendants.

This treaty continuity affirms the Mathias El Tribe’s standing as a sovereign body with enforceable federal rights.

CURRENT CAPACITIES

• Chief, Mathias El Tribe
• Trustee, Mathias El Tribe Trust
• Chief Justice, Mathias El Tribe Supreme Court
• Director, Mathias El Tribe Medical Center
• Organizer, National Indigenous American Committee (NIAC / American Indian Party)
• Chairman, Confederation of the United Eastern Tribes (United Eastern Tribes)

SOVEREIGN SEAT

The Mathias El Tribe Trust — sometimes referred to in legal and administrative contexts as “The State of Mathias El” — holds land in trust for the benefit of the Tribe. This trust serves as the sovereign seat of the tribal government, operating under exclusive jurisdiction, preserving inherited sovereignty, and enforcing rights under treaty law and federal trust responsibility. The term “State of Mathias El” is a misnomer, reflecting the legal fiction often used in external records, but it is one and the same as the Tribe’s sovereign trust land.

MISSION & WORK

Through governance, legal advocacy, and cultural restoration, Chief Mathias El advances the principles of self-determination, economic sovereignty, and intertribal unity. His work spans healthcare initiatives, education programs, and political organization — including NIAC, founded February 10, 2022, as a 527 political entity dedicated to protecting tribal sovereignty nationwide.

GUIDING PRINCIPLE

“Whatever we do, it has to make sense.”

RECENT MILESTONES

(Expandable Section)

2025 –

• Established Self-Determination University (SDU) as a cultural and legal education platform for tribal self-governance.
• Assumed leadership as Chairman of the Confederation of the United Eastern Tribes (United Eastern Tribes) — a confederacy of groups, bands, families, and nations whose ancestors descend from the Southeastern Tribes (later known as the Five Civilized Tribes).
• Advanced landmark jurisdictional protections through the Mathias El Tribe Supreme Court.
• Expanded tribal healthcare initiatives under the Mathias El Tribe Medical Center, integrating mobile and telehealth access for tribal members.

2023 –

• Deposited land into the Mathias El Tribe Trust, establishing the sovereign seat of the tribal government.
• Founded the Mathias El Tribe Charitable Trust, a nonprofit grassroots advocacy initiative to benefit Indigenous communities, with a focus on sovereignty restoration, healthcare, and education.

2022 –

• Formally established the Mathias El Tribe Trust as the governing land and sovereignty trust for the Tribe.

2021 –

• Stepped into the role of Chief of the Mathias El Tribe, beginning a journey of leadership grounded in ancestral guidance, treaty law, and multi-role governance.

2020 and Earlier –

• Built the foundation for NIAC and early community advocacy efforts that would later shape the Tribe’s political, legal, and cultural strategies.

Sponsored by:  NATIONAL INDIGENOUS AMERICAN COMMITTEE (NIAC) / AMERICAN INDIAN PARTY