Cherokkkee Indians kick out Black members

But they didn't kick out the white members.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ist-expelling-slave-descendants.html?ITO=1490

 

You have to prove blood ties within a certain number of generations in order to qualify for tribal affiliation (I know this because I'm like one generation beyond that), except for the black folks who were slaves and their descendants, so there aren't any completely white members of the tribe. However, I think this decision is bullsnot, and I am rather surprised, because the Cherokee have traditionally been very welcoming to black-descended tribal members.

I'd love to know what factors they are stating to justify this.

 

Many cherokees look white...the white looking ones aren't getting the boot.

 

They may look white, but they still have to qualify for tribal membership by proving...if I remember right, at least 1/16 or 1/8 Cherokee heritage. The black members of the tribe didn't have to do that, which was a good call on the part of the tribe. This new decision is baloney, and I'd really love to understand their thinking.

Times like this I miss my friend Shawl, who was a member of a NW tribe who had grown up on the rez and was very active in Indian affairs - she'd have been able to get me the "inside" information. She passed away about 6 or 7 years ago, very unexpectedly, and I miss her fiercely.

I just cannot comprehend what the Tribal Council was thinking :-(

 

Remember that convo you had with chicity about this?

 

Yep..

 

I am still not sure of the *why* they did this, but apparently in 2007 they voted to restrict membership to descendants of tribal members who were on the Dawes roll in 1902. It's a "colorblind" decision, in that black members of the tribe who had an ancestor on the Dawes roll are still tribal members. I was clearly incorrect about their requirement about percentage of blood - it's this Dawes roll which is the key.

It seems like they were trying to toss out anyone who couldnt fit that requirement. The majority of those were descendants of black freedmen who were once owned by Cherokees, and allowed into the tribe by those means. Apparently there were a couple of white members also eliminated from the rolls.

Here's what the Cherokee Nation lists on its website. Bear in mind there's clearly a bias here since this is what the Nation is saying about their actions:


Know the Truth: The Facts on Cherokee Citizenship

MYTH: You need to have a large degree of Cherokee blood to be eligible for citizenship.
FACT: The Cherokee Nation requires no blood quantum. To be considered a Cherokee citizen, you need one Indian ancestor listed on the 1906 federal census of our people, known as the Dawes Rolls. With that one Indian ancestor, a person is part of our Cherokee family regardless of what other heritage he or she might have. For eligibility information, please visit http://www.cherokee.org/Services/Registration/146/Default.aspx.

MYTH: The Cherokee Nation is kicking African-Americans out of the tribe.
FACT: The Cherokee Nation is among the most diverse of Indian tribes with thousands of citizens who share African, Latino, Asian, Caucasian and other ancestry, including more than 1,500 descendants of former slaves. All have at least one Indian ancestor on the Dawes Rolls. African-Americans with an Indian ancestor on the Dawes Rolls have been, and will continue to be, citizens of the Cherokee Nation. See for yourself -- watch a video of Cherokee Nation citizens.

MYTH: The March 2007 Cherokee Constitutional amendment election allowed adopted whites with no blood quantum listed on the Dawes Rolls to remain citizens.
FACT: First, the Cherokee Nation has no blood quantum requirement. To be a citizen, one must have a single Indian ancestor listed on the Dawes Rolls. Second, the Constitutional amendment affects the citizenship of all non-Indians who were granted citizenship rights under a 2006 tribal court ruling, regardless of their ethnic background. This means that, in addition to affecting 2,867 descendants of those who were originally enrolled as non-Indian Freedmen, the amendment also affected nine descendants of Intermarried Whites

MYTH: Non-Indians who have long been Cherokee citizens are now being “disenrolled.”
FACT: The March 2007 Constitutional amendment only affected certain people who were granted tribal citizenship under a 2006 tribal court ruling, which came down just one year before the amendment passed. This vote affirmed the people's passionate belief that you need one Indian ancestor listed on the base roll to be a Cherokee. Since the amendment's passage, in May 2007, Cherokee tribal courts temporarily reinstated those who had been affected by the amendment pending the outcome of the litigation over this issue.

MYTH: It is unfair to rely on the Dawes Rolls as the base roll of the Cherokees to prove Indian ancestry.
FACT: The Dawes Rolls are not perfect, but they are the best, most authoritative historical document we have to determine who our Indian ancestors were, going back 100 years.

The Truth About Our History

MYTH: The Freedmen and other non-Indians who were affected by the March 2007 Constitutional amendment had long been part of the Cherokee Nation.
FACT: The non-Indians who were affected by the March 2007 amendment became citizens only following a 2006 tribal court ruling. Since 1975, the Cherokee people have spoken several times that, to be a citizen, one must have one Indian ancestor listed on the Dawes Rolls.

MYTH: The Cherokee Nation is expelling all the descendants of their former slaves.
FACT: There are more than 1,500 descendants of former slaves who are Cherokee citizens today because they can find an Indian ancestor listed on the Dawes Rolls. The Cherokee Nation is offering free genealogical expertise to assist any descendant of Freedmen who wants to research whether they can find such an Indian ancestor and thus become a permanent citizen. That said, slavery was a grave injustice and a painful chapter in our nation's history, when 2% of Cherokees owned slaves. It should be noted, however, that the Cherokee Nation voluntarily freed these slaves in 1863.

MYTH: The Cherokee Nation has broken the Treaty of 1866.
FACT: The Cherokee Nation has fully honored its treaty obligations. Based on the history and the law, today's Freedmen descendants who cannot find an Indian ancestor on the Dawes Rolls have no right to Cherokee citizenship. Subsequent congressional action in 1902 closed the Cherokee rolls as of that year, limiting enrollment to those already born as of September 1, 1902. It was in 1975, with the new Cherokee Constitution, that the Nation sought to rejuvenate itself and once again define itself as a tribe made of Indians. Regardless of what anyone believes, federal and tribal courts are currently reviewing these issues.

The Truth About Legality

MYTH: The special election that the Cherokee Nation held on March 3, 2007 was illegal.
FACT: The election was legal, and not one complaint was filed in tribal court about its conduct. The Cherokee people cherish our democratic freedoms, and we paid dearly for them. These include the right to vote and to determine for ourselves the meaning of our Indian identity. The record turnout for this constitutional vote proved that Cherokee identity is an issue that is close to the heart of the Cherokee people.

MYTH: Voter turnout for the special election was extremely low.
FACT: More than 8,700 people voted, which was a higher turnout than the vote for the Cherokee Nation's Constitution in 2003.

The Truth About Our Motives

MYTH: Cherokees are motivated by racism to only want full-blooded Indians in the tribe.
FACT: This is a vicious lie. The Cherokee Nation welcomes every eligible Cherokee citizen regardless of his or her other racial heritage and embraces its thousands of citizens who share African, Latino, Asian, Caucasian, and other ancestry. Race has nothing to do with citizenship. If you have one Indian ancestor on the Dawes Rolls, you are eligible to be a Cherokee citizen.

MYTH: The Cherokee Nation wants to keep more gaming revenues for itself.
FACT: This issue has nothing to do with gaming revenues or other resources. The Cherokee Nation is one of the few Indian tribes that do not distribute gaming revenues to individuals. Instead, the money benefits the entire community beyond the Cherokees, as we invest gaming revenues in services like health care, education and public roads and bridges. Overall, this is about weaving together a great, multi-ethnic nation through one common thread – a shared connection to our Indian ancestors.

The Truth About the Political Context

MYTH: The March 2007 amendment was orchestrated by Cherokee Nation Chief Chad Smith and tribal leadership.
FACT: The amendment got on the ballot properly through a citizens petition with 3,000 signatures, according to tribal law. Cherokee Nation officials took no official position on either side of the vote, and the government never sought to influence anyone's vote. The Cherokee people exercised their cherished democratic right to determine for themselves the meaning of their Indian identity.


Next post deals with the timeline they've given

 

And here is what they present as a timeline for actions relating to the freedmen


Timeline


1975
In order to rejuvenate the Cherokee Nation following decades of U.S. policy to terminate Indian nations and to return to its roots as an Indian tribe made up of Indians, the Cherokee people approved a new Constitution defining citizenship as being open only to descendants of Indians who were original enrollees on the Dawes Rolls. The Cherokee people decided that in order to become a citizen, one must trace back to at least one lineal Indian ancestor (specifically, Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware) listed on this federally-mandated 1906 census. Descendants of original enrollees in non-Indian categories on the Dawes Rolls, (the Freedmen and Intermarried Whites categories) would not be eligible for citizenship.

1988
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rules in Nero v. Cherokee Nation that Cherokees could decide their own citizenship requirements and thus exclude Freedmen descendants. The facts involved with this case are similar to the more recent Vann v. Kempthorne case currently being litigated in U.S District and Appeals Courts in Washington, D.C.

2001
The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court rules that Freedmen descendants were properly excluded through the 1975 Constitution.

2003
The Cherokee people approve another Constitution knowing that the 2001 Cherokee Nation Supreme Court decision said that descendants of original enrollees under the Freedmen and Intermarried Whites categories of the Dawes Rolls would be excluded from citizenship in the 1975 Constitution. This leads to the filing of what has become known as the Vann v. Kempthorne case by six Freedmen descendants against the U.S. Department of the Interior in U.S. District Court in Washington , D.C.

March 2006
The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court rules in the Lucy Allen case that language in the 1975 and 2003 Constitutions was not clear enough to exclude descendants of original enrollees in non-Indian categories on the Dawes Rolls. To limit citizenship to descendants of Indians on the Dawes Rolls, the Court ruled that the language must be explicit.

The Cherokee Nation begins granting citizenship with full social services, including health care, education and housing assistance as well as the right to vote to descendants of Freedmen and Intermarried Whites.

2006
Three thousand Cherokee citizens sign a citizen-organized petition calling for a Cherokee people’s referendum on a new Constitutional amendment that, per the Allen decision, would explicitly limit citizenship in the Nation to descendants of Indians on the Dawes Rolls.

December 19, 2006
The U.S. District Court in the Vann litigation rules that the Cherokee Nation’s sovereign immunity has been abrogated and thus can be a defendant in the lawsuit. The Nation immediately appeals this decision to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

March 3, 2007
A constitutional amendment is approved by 77 percent of the vote. To be eligible for Cherokee citizenship under this amendment, one must trace lineage back to a Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware ancestor on the Dawes Rolls. Citizenship is colorblind and has nothing to do with race; rather eligibility for membership is based on whether one is an Indian as defined by this requirement.

As a result, 2,867 Freedmen descendants and 9 Intermarried Whites descendants who had become citizens since March 2006 (after the Lucy Allen decision) are disenrolled after being citizens for less than one year.

May 14, 2007
Since the amendment’s passage, more than 300 disenrolled Freedmen descendants file challenges to the March 2007 amendment in Cherokee Nation District Court. The tribal court issues an order reinstating the 2,867 Freedmen descendants and 9 Intermarried Whites descendants to citizenship with full social services assistance and the right to vote through the duration of the litigation. Proposed by the plaintiffs, the order had the full support of the Cherokee Nation Attorney General.

May 17, 2007
The Cherokee Nation District Court issues an additional order specifically reopening voter registration for the Freedmen descendants who were reinstated pending the outcome of the litigation.

June 23, 2007
The Cherokee Nation holds its June General Election for Principal Chief, Deputy Chief and Tribal Council officers. Previously, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) approved the Nation’s election procedures. Registered Freedmen descendants vote in the election. A new Constitutional amendment revoking federal government oversight of Cherokee Nation Constitutional amendments is approved by 67 percent and later approved by the BIA.

June-September 2007
Despite the fact that litigation over the Freedmen descendants’ citizenship status continues in tribal and federal courts (both U.S. District and Appeals Courts in Washington, D.C.), members of the House introduce a bill to terminate the Cherokee Nation and cut all its federal funding (H.R. 2824) as well as an amendment prohibiting federal housing funds assistance until and unless the Nation permanently reinstates the Freedmen descendants and extends citizenship for this group’s own living descendants (attached to H.R. 2786). In FY 2008 alone, that amounted to $300 million in federal funding overall. Oklahoma Congressman Dan Boren attaches a measure to prohibit H.R. 2786’s funding cut until the tribal court resolves the litigation.

February 2008
The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. stays the Vann litigation at the trial level until the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decides the appeal of the December 2006 opinion that first captured the Nation in the Vann litigation.

May 6, 2008
Oral arguments were held in the Vann case at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

 

If blacks are smart they would stop going to those damn casinos and start their own in competition with them because they are indians and should qualify for the same benefits. They should go to the government , prove it and get the same shit and start their own gaming shit. fuck em. hell I saw do the same for the descendents of african american slaves. they will not do it because the whites cant benefit from it. look at the ones who are getting the indian shit. now they want to squeeze the blacks out of the same reperations ..excuse me . I cant say reperations when it comes to the indians versus blacks huh.

 

The Cherokee Nation reason for kicking out the decendents of Black Slaves in their Rez is a lot of shyt. That Nation should either pay those people a whole lot of money or face rejection which in the later I will not hold my breath.

 

I'm still SMDH because they've traditionally been a very welcoming tribe. I can't figure out what happened to change that.

It's just wrong.