Tribe revokes freed slaves' membership

[Stray Pooch]

OKLAHOMA CITY - Cherokee Nation members voted Saturday to revoke the tribal citizenship of an estimated 2,800 descendants of the people the Cherokee once owned as slaves

With all 32 precincts reporting, 76.6 percent had voted in favor of an amendment to the tribal constitution that would limit citizenship to descendants of "by blood" tribe members as listed on the federal Dawes Commission's rolls from more than 100 years ago.

The commission, set up by a Congress bent on breaking up Indians' collective lands and parceling them out to tribal citizens, drew up two rolls, one listing Cherokees by blood and the other listing freedmen, a roll of blacks regardless of whether they had Indian blood.

Some opponents of the ballot question argued that attempts to remove freedmen from the tribe were motivated by racism.

"I'm very disappointed that people bought into a lot of rhetoric and falsehoods by tribal leaders," said Marilyn Vann, president of the Oklahoma City-based Descendants of Freedmen of Five Civilized Tribes.

Tribal officials said the vote was a matter of self-determination.

"The Cherokee people exercised the most basic democratic right, the right to vote," tribal Principal Chief Chad Smith said. "Their voice is clear as to who should be citizens of the Cherokee Nation. No one else has the right to make that determination.'

Smith said turnout — more than 8,700 — was higher than turnout for the tribal vote on the Cherokee Nation constitution four years ago.

"On lots of issues, when they go to identity, they become things that people pay attention to," Smith said.

The petition drive for the ballot measure followed a March 2006 ruling by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court that said an 1866 treaty assured freedmen descendants of tribal citizenship. Since then, more than 2,000 freedmen descendants have enrolled as citizens of the tribe.

Court challenges by freedmen descendants seeking to stop the election were denied, but a federal judge left open the possibility that the case could be refiled if Cherokees voted to lift their membership rights.

Tribal spokesman Mike Miller said the period to protest the election lasts until March 12 and Cherokee courts are the proper venue for a challenge.

Vann promised a protest within the next week. "We don't accept this fraudulent election," Vann said.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070304/ap_on_re_us/cherokees_freedmen_vote

[Plane]

Is tribe, a racial concept?

[hnumpah]

Is tribe, a racial concept?

Of course it is. Tribalism is the ultimate expression of the concept, 'us against them', 'them', of course, being everyone who is not a member of the tribe.

[Plane]

Is tribe, a racial concept?

Of course it is. Tribalism is the ultimate expression of the concept, 'us against them', 'them', of course, being everyone who is not a member of the tribe.

Some tribes in history have been willing to adopt , inculateing the adoptee with tribal culture and makeing the tribe a cultureal concept.

I see a good case to make for both , I am not the Pict my ancestors were .

[The_Professor]

When I was an executive in the Federal Government, there was a move toward only allowing non-white managers. We were told, unofficially, to "find an Indian tribe" and get inducted so you could get a CDIB (Certificate for the Declaration of Indian Birth). Once you did this, you were then a non-white and a "protected class". Several of my peers did just this. They located basically impoverished tribes, paid an "orientation fee" and were then inducted into the tribe. The total cost ranged from $1500-5000. Richer tribes like the Cherokees (read: casinos) were not considered as they have more stringent requirements.

[Plane]

When I was an executive in the Federal Government, there was a move toward only allowing non-white managers. We were told, unofficially, to "find an Indian tribe" and get inducted so you could get a CDIB (Certificate for the Declaration of Indian Birth). Once you did this, you were then a non-white and a "protected class". Several of my peers did just this. They located basically impoverished tribes, paid an "orientation fee" and were then inducted into the tribe. The total cost ranged from $1500-5000. Richer tribes like the Cherokees (read: casinos) were not considered as they have more stringent requirements.

This ( and that being Indian is kinda cool ) explains the phenominal growth of the Wannabe tribe.

[kimba1]

can i become one if marry an indian?

[The_Professor]

Go for it! 

[Lanya]

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/03/more-on-expulsion-of-cherokee-freedmen.html

I saw your blog about the Cherokee Nation vote. Thanks for writing what you did. I enjoyed reading it, and I'm glad people are noticing what's going on and beginning to talk about it.

I do want to say, however, that I think the issue is being slightly misconstrued by the national media. The financial motivations are, I think, mostly red herrings. There is a perception among portions of the American public, which seems to color a lot of the media commentary (whether because they believe it or themselves or are simply not understanding the incorrect assumptions coloring some of the opinions they report, I do not know) that because gaming revenues have made some Indian tribes rich that they are, by extension, making individual members of Indian tribes wealthy also. In almost every case, this assumption is not correct.
[..............]
[The poster goes on to give  his opinion.]

[Xavier_Onassis]

The old tale that Reagan used to tell about all the Oklahoma Indians that became oil millionaires was a a cliché from some old film they made in Hollywood. The number of Indian oil millionaires was exceedingly small.

The Miami Herald claims that the Seminoles and the Mikosukee here are making out like bandits.

Of course, casinos are a form of banditry...

[Stray Pooch]

Reading the Cherokee Phoenix online (at the Cherokee Nation website which, I believe, is www.cherokeenation.org , there is some interesting debate going on.  According to the lawyers for the descendants of freedmen and intermarried whites, the Cherokee Nation was reestablished as a sovereign nation in 1866 by treaty.  That treaty specified that former slaves (of the Cherokee, who held many) and intermarried whites must be given national citizenship (in the Cherokee Nation, that is).    So this ruling may well violate that treaty.  The Supreme Court of the CN has apparently refused to stop execution of the order, though they may still hear the case.  The CN argues that nobody but the people of the Nation has the right to determine who will be a member.  That's pretty hard to argue with. 

Incidentally, by odd coincidence I am currently reading an excellent novel by Charles Frazier (Of "Cold Mountain" fame) entitled "Thirteen Moons" which tells a fictionalized account of the trail of tears and the disintegration of the CN in the south.  Great read.