Here’s an interesting story that isn’t getting much play.
Friday, Sep. 09, 2011
Cherokees Expel Descendants of Slaves from Tribe
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS - Associated Press
Cherokees Expel Descendants of Slaves from Tribe
By The Associated Press
September 11, 2011, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/11/140379225/cherokees-expel-descendants-of-slaves-from-tribe?ft=1&f=1001
The Cherokee Nation fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War. Some Cherokees owned African slaves; the tribe did not. Some will remember that taking slaves was once a common practice amongst Native American tribes.
At the end of the war, Cherokees freed their slaves. An 1866 treaty between the tribe and the federal government gave the freedmen and their descendants "all the rights of native Cherokees."
In 2007 special vote was held and more than 76 percent of Cherokees voted to amend the Cherokee constitution and remove the slaves' descendants and other non-Indians from tribal rolls. The 300,000-member tribe is the biggest in Oklahoma, although many of its members live elsewhere, including the Carolinas. This week, the Cherokee Supreme Court upheld the results of that election.
The tribe has sent letters to 2,800 descendants of slaves once owned by members, revoking their citizenship and cutting their medical care, food stipends, low-income homeowners' assistance and other services. Those affected say it's a red man, black man issue just like it's a white man, black man issue, while the tribe says, “We don't care what you look like, as long as you've got Cherokee blood. It's about identity and self-governance.”
Some in Congress have called this discrimination and asked government agencies to cut off funding to the tribe – big surprise there. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development temporarily froze $33 million in funds while it studies the issue. I guess they aren’t an independent sovereign nation.
Anyway, a community on the dole has an internal community on the dole. Who knew?
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