March 5, 2007

ONE DROP OF BLOOD:

Cherokees accused of racist plot as sons of slaves are cast out (Tim Reid, 3/05/07, Times of London)

Cherokees voted yesterday to expel descendants of black slaves they once owned, a move that has exposed the unsavoury role played by some Native Americans during the Civil War and renewed accusations of racism against the tribe.

Members of the Cherokee Nation, the second largest Native American tribe, voted by 77 per cent to 23 in a special election to amend their constitution and limit citizenship to those listed as "Cherokee by blood".

The move stripped tribal membership from freedmen - those descended from slaves - and blacks who were married to Cherokees. They have enjoyed full citizenship rights for 141 years.

Opponents of the vote denounced it as a racist plot to deny tribal revenue - which includes $22 billion a year from casino takings for all US tribes - to those not deemed full-blood Cherokee, and to block them from claiming a slice of the tribal pie.


Allowing them to remain tribalized did them no favors.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 5, 2007 8:06 AM
Comments

So the un-American concept of genetics as the test of folk and not-folk comes back to bite its strongest proponents. You know what Malcolm X said about chickens.

To decide how fair the Cherokee decision might be we would need to know how Cherokee custom and tribal law treated the freedman in the past. Had they been treated as tribal members in the days before they was a buck to be made from it?

Posted by: Lou Gots at March 5, 2007 12:00 PM

What does being the son of slaves have to do with being a Cherokee tribe member?

Posted by: erp at March 5, 2007 1:13 PM

erp
The Cherokee were big slaveholders. After the war the US Congress said that the freedmen (former slaves) would have to be allowed to live on the Cherokee Indian reservation.

Posted by: h-man at March 5, 2007 2:15 PM

That still doesn't make them tribe members.

Posted by: erp at March 5, 2007 6:54 PM

That still doesn't make them tribe members.

Posted by: erp at March 5, 2007 6:55 PM

The Cherokee aren't the only tribe doing this. Some tribes have excluded families (and descendants of families who lost out in tribal leadership years ago). The tribes are getting bolder because they believe their sovereignty will keep these cases out of federal court. It might, but Congress can change their sovereignty in 5 minutes, if it so desired. Which is one reason why Jack Abramoff was tied into casino money, and why Harry Reid and Byron Dorgan (along with Feinstein) have connections they want to keep quiet.

The race-based law being considered for Hawaii is akin to this madness. It is all being driven by money, and the governmental Left likes the easy money of casinos and Hawaiian real estate, especially when it can be controlled by just a privileged few.

Posted by: ratbert at March 5, 2007 11:57 PM
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