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Cherokee Tribe Asserts Right To Expel Blacks

The Cherokee Tribe is in an interesting confrontation with the federal government over the right of the tribe to ban 2,800 African Americans from its citizenship rolls. Joe Crittenden, the tribe’s acting principal chief, insists that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has challenged the sovereignty of the tribe and “The Cherokee Nation will not be governed by the BIA.”

The confrontation was triggered when so called “Cherokee Freedmen” were excluded from the September 24 Cherokee election. BIA Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk wrote the tribe to warn that such an exclusion would result in an invalid election in the eyes of the BIA.

According to the article below, many of these black members are the descendants of wealthy Cherokee who owned black slaves for work on their plantations in the South. When the tribe was forced to relocate in the 1830s, many took their slaves. The Cherokee actually fought for the South, but after the Civil War a treaty with the United States was signed in 1866 guaranteeing tribal citizenship for the freed slaves.
That was until last month when the Cherokee Supreme Court voted to support the right of tribal members to change the tribe’s constitution on citizenship matters– requiring Cherokee Freedmen to prove that they have a Cherokee blood relation.

In Johnson v. M’Intosh, 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 543 (1823), Chief Justice Marshall lays out the basis for aboriginal title in the United States. Then in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. 1 (1831), ruled that the Court did not have jurisdiction in a land dispute since original jurisdiction rested with the Cherokee were a dependent nation.

Source: MSNBC

28 thoughts on “Cherokee Tribe Asserts Right To Expel Blacks”

  1. I’m always shocked at black people’s embrace of homophobia. You would
    think this group would have more empathy, given what they’ve been through for hundreds of years. It seems the Cherokees are most concerned about financial matters, which is far different than racism.

  2. AY,

    I support Tribal Casino’s as a non-violent, but quite worthy outlet for revenge by an oppressed people.

  3. “I am just pointing out the hypocrisy of you and others who promote the disintegration of a heterogeneous culture into homogeneous special interests”

    Roco,

    It would be refreshing, albeit unlikely, if you would view anything outside the context of your own political pre-judgments. Despite what is taught of the “melting pot” in elementary and secondary schools, this nation has never been heterogeneous as a people. Actually, I doubt most other countries are either for that matter. This is why Federal legislation and SCOTUS intervention is needed at times needed to redress imbalances imposed into law by States and localities. This is just to even the playing field slightly. However, the philosophy you support doesn’t believe in equal playing fields and even finds financial genius in those who were born on third base.

  4. Roco,

    While we agree on the end….The means justified are much different…..There is so much money from the casinos….that in areas that it has been around a while “the casinos” they have been trying to reduce the number of folks that are eligible for the money….they split the profits among tribe members….They were trying to at one time cut people off that did not live on the reservations….and think about this….if you have a custody dispute….Tribal Law Trumps state law…They can take jurisdiction over the case and move it to the tribal courts….Attorneys have to be granted permission to represent practice on the reservation…

    Before the new found wealth….they had no problem granting all sorts of folks membership….Just saying….

  6. gbk:

    I am well aware of the indigenous peoples taking in others and treating them as members of their society.

    The Cherokee do not want blacks who are not blood related. As AY mentions above probably for financial reasons, to many people spreads the cash too thin.

    I am just pointing out the hypocrisy of you and others who promote the disintegration of a heterogeneous culture into homogeneous special interests, attacking a group of people who are doing the same.

    We have tribalism in the US now, with all the different special interest groups and races vying for their piece of the gimme pie. Created by libs for the purpose of gaining power.

    your post was less than feeble.

  7. Raf – it would be impossible to make racism illegal as it really is a ‘thought crime’. As for racial discrimination, yeah that pretty much is legislated against. But I believe that this would not be taking place in the USofA but in the Cherokee Nation, a separate place based on treaty.

    It is sadly ironic that the Cherokee tried desperately to be like the European settlers. The wrote a constitution, had an elected government, hell they even adopted black slavery into their culture. When the White man came to take their lands (in the Tn/GA area) they were even foolish enough to go to the US courts for protection. All the way to the USSC, where they won. when ordering the army to move the Cherokee to gawd forsaken OK, Pres Jackson is reported to have asked “How large an army does the Chief Justice command?”

  8. Roco,

    “If the blacks arent blood, why do they have a right to be part of the tribe?”

    This statement shows your ignorance of American history, and most specifically the history of the early south where escaped slaves and escaped white indentured servants were on the most part welcomed into indigenous cultures.

    This acceptance of “fugitives” by indigenous peoples led to what anthropologists refer to as tri-racial isolates — the Seminoles being the most well known, though not the only.

    The rest of your post is feeble, though I will comment on the last sentence:

    “Progressive philosophy pits people against one another because of tribalism/special interests.”

    It was not “progressive philosophy” — whatever that means — that brought about the delineations of “tribalism.” It was the greed of early U.S. expansion for “unused land” that codified the current “tribal” definitions. Much like the greed you seem to philosophically support today given your posts over the last month or so.

  9. Rocco–You should be so proud of the fact that when you look up the word ignorant in the dictionary, you see your reflection.

  10. If the blacks arent blood, why do they have a right to be part of the tribe?

    If you arent black or some other minority or a woman you cannot be accepted in the 8a program. If white people can be excluded from the 8a program for being white it seems to me the Cherokees have a right to exclude the blacks for not being Indian.

    The proper thing to do is to eliminate the 8a program and special rights for Indians and other minorities and embrace equality of opportunity for all people.

    Progressive philosophy pits people against one another because of tribalism/special interests.

  11. Erykah, Good article link, thanks. It also kind of gives a partial answer to rafflaw’s question regarding the scope of civil rights enforcement:

    “In 1978, Julia Martinez, a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo Tribe located near Santa Fe, New Mexico sought tribal membership for her two children, who were fathered by a Navajo Indian. According to tribal law, children fathered by non-members could not receive tribal enrollment. This law did not apply to the children of Santa Clara Pueblo men sired with non-member women. Martinez attempted to sue on grounds that the tribe’s refusal to enroll her children was discriminatory and violated her civil rights. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court sided with the tribe. The justices used the case to broaden the power of Indian tribes ruling that providing a federal forum in which tribal members could sue tribal governments on the basis of civil rights undermined tribal self determination [read; tribal sovereignty]. Ironically, the justice who wrote the majority opinion in this case was celebrated African-American civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshal.”

  12. This does not do the Cherokee proud. however, being oppressed does not bring enlightenment with it. I must agree with LK though, given the shit that Native Americans have been put through by US, their sovereignty in managing their own affairs should be respected.

  16. I am betting that this has a hell of a lot to do with the Casino Profits….It the class is large people get smaller checks and if the class is small they get bigge checks….

    I have not checked my hunch for accuracy….

    I think that unless the US violates the Treaty with the Indians….then the Indians can decide how this split works…if the get involved….Then there is going to be a whole lot of folks excluded that will want to get in suit…

    Until that happens….so one has standing to say what does or does not happen on Indian Propecia…

    FYI, American Laws do not apply on Reservations….Not even a States o Counties….

  17. Blood quantum laws were a US government imposition on First Americans in order to determine who among persons claiming indigenous ancestry or tribal membership would receive government benefits- if by benefits one means settlement for lands stolen, mineral rights pillaged, access to the blueconcentration campsred new internal homelands, etc. Tribes and Nations continue to use them for the same reasons but are adapting them to their own agendas.

    Some of the BQ laws were adopted by states as well as the US and some post-date as well as pre-date the Civil War. BQ requirements are a hodgepodge of both First American and ‘European’/US laws bound up with the census and its shifting requirements regarding racial designations over time. It’s one hairy meatball and could easily devolve into an argument over which treaty or law takes precedence (which might affect more than the Cherokee) or evolve to the higher principle: the nature sovereignty.

    It might be a good idea for the US to just follow the lead of President Bush:

    “The relationship between the Federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities”.

  20. Damn, earworm’s back.

    “Cherokee people, Cherokee tribe, So proud to live, so proud to die”

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