Cherokee chief: Scott Brown staffers “downright racist”
POLITICO ?@politico
Cherokee chief: Scott Brown staffers “downright racist”: http://politi.co/NR2j4x
National Journal ?@nationaljournal
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief wants Brown apology
http://njour.nl/QFjV0C
"The Cherokee Nation is disappointed in and denounces the disrespectful actions of staffers and supporters of Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown," says Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Bill John Baker in a statement. "The conduct of these individuals goes far beyond what is appropriate and proper in political discourse. The use of stereotypical "war whoop chants" and "tomahawk chops" are offensive and downright racist. It is those types of actions that perpetuate negative stereotypes and continue to minimize and degrade all native peoples."
"We need individuals in the United States Senate who respect Native Americans and have an understanding of tribal issues," he concluded. "For that reason, I call upon Sen. Brown to apologize for the offensive actions of his staff and their uneducated, unenlightened and racist portrayal of native peoples."
read: http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2012/09/cherokee-nation.php
Bill John Baker, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (2012 DNC Delegate)
= new reply since forum marked as read
Here's one guy I would love to see running for public office.
into Ted Kennedy's seat is a mystery to me. Two opposites. 
Last edited Thu Sep 27, 2012, 09:01 AM - Edit history (2)
to kick the descendants of their black slaves off the tribal rolls since 1983 -- even though those folks and their ancestors have been on the rolls for over 100 years.
Read more: http://newsok.com/obama-administration-lawsuit-could-finally-decide-freedmen-issue-cherokee-nation-says/article/3689660#ixzz27fdHFVYj
J.D. Baldridge, whose ancestors include Cherokees and their former slaves, may lose tribal membership.
"Don't get taken advantage of by these people. They will suck you dry," Darren Buzzard, an advocate of expelling the freedmen, wrote last summer in a widely circulated e-mail denounced by freedmen. "Don't let black freedmen back you into a corner. PROTECT CHEROKEE CULTURE FOR OUR CHILDREN. FOR OUR DAUGHTER[S] . . . FIGHT AGAINST THE INFILTRATION."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/02/AR2007030201647.html
Timeline:
1863 – Cherokee Nation officially abolishes slavery; Some Cherokees who side with the Confederacy continue to hold slaves and fight against the Union in the Civil War
1866 – The Cherokees sign a treaty with post-Civil war US government extending Cherokee citizenship and enfranchisement rights to the freedmen and their descendants. The Cherokee Nation Constitution is amended to reflect the treaty’s language concerning freedmen’s rights.
1880 – The Cherokee Nation conducts a census to assist with the distribution of proceeds from sales of Cherokee land. Cherokee freedmen are excluded from the census and thereby, the distribution of proceeds.
1888 – US government passes An Act to secure to the Cherokee Freedmen and others their proportion of certain proceeds of lands.
1896 – US government commissions the Kern-Clifton roll to identify Cherokee Freedmen that were entitled to Cherokee land sale proceeds. The Kern-Clifton roll identifies 5,600 Cherokee Freedmen.
1902-1906 – The Dawes Commission, enacted by the US government, requires registration of American Indians. The Dawes Rolls classifies individuals as either: Indians by blood, intermarried whites, or Freedmen. Dawes commissioners generally listed all visibly black people as freedmen regardless of Cherokee blood ancestry that would have otherwise qualified some as ‘Indians by blood’. The Dawes roll lists 4,924 Freedmen...
http://www.bonvivantonline.com/2011/09/19/inappropriate-dinner-conversation-the-curious-case-of-the-cherokee-freedmen/
The ousted group, known as the "Cherokee Freedmen," are descendants of slaves once owned by wealthy Indians....Prominent Cherokee slaveowners included the families of Joseph Lynch, Joseph Vann, Major Ridge, Stand Watie, Elias Boudinot, and Principal Chief John Ross....While slavery was less common among full-blood Cherokee, there were both full-blood and mixed-blood Cherokee slaveowners...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/21/us-cherokee-freedmen-idUSTRE78K08D20110921
From the late 1700s to the 1860s, the Five Civilized Tribes were involved in the institution of African slavery as planters... By 1835, (Cherokees owned) 1,592 slaves, with 7.4% percent of Cherokee families owning slaves, a greater percentage than across the South, where about 5% of families owned slaves. (About 2000...) Slaves marched with Cherokee slaveowners...on the Trail of Tears....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_Freedmen_Controversy
John Ross, the famous Cherokee chief, owned 100 African slaves in the early 1800s...
Ross was about 1/8 cherokee by blood, 7/8 european: "Educated in english by white men, he was a poor speaker of the Cherokee language, but his bi-cultural background allowed him to represent the Cherokee to the United States government. He became one of the wealthiest men of The Nation."
The home of another cherokee planter-chief, james vann (>1/2 white). Vann became the richest man in the Cherokee Nation, and possibly in the entire eastern U.S. at the time...He held more than 100 slaves and hundreds of acres of plantation.
his son:
