Second-largest U.S. Indian tribe expels slave descendants

[trud]

Source: Reuters

The nation's second-largest Indian tribe formally booted from membership thousands of descendants of black slaves who were brought to Oklahoma more than 170 years ago by Native American owners...

Removal from the membership rolls means the Freedmen will no longer be eligible for free health care and other benefits such as education concessions.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/second-largest-u-indian-tribe-expels-slave-descendants-011650136.html

[DURHAM D]

1. This article over-simplifies the issues.

One point - AAs living in Indian Territory were registered as Native American regardless of how they arrived there. Many had moved there on their own and were definitely not "brought their" by the removal and not brought there as slaves.

This just makes me sad as both sides have very legitimate claims.

[izquierdista]

2. As long as the lower classes are bickering

You should have a smile -- if you are one of the haves and the have-mores, that is.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Some are having a good laugh at the thought of seeing descendants of peoples wildly abused

and tormented, persecuted beyond forgiveness, pitted against each other. What a high spot in their day getting information like this will be for them.

Good time for them to take an opportunity to get a few kicks in whenever possible, to show their grasp of the situation.

[naaman fletcher]

3. What legitimate claim to the cherokee cherokees have?

They admitted these guys at members, and now over 100 years later are kicking them out? The only reason is greed... so they don't have to split the spoils of casinos and such with as many people.

[shanti]

12. does the cherokee tribe have casinos?

that's the first thing i thought of myself. i know of a woman whose husband is a member of a tribe in southern california. he collects $200,000 a year for himself with the money from the tribe's casino. no small change!

[naaman fletcher]

14. yeah, a bunch. nt

[CreekDog]

30. they have moral standing to kick out slave descendants as soon as...

They can go back in time and make sure none of the people they are kicking out now were ever enslaved by their members in three first place.

Does someone know if that's possible?

[Mosaic]

4. It would be nice if they could kick out

All the illegal aliens that came from europe in the 1600s.

[BadtotheboneBob]

6. I'm an eighth Ojibwe, can that part stay?

... as to the other 7/8's I guess I'd have to figure out which parts would go to Germany, Holland and France. What a hassle! LOL

[glinda]

32. Prediction: Tied up in Courts for 15 years. Again.

[No Elephants]

23. In your opinion, how would someone have become a "legal" immigrant in the 1600's?

[placton]

5. disenrollment seems to be all the rage in Indian Country

same thing happening here in Michigan, so fewer people get a bigger part of the pie

[qb]

7. That is fucking cold... like kicking adopted children out of the family because they're not blood.

[CountAllVotes]

13. actually ...

The Cherokee used to take in members that were adopted by members of the tribe regardless of blood quantum. I don't know when they stopped doing this but it was sometime after 1992 or so.

It seems they started to purge their rolls once they had casinos. Before this time, the Cherokee wanted as many member on the rolls as possible because they receive Federal funds and in prior years, the more members the more money they brought in as they believe(d) there is power in numbers.

Sadly this is no longer the case. They too have become corrupted by the casino madness and I would want to be betting of the casino keeping the lot of them going and received per capita payments, especially the way the economy is right now.

As for purging the "Freedmen" as they are called, this is a disgrace as many of these Freedmen are indeed part Cherokee by blood. The Cherokee have a highly racist constitution of their own and in that constitution negroes are not considered worthy of tribal recognition nor status of any sort. In fact, in was very common for the wealthier Cherokee to hold slaves prior to the removals in the 1830s.

:kick:

[trud]

21. same with Narragansetts

The Narragansetts purged a number of people from their tribe within the past few years, mostly people who were political opponents of the sachem. Goodbye share of government money. Esp. a financial blow if the Narragansetts win their legal battle to build a casino in the middle of a wildlife area.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. that was informative and helpful, thank you.

I had no idea what the background issue was.

[Xithras]

31. The Cherokee don't use blood quantums anymore.

It's all based on lineal descent nowadays. If you want to legally be considered Cherokee, you "simply" have to show paperwork demonstrating that you're directly descended from one of the Cherokee listed in the Dawes census in the 1890's. If your ancestor isn't in there, you're not a member, and they're not interested in talking to you.

There were bands that refused to cooperate with the census, other Cherokee who had already moved away from the Cherokee nation and missed it, and others who couldn't sign up for countless various reasons. If you were one of the MANY people who were members of multiple tribes back then (maybe mom was Cherokee, and dad was Creek), you could only pick one tribe on the census. If the ancestor picked "Creek", you can't claim Cherokee heritage even though that ancestor was half Cherokee. Any of them are Cherokee by blood and history, but none are members of the Cherokee nation and cannot be legally recognized as Cherokee.

[AlbertCat]

8. Tribes

What a bad ideas tribes are these days....

Any kind....

[LanternWaste]

15. I like the Democratic tribe...

I like the Democratic tribe... :shrug:

[No Elephants]

27. A noble tribe, but seems to be on the verge of extinction, unless you count the PubLites branch.

[tawadi]

16. Tribes, a bad idea?

Genocide and stealing the land from a sovereign nation, like the Cherokee Nation, are bad ideas too.

[No Elephants]

24. When did the freed slaves or their descendants do that to the Cherokees?

If the thread were about Cherokees doing something against white folks, I could understand your post better.

[elleng]

9. Damn; sure don't want to hear about this.

[rayofreason]

10. When you label people by race...

...and apportion benefits accordingly, you can expect this kind of thing to happen. Human nature is to game the system.

[No Elephants]

25. Not exactly on point in this context. Technically, First Americans do not get benefits

because of race, but because they are considered a separate nation--and one the U.S. wronged grievously.

Cherokees adopted freed slaves as First Americans, not because of the race of the slaves, but because Cherokees had owned them prior to Emancipation and allowed them to live among them--and maybe because they had wronged them. (The last is just a guess on my part. I'd have to research why they did it.))

There is no reason to assume Cherokees would have behaved any differently, then or now, if the slaves had been white, Asian or First Americans from other tribes.

[glinda]

11. They are only the "largest" or second due to the lack of being able to trace blood quantum most of

the time. Many lay claim to being Cherokee but without accurate records, which they didn't keep, it will be difficult to know.
How often is it that you hear "I am part Cherokee". Many many times.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. It seems to be the default option for people who claim Native ancestry

You don't often hear, "I'm part Klamath" or "I'm part Maleseet."

[No Elephants]

26. Please see Reply 6.

[Taverner]

19. Every woman I slept with in the State of Texas...

:hide:

[No Elephants]

28. Both of them?

Kidding!

[Dreamer Tatum]

20. Racists nt

[No Elephants]

29. Separating racism from cold-blooded greed can be difficult sometimes.

If they had been white or Asian slaves, would the result have been any different?