-3% of the Cherokee population voted to eliminate the descendants of the former slaves of the Cherokee Nation from membership. This vote was sought by the Principal Chief who leads a nation of 250,000 plus members.  This is the second largest federally recognized tribe in the US. 

 

-The principal chief neither reads, speaks, nor writes Cherokee, yet feels entitled to say that those whose ancestors were slaves are no welcome in the tribes, although when enslaved they spoke, ate, celebrated life and lived according to Cherokee tradition.

 

-"Indian sovereignty" is the safety net clung to by the chief and other who have sought to  purge black members from the tribe. However, black Oklahoman's are finding themselves in the precarious position of having funding their own expulsion----the budget of the nation---more than $300 million dollars strong, is paid from US tax dollars. Their tax dollars are giving full endorsement from the Federal government to discriminate against them.

 

-The other Five tribes known as the Five Civilize Tribes also discriminate against the Freedmen. The Seminole Freedmen were expelled in 2000, but later re-admitted to their nation when the Seminole tribe attempted to throw them out.  When funds were pulled, they brought the Freedmen back---but with no rights to benefits. In other words---they can come into the out but they can't have any food.

 

-The Choctaw Nation, Chickasaw Nation and Creek Nation do not allow the descendants of the slaves that they held in bondage to enroll in the nation. They exclude ALL FREEDMEN from membership.  Whites who have a link to persons on the BLOOD rolls are welcome to join the nation.

 

-Until the 1970s many Freedmen has privileges in the tribes, however, when reorganization began of the tribes, the Five Nations noted that Freedmen rolls had been constructed to identify persons who were black or partly black----this labeled them and ignored mention of any blood ties if they were there.  They were black and were immediately seen as second class.

 

-All of the tribes fought for the south in the Civil War and parts of Oklahoma to this day are still known as Little Dixie and many Freedmen descendants know that many of the sectors of the state are still off limits to them---many of these communities are known to be Indian and white.

 

-The largest slave rebellion west of the Mississippi, took place in the Cherokee Nation in 1842. This occurrence of history and the slave rebellion has never been taught, although every American child is taught about the Nat Turner rebellion in Virginia.

 

-The Dawes Rolls were never created for admission to a tribe. They were created to dissolve the tribes for Oklahoma statehood. Now---100 years later----the very rolls that were used to destroy the sovereignty of the tribes are now used as the primary admission tool----and the roll is now used as a tool of discrimination against all persons black. A well known flawed roll, is now the roll used as a tool of exclusion.

 

-The first elimination of Freedmen in the Cherokee Nation was Wilma Mankiller, and under her regime, the Freedmen lost their position as upstanding members in the nation of their birth, and their ancestors.

 

-Indian blood is the mantra used by the Cherokee Nation to justify their action. However, no one ever checked for Indian blood when there were slaves in the tribe, and Indian blood was never checked on the auction block. If they were black---they were enslaved, no matter how much Indian blood they had.  This vote was a vote of racial hysteria that will not remove the stain of slavery from their nation and will not erase the Africans from their history, nor from their presence.