The truth is that the practice of slavery will forever cast a shadow on the great Cherokee Nation.”—Wilma Mankiller
On Wednesday, August 30, 2017, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan became the latest in a line of judicial authorities to reinforce a historic treaty clause that has, for more than a century, defined Cherokee Freedmen as citizens of the tribe. In an exhaustive 78-page ruling of Cherokee Nation v. Nash,et al, a lawsuit of which Vann is a lead plaintiff, Hogan ruled that “the Cherokee Freedmen’s right to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation is directly proportional to Native Cherokees’ right to citizenship.”
The decision from the court, in part, hinged on interpretation of the Treaty With the Cherokee, 1866, the formal title of the last treaty the Cherokee Nation signed with the federal government at the end of the Civil War. It guaranteed freedom to as many as 2,500 Cherokee-owned slaves and, as stated in Article 9, granted them and all their descendants “all the rights of native Cherokees.”
“This is a wonderful victory for the Freedmen who regained their identities as equal citizens in their nation,” said Jon Velie in a public statement. The attorney has been advocating on behalf of the Freedmen in varied sorts for more than a quarter century— mostly pro-bono.
As early as 1883, 17 years after the treaty was ratified, the Cherokee Nation began a steady attempt to abate these “rights of native Cherokees” to the Freedmen, particularly whenever Cherokee lands were up for sale. Shared proceeds were only intended for “Cherokees by Blood,” argued by certain greedy leaders and tribal citizens. But jurists, legislators and Indian agents consistently disputed otherwise, oftentimes under punishable circumstances.
It’s somewhat extraordinary, then, that these blood politics carried over into the modern dispute over the Cherokee Freedmen.
In March 2007, tribal citizens turned out to vote in a special election. On the ballot was a measure that would amend the Cherokee Nation constitution “to limit citizenship in the Nation to only those persons who were Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware by blood.”
“We’re voting something out that’s by treaty,” said Ed Crittendon, a Cherokee Nation citizen and Freedman sympathizer, the day of the vote.
“It is a win for Native Americans,” he added. “The Federal Courts have enforced both treaty rights of citizenship while maintaining Tribes’ and elected officials’ rights to determine citizenship and self-determination pursuant to law.”
more
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/native-news/cherokee-nation-accepts-ruling-freedmen/
On Wednesday, August 30, 2017, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan became the latest in a line of judicial authorities to reinforce a historic treaty clause that has, for more than a century, defined Cherokee Freedmen as citizens of the tribe. In an exhaustive 78-page ruling of Cherokee Nation v. Nash,et al, a lawsuit of which Vann is a lead plaintiff, Hogan ruled that “the Cherokee Freedmen’s right to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation is directly proportional to Native Cherokees’ right to citizenship.”
The decision from the court, in part, hinged on interpretation of the Treaty With the Cherokee, 1866, the formal title of the last treaty the Cherokee Nation signed with the federal government at the end of the Civil War. It guaranteed freedom to as many as 2,500 Cherokee-owned slaves and, as stated in Article 9, granted them and all their descendants “all the rights of native Cherokees.”
“This is a wonderful victory for the Freedmen who regained their identities as equal citizens in their nation,” said Jon Velie in a public statement. The attorney has been advocating on behalf of the Freedmen in varied sorts for more than a quarter century— mostly pro-bono.
As early as 1883, 17 years after the treaty was ratified, the Cherokee Nation began a steady attempt to abate these “rights of native Cherokees” to the Freedmen, particularly whenever Cherokee lands were up for sale. Shared proceeds were only intended for “Cherokees by Blood,” argued by certain greedy leaders and tribal citizens. But jurists, legislators and Indian agents consistently disputed otherwise, oftentimes under punishable circumstances.
It’s somewhat extraordinary, then, that these blood politics carried over into the modern dispute over the Cherokee Freedmen.
In March 2007, tribal citizens turned out to vote in a special election. On the ballot was a measure that would amend the Cherokee Nation constitution “to limit citizenship in the Nation to only those persons who were Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware by blood.”
“We’re voting something out that’s by treaty,” said Ed Crittendon, a Cherokee Nation citizen and Freedman sympathizer, the day of the vote.
“It is a win for Native Americans,” he added. “The Federal Courts have enforced both treaty rights of citizenship while maintaining Tribes’ and elected officials’ rights to determine citizenship and self-determination pursuant to law.”
more
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/native-news/cherokee-nation-accepts-ruling-freedmen/
