Cherokee Freedmen Find Opposition as Tribe Seeks Legal Assistance

The Cherokee Freedmen, have recently had a new challenge presented to them, when their nation, has chosen to put more roadblocks in the paths of those Cherokee citizens who have African mixed with Cherokee blood.  The most recent gesture came with a vote to retroactively approve funds to pay an outside law firm to intervene in the pending lawsuit from Cherokee Freedmen. The goal is to have the case thrown out of court. The funds were used to pay outside attorneys to step in and find more methods to prevent the tribe from giving any rights to their Cherokee ancestored people who have any presence of African blood.

This race-based rejection of their own citizens is common in the tribes of Oklahoma, that embraced Jim Crow laws from the first days of statehood. The same nations, that were sympathetic to the south the Civil War, have continually practiced southern hostility towards persons of African-Cherokee ancestry, while still choosing to welcome Cherokee whites. This is one of the largest of the federally recognized Indian tribes, and ironically, it is a tribe that will say that the US constitution is the law of the land, referring to their own constitution. That constitution somehow gets "modified" when Freedmen seek rights. 

Historically, the Freedmen were the first group of ex-slaves of the Five "Civilized" Tribes to be made citizens. Two years ago they sued the US government, asking that the election of 2003 not be ratified, as they were not allowed to vote in the election that made Chad Smith principal chief again. Not surprisingly, the tribe vehemently protested and their close contacts in Washington overruled a concern about why Freedmen were not allowed to vote. The tribe continued to embrace the utilization of the controversial Dawes records, that were even being challenged in Congress 100 years ago, for refusing to acknowledge the Indian ancestry of Freedmen even at that time. 

Recent years have seen lawsuits come and go against the Cherokee Nation from Freedmen citizens.  In many of the previous cases, the plaintiffs, life long and law abiding elderly citizens of the tribe, were basically ignored, until the needs of failing health overtake their concerns. Such was the situation in the Nero case, and the Riggs case. Their cases are ultimately rejected and the plaintiffs are allowed to pass away, taking to their graves a knowledge that the nation of their birth, despises them for their color and for a part of their ancestry which is African.  These elders learn painfully even in their last days---that their chief, and others in power, choose to reject them---  like many of their southern neighbors in the 50s and 60s in the deep south. 

This recent action to seek outside attorneys to now find legal roadblocks, resembles the actions of the 50s and 60s when protestors of southern racism challenged the system at that time.  Their southern neighbors also had legal means to prevent rights and privileges for all persons to live fully within the boundaries of their jurisdictions. The nation will now have a legal vehicle, through the assistance of these new attorneys to block rights of citizenship to the descendants of their former slaves. Indeed, Indian Territory history continues to unfold, and continues to be a microcosm of American history.