Cherokee Nation Revokes Citizenship to Black Indians

Found this on the Colorlines RaceWire Blog...facinating. For those unfamiliar some Cherokees held blacks as slaves.


Cherokees Cast Out Black Indians
Andre Banks
The Cherokee Nation voted this weekend to expel some 2,800 descendants of freed slaves. In a landslide victory, the decision to revoke citizenship was supported by 76% of voters.

The central question at hand is whether to offer the benefits of tribal citizenship, including medical care, to the descendants of freed Black slaves who gained full tribal memebership in the late-1800s. The tribe is defending itself against charges of racism by claiming it allowed members to simply exercise their democratic right. But pretty much any way you look at it, this seems like plain old-fashioned discrimination.

Read the rest here: http://www.racewire.org/archives/2007/03/cherokees_cast_out_black_india.html