A new exhibit on links between African-Americans and Native Americans sidesteps controversy. The case of the Cherokee Freedmen is a notable example. In the early 1800s, the Cherokees acquired slaves and these slaves moved to Oklahoma with the tribe when they were relocated by the federal government in the 1830s. The Cherokee Freedmen Controversy is an ongoing political and tribal dispute between the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and descendants of the Cherokee Freedmen regarding tribal citizenship. During the American Civil War, the Cherokee who supported the Union abolished the practice of African slavery by act of the Cherokee National Council in 1863. The Cherokee Freedmen became citizens of the Cherokee Nation in accordance with a treaty made with the United States government a year after the Civil War ended. In the early 1980s, the Cherokee Nation administration amended citizenship rules to require direct descent from an ancestor listed as Cherokee by Blood on the Dawes Rolls. The change stripped descendants of the Cherokee Freedmen of citizenship and voting rights unless they satisfied this new criterion. About 25,000 Freedmen were excluded from the tribe.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 16:40:14 +0000
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