by Lori Andrews
In the 1700s and 1800s, runaway slaves joined Native American tribes like the Cherokee and Seminoles. For generations, these black men and women were full-fledged members of the tribe, taking up arms on the side of the Indians. In modern times, the African-American members of the Native American nations, known from the beginning as Cherokee Freedmen and Seminole Freedmen, have continued to live on reservations and serve as tribal councils.
As Native Americans gain funds from casinos and from lawsuits against the government for past misdeeds, some tribes are looking for ways to limit membership. When the Seminoles received a settlement of $96 million from the federal government for land unjustly taken from them, the tribe did not allow the African-American Indians, the Freedmen, to participate. And last year, the Cherokee tribe voted to revoke the tribal citizenship of the Freedmen. By stripping over 2,700 Freedmen of their tribal membership, the Cherokees denied them health care access, money for schooling and other Native American benefits.
The controversy pits a narrow biological view of citizenship against a social one and raises a question about whether DNA tests should be used to determine if a person is “Native American enough” to warrant benefits. In a further complication, tribes determine the citizenship of a Native American according to his or her mother. A child born to a Freedman mother is considered a Freedman, even if the father is a full Cherokee or Seminole.
The African-American Indians have turned to the legal system to protect their heritage. Through a lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., the Cherokee Freedmen seek confirmation of their full membership in the Cherokee Nation. But the issue is tricky. Tribes are considered separate nations and the U.S. courts are limited in how much they can interfere with tribal decisions. In fact, on July 29, 2008, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that the suit may not proceed against the Cherokee Nation because of its tribal sovereign immunity. The case has been remanded for a determination whether the suit can proceed against only the Cherokee Nation’s officers.
U.S. Representative Diane Watson (D-California) has introduced a bill that would provide a clever fix to the issue. Even if the courts can’t interfere with the tribes, her bill would protect the Freedmen’s rights. The proposed federal legislation would discontinue all federal government payments to the Cherokee nation – and suspend its casino operations – if it continues to discriminate against its African-American members.
This entry is a typical kneejerk reaction from someone who has not explored the issue beyond the Watson camp’s propaganda. I certainly don’t know where you got your information and would challenge you to cite such comments as “…tribes determine the citizenship of a Native American according to his or her mother. A child born to a Freedman mother is considered a Freedman, even if the father is a full Cherokee or Seminole.” and “In modern times, the African-American members of the Native American nations, known from the beginning as Cherokee Freedmen and Seminole Freedmen, have continued to live on reservations and serve as tribal councils.” In the Cherokee Nation citizenship is not determined soley through the mother, as erroniously stated; if the child has a documented Cherokee father (fullblood or otherwise), the child is eligible for full Cherokee citizenship. If the child has a documented Cherokee mother (fullblood or otherwise), the child is eligible for full Cherokee Nation citizenship. It doesn’t matter. It makes absolutely no difference what the other ethnicity or race of the child’s parents are as long as at least one parent is a Cherokee Nation citizen of any blood quantum. Period. And we do not and never have lived on a reservation.
Considering that the 2,700 freedmen descendants you referred to are now receiving full citizenship benefits due to a court stay, to call Watson’s bill a “clever fix” is laughable. It will actually harm those 2,700 people along with thousands of elderly, low-income and disabled people by cutting them off from much needed assistance, such as housing, food and medical care–woohoo, way to go Watson .
The media feeding frenzy over the Cherokee citizenship issue has been truly one-sided. This blog entry is a perfect example of the lies and distortions of our history and law that have been passed from pen to pen like some child’s game of Gossip. It is a sad commentary that so many feel qualified to speak to something they know nothing about and do not feel the responsibility to learn about before they speak.
Lori, the inaccuracies in your post are staggering. The historical relationship between Cherokees and blacks was not one of harboring runaway slaves, but of the shameful practice of slavery itself. Chattel slavery was introduced in our Nation with the first colonial traders who brought their slaves into our territory. The fledgling United States supported and encouraged the practice in order to transform our traditional hunting/agriculture economy to one of small farms and plantations in order to reduce our land base. It lasted for about 80 years. The vast majority of Cherokees rejected the practice; at its height in 1860, 378 Cherokee citizens out of a population 22,000 owned even one slave. 70% of the male Cherokees fought for the Union to end slavery. And the Cherokee Nation voluntarily abolished slavery in 1863.
Nevertheless, at the end of the Civil War, the Cherokee Nation was forced to sign a harsh Treaty ceding land, railroad rights-of-way and other provisions. One of these called for the incorporation of freed slaves and other free blacks living in our territory. This provision was protested by both Cherokees and freedmen. Indian citizenship has always been a product of ancestry or ancestry/marriage. Regardless of your misunderstandings, this is our right as an indigenous people, then and now. Freedmen objected because they could not own land under tribal law. The following forty years saw a struggle between two very different peoples trying to go in two very different directions. At the turn of the century, the United States abrogated our treaties, destroyed our country to create Oklahoma, and paralyzed our government for almost seventy years. As a result, freedmen, who had long supported allotment, received land and monetary compensation never given by the United States to Southern freedmen. A recent study by an economics PhD student showed conclusively that the advantages of that real reparation can still be measured today. The allotment legislation also ended any treaty obligations the Cherokees had regarding citizenship.
In the 1970’s the United States government began to recognize and reverse some of the injustices perpetrated during the termination era. The Cherokee Nation reorganized a functioning government and chose to enroll only those of Indian ancestry. Our paperwork is colorblind. We enroll all those who meet our legal requirements of Cherokee ancestry regardless of other ethnic heritage. But the modern descendants of non-Indian freedmen continue to try to make this about “race” and to deny our rights as an Indian tribal nation to define our citizenship by our Indian heritage.
International human rights experts have said that the two greatest challenges the United States faces are the legacies of the treatment of indigenous peoples and slavery. One is not more important than the other. Read the United Nation Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. When the most repected expert on indigenous rights in the UN heard of Diane Watson’s “clever fix”, he termed it alarming.
You bring up an interesting question about DNA testing and whether or not it should be used to determine tribal benefits. First of all, there is no DNA test on this earth that will tell you whether you have Cherokee blood or Seminole blood or any other tribal blood designation. Secondly, the jury is still out whether DNA testing can really tell you whether you have generic “Native American” blood or not. So if you can’t determine what tribe you belong to with DNA testing, how are you going to know which tribe to go to and apply for benefits?
The Freedman controversy has brought out kinds of ludicrous arguments about how non-Indians can get tribal benefits. Actually, in the case of the Cherokee Nation, it is very easy. All they have to do is do a little research and see if they have Cherokee ancestor on the Dawes Rolls. If so, that proves they are already Cherokee citizens. If not, then they fall into the same category with about a million other people of every skin color out there who heard they had a Cherokee princess in the closet about a hundred years ago. Problem is they just can’t remember her name.
There are a lot of Indian people who do not have ancestors on the rolls because their ancestors simply refused to sign up with the white census takers. They are not listed as Cherokee citizens, either. But those Indian folks know who they are, they know they are Cherokee, and could care less about having a DNA test to get a tribal card. These are the folks who actually deserve to have a legislative “clever fix,” but no one cares whether they get tribal benefits, or not.
Diane Watson’s legislation is nothing more than an attempt to make a name for herself before she has to retire. She is introducing a bill to force non-Indian Freedman onto the rolls of the Cherokee Nation by threatening to cut off federal funding. This is simply old fashioned blackmail in some circles outside of Washington.
In the end, Diane just doesn’t get it. Non-Indian Freedmen will never be Cherokee no matter what their DNA tests say, and no matter what Congress does or does not do.
Yep, the tribes are the only ones that get free money – and now they don’t want to share it with other members. Go figure!