US Cherokees vote to expel descendants of slaves

US Cherokees vote to expel descendants of slaves - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Native American Cherokees voted to expel descendants of black slaves from their tribe nation in a special election that has prompted charges of racism, according to returns made public early Sunday.

But a vote of 77 percent to 23 percent, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma adopted Saturday an amendment to their constitution that strips membership from so-called "Freedmen," those descended from slaves once owned by Cherokees, blacks who were married to Cherokees and children of mixed-race families.


"The Cherokee people exercised the most basic democratic right, the right to vote," Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, said in a statement. "Their voice is clear as to who should be citizens of the Cherokee Nation. No one else has the right to make that determination."

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Even though I have my reservations about anybody who claims to be 100% of anything white, black or even native American....I really don't understand this...basically if your mother is Cherokee but your father isn't...you're not Cherokee?

Hatuey said:

US Cherokees vote to expel descendants of slaves - Yahoo! News


Even though I have my reservations about anybody who claims to be 100% of anything white, black or even native American....I really don't understand this...basically if your mother is Cherokee but your father isn't...you're not Cherokee?

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Kinda like Judaism in reverse, I guess.

Hatuey said:

US Cherokees vote to expel descendants of slaves - Yahoo! News


Even though I have my reservations about anybody who claims to be 100% of anything white, black or even native American....I really don't understand this...basically if your mother is Cherokee but your father isn't...you're not Cherokee?

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Makes no sense to me, I also don't believe any one of us is 100% anything, bad move IMO by the tribe.

Hatuey said:

US Cherokees vote to expel descendants of slaves - Yahoo! News


Even though I have my reservations about anybody who claims to be 100% of anything white, black or even native American....I really don't understand this...basically if your mother is Cherokee but your father isn't...you're not Cherokee?

Click to expand...

In this case, it depends on the situation. If mother and father begat the child out of a relationship, then I would have to say that the child is part Cherokee and part of the Cherokee nation. However, and this is the important part, the vast majority of Blacks were slaves under the Cherokee, just as they were in the Old South. It is also a fact that most slaves had children of mixed ancestry because they were brutally raped. Because of this, I cannot see Black children of Cherokees wanting to embrace the Cherokee Nation any more than I can see Black decedents of the Old South wanting to embrace the culture of Strom Thurmond.