AP Article...for a 240,000 Nation this was really a low
turnout...again it's a Cherokee by Blood issue not a race issue....

Tribe revokes freed slaves' membership
By MURRAY EVANS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 54 minutes ago
OKLAHOMA CITY - Cherokee Nation members voted Saturday to revoke the
tribal citizenship of an estimated 2,800 descendants of the people the
Cherokee once owned as slaves.

With all 32 precincts reporting, 76.6 percent had voted in favor of an
amendment to the tribal constitution that would limit citizenship to
descendants of "by blood" tribe members as listed on the federal Dawes
Commission's rolls from more than 100 years ago.
The commission, set up by a Congress bent on breaking up Indians'
collective lands and parceling them out to tribal citizens, drew up
two rolls, one listing Cherokees by blood and the other listing
freedmen, a roll of blacks regardless of whether they had Indian
blood.
Some opponents of the ballot question argued that attempts to remove
freedmen from the tribe were motivated by racism.
"I'm very disappointed that people bought into a lot of rhetoric and
falsehoods by tribal leaders," said Marilyn Vann, president of the
Oklahoma City-based Descendants of Freedmen of Five Civilized Tribes.
Tribal officials said the vote was a matter of self-determination.
"The Cherokee people exercised the most basic democratic right, the
right to vote," tribal Principal Chief Chad Smith said. "Their voice
is clear as to who should be citizens of the Cherokee Nation. No one
else has the right to make that determination.'
Smith said turnout — more than 8,700 — was higher than turnout for the
tribal vote on the Cherokee Nation constitution four years ago.
"On lots of issues, when they go to identity, they become things that
people pay attention to," Smith said.
The petition drive for the ballot measure followed a March 2006 ruling
by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court that said an 1866 treaty assured
freedmen descendants of tribal citizenship. Since then, more than
2,000 freedmen descendants have enrolled as citizens of the tribe.
Court challenges by freedmen descendants seeking to stop the election
were denied, but a federal judge left open the possibility that the
case could be refiled if Cherokees voted to lift their membership
rights.
Tribal spokesman Mike Miller said the period to protest the election
lasts until March 12 and Cherokee courts are the proper venue for a
challenge.
Vann promised a protest within the next week. "We don't accept this
fraudulent election," Vann said.

On 3/4/07, Basil Forest <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> How about limiting the right to vote in America to those who can trace  their
> ancestors back to the Mayflower Compact?
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