Well I was going to check my e-mail when something caught my attention on my MSN homepage, "Cherokees may expel slaves' descendents". I read it and was shocked, apparently there are some people within the Cherokee Nation who are pushing to have descendents of Cherokee freedman removed from the tribe. Some of the reason has to do with money, the people calling for this expulsion dont want descendents of freedman to be a drain on their resources, "a $350 million annual budget from federal and tribal revenue, and Cherokees' share of a gambling industry that, for U.S. tribes overall, takes in $22 billion a year". "'Don't get taken advantage of by these people. They will suck you dry,' Darren Buzzard, an advocate of expelling the freedmen, wrote last summer in a widely circulated e-mail denounced by freedmen. 'Don't let black freedmen back you into a corner. PROTECT CHEROKEE CULTURE FOR OUR CHILDREN. FOR OUR DAUGHTER[S] . . . FIGHT AGAINST THE INFILTRATION.'" It's really sad to see minorities fighting against each other. This whole situation is just history repeating itself especially with Darren Buzzard's 'For our daughters' comment, it's like Hitler not wanting Jews and Germans to mix, the KKK 'protecting' their women from blacks, and all that jazz.
go here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17407728/ for the full story
You gotta wonder if they'd care so much if no gaming money was involved. There's lots of legal complications for tribal sovereignty in this case, but I hope the freedmen keep their place in the tribe. The bottom line is if you have a Cherokee ancestor and you fullfil 'blood quantum requirements' (I have a qualm with those, but that's how the system works these days) you're Cherokee. And yes, racism is not black and white, surprise surprise.
Edited, see next comment
Absolutely, I have had a lot of questions about that issue which ultimately was passed via a special Cherokee Tribal election last month. It called for an amendment to the Cherokee Nation Constitution that would limit Cherokee membership to those by blood (as you stated in your post that it would). If you voted "yes" that meant the Freedmen were out, but if you voted "no" that meant they stayed in. I guess the "yes" vote was to approve the amendment, however I understand that there is supposed to be a contest by the Freedmen and their attorneys due to the confusion on the ballot. This issue is not over and if you want to read more about how the election could possibly cause a ripple effect within the CN itself, I cover some of it in my blog also.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/natefrogg
"Being natural is such a difficult pose to keep up." -- Oscar Wilde
"It is forbidden to kill, therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." -- Voltaire
Thanks for the link!
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