Cherokee Nation: Freedmen sue to get voting rights, Nation seeks dismissal
The Muskogee Phoenxi reports: The Cherokee Nation is seeking dismissal of a lawsuit that could affect the tribe's 2003 election, claiming Cherokee Freedmen held "secret" meetings with the government concerning the suit.
Motions to intervene and to dismiss were filed by the Cherokee Nation in a federal lawsuit by five Cherokee Freedmen against the U.S. Department of the Interior and Gail Norton, department secretary, over the department's recognition of the Cherokee Nation's election of tribal officials in 2003. ...
The original suit claims Freedmen were excluded from the election and that the department, which oversees the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, failed to protect voting rights of the Freedmen.
If the plaintiffs win the case, it would give Freedmen voting rights in the Cherokee Nation, and would invalidate the election, reverting the Cherokee Nation government back to the elected officials and constitution prior to the 2003 election. ...
# In 1893, the U.S. government established the Dawes Commission for the purpose of creating authoritative membership rolls for Native American tribes in Oklahoma. In 1898 the Dawes Commission began enrolling the black Cherokees and blacks adopted into the tribe on a "Freedmen Roll," other Cherokees were enrolled on a separate "Blood Roll."
Freedmen had voting rights in the Cherokee Nation up until 1983, when the tribal council made it mandatory to have a degree of Indian blood card to be tribal members. Since the Freedmen Roll did not contain blood quantum as the Blood Rolls did, many black Cherokees were no longer considered tribal members. -- Cherokee Nation seeks to scuttle Freedmen lawsuit - muskogeephoenix.com