Cherokee Nation: House to hold hearing on expulsion of Freedmen
AP reports: A dispute involving race and tribal identity that was supposed to play out in the courts now seems headed for Capitol Hill, where some lawmakers want the country's second-largest Indian tribe stripped of $300 million in federal money.
U.S. Rep. Diane Watson, a California Democrat who claims Indian blood and ties to Oklahoma, is demanding the Cherokee Nation reinstate 2,800 descendants of the tribe's former black slaves, known as freedmen. She calls a March election that booted the freedmen descendants from the tribe ``ethnic cleansing'' and doesn't want to wait on the courts to decide the matter, a process that could take years.
The tribe is digging in to fight the legislation, and its chief, Chad Smith, has called Watson's bill a ``scorched-earth'' policy aimed at hurting the poorest and sickest of the nation's 270,000 members.
Neither side shows signs of giving up ground as lawmakers are expected to have a hearing on the matter next week in Washington. -- KOTV.com - The News On 6