Cherokee Nation: CBC threatens housing funding over exclusion of Freedmen
The Hill reports: Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have promised Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid D-Nev. that they will try to block a Native American housing assistance bill if the measure does not include language that prevents the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma from receiving any of the benefits.
The House included such a prohibition in its Indian housing assistance bill passed in September. But the Senate version does not include similar language. ...
The dispute between the CBC and the Cherokee Nation arose last year after the tribe amended its constitution to exclude the Freedmen — a group of freed slaves who have been members since the Civil-War era – from tribal membership. Black lawmakers have charged the tribe is ignoring the Treaty of 1886, an agreement the Cherokees signed with the U.S. government that gave tribal citizenship to the Freedmen. ...
Cherokee leaders argue that as a sovereign nation they have a right to amend their own constitution. -- TheHill.com - CBC warns Reid on Cherokee funds