The entitlement war gets bizarre.
CofCC.org News Team
A coalition of blacks, non-voting delegates, and some of the more screwball white Democrats, are sponsoring a bill to shake down the Cherokee Nation.
The bill would require the Cherokee Nation to accept blacks who allege their ancestors were once owned by Cherokee slaveholders. Calling themselves “The Cherokee Freedment”, blacks demanding membership in the tribe would also be entitled to governmnent benefits and casino profits. The Cherokee Nation voted last year not to accept blacks as tribe members.
The bill in congress would suspend entitlements to the Cherokee Nation and freeze casino operations until the so called “Cherokee Freedmen” get a piece of the action for themselves. The bill also contains vague language allowing the “Cherokee Freedmen” to sue for alleged damages, meaning that these opportunists are seeking a very large piece of the pie indeed.
The Treaty of 1866 came about during Reconstruction. The Federal government declared that the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Creek tribes had violated their treaties because of alliances with the Confederate Government. The government nullified all treaties with these tribes. Since the Cherokee owned significant numbers of Negro slaves, when the Federal government wrote the new treaty it declared the Negroes free and citizens in the Cherokee Nation. The negroes were listed as Cherokee citizens on all Indian cenuses.
In 2007, the Cherokee Nation voted by a 77% majority in favor of a referendum that denied freed slaves were ever Cherokee citizens, and any blacks who had falsely claimed Cherokee membership were expelled. The heart of the controversy is money and jealousy. Blacks had been joining because of lucrative Federal entitlements and casino profits.