Federal District Court Judge Greenlights Cherokee Nation's June 23 Election To Go Forward, Freedmen Descendants Lose Bid To Stop Election in Which They Can Vote

Freedmen Descendants Lose Bid To Stop Election in Which They Can Vote

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Washington, D.C. federal District Court judge denied today an attempt by six non-Indian Freedmen to stop the Cherokee Nation's general election to be held on June 23, 2007.

Judge Kennedy's decision denied the injunction based on the fact that a Cherokee tribal court order had reinstated the non-Indian Freedmen descendants to citizenship and the right to vote on May 14, as well as the fact that the Bureau of Indian Affairs had approved the June 23 election procedures.'

"Judge Kennedy showed great wisdom in his decision. We have said that this group's effort to stop the election was a remedy in search of a wrong, as all eligible non-Indian Freedmen citizens of the Cherokee Nation can vote in this election," said Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

"We're also pleased that his decision respects our tribal court decisions and the more than 300 non-Indian Freedmen who won a ruling in our tribal court to participate in the June 23 election," Smith said.

In the June 23 election, Cherokee Nation citizens will vote for, among other things, candidates for Principal Chief, Deputy Principal Chief, and Tribal Council.

The Cherokee Nation passed a Constitutional amendment in March 2007 with approval of 77 percent of the voters, limiting Cherokee Nation citizenship only to those who can trace an Indian ancestor listed on U.S. Government census rolls of the Nation taken in the early 1900s, also known as the Dawes Rolls. The Dawes Rolls is the existing objective basis for establishing Indian lineage for the Cherokee Nation. Since the March amendment's passage, the Nation has been targeted with false charges of racism and misinformation. Most maliciously, the Nation has been falsely accused of expelling all black citizens -- a charge that is 100 percent wrong. Black citizens with Cherokee ancestry have long been, and will continue to be, citizens of the Cherokee Nation.

"This issue has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with who can be an Indian in an Indian tribe and the proper exercise of our sovereignty to define our citizens," Smith added.

The following are undisputed facts:

While only 2 percent of Cherokees held slaves, the Cherokee Nation abolished slavery in 1863, prior to the end of the Civil War. More than 1,500 descendants of these freed slaves have full, indisputable Cherokee Nation citizenship rights because they have Indian ancestry. These Freedmen descendants remain citizens and are completely unaffected by the March 2007 constitutional amendment.
Thousands of other Cherokees of African and other heritage (but not of Freedmen descent) are also citizens because they have an Indian ancestor on the Cherokee Dawes Roll.
The March 2007 amendment permits the more than 2,800 affected Freedmen descendants to become permanent Cherokee citizens if they can prove lineage to an Indian ancestor on the Dawes Roll.
Notwithstanding the March 2007 amendment, the Nation supported a stay in its implementation while a Cherokee tribal court evaluates its legality. All non-Indian Freedmen who were disenrolled have been reinstated as citizens pending a final resolution of the tribal court, including economic and health benefits and the right to vote in the June 23 election.
The Nation has provided legal counsel at its own expense to the 300-plus non-Indian Freedmen descendants who are challenging the March 2007 amendment in tribal court.