The existence of the Freedmen is one of the least known chapters of both North American African-ancestored and aboriginal history. The Cherokee, once among the wealthiest of the North American aboriginal tribes, sometimes owned large plantations in the southeast United States in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The Cherokee, like white plantation owners, often worked those plantations with African-ancestored slave labor. When the Cherokee were expelled from the the southeast United States by the federal government and and sent to live on reservations in the southwest, some took their slaves with them on the long, brutal march known as the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears resulted from the enforcement of the Treaty of New Echota, an agreement signed under the provisions of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which exchanged Native American land in the East for lands west of the Mississippi River.
The Cherokee Nation acted to abolish slavery in 1863 and in an 1866 treaty titled Articles Pertaining to African Cherokee Citizens and Ending Slavery in the Nation the Cherokee Nation recognized the citizenship of former black slaves held by blooded members of the nation. It was estimated that over 20,000 persons of African ancestry, known as the Cherokee Freedmen, were officially recognized by the Cherokee Nation after the 1866 treaty. Notwithstanding the treaty, those of African ancestry were frequently denied membership, despite the fact that some could trace ancestry to the Dawes Roll, a list of Cherokee by blood, intermarriage, adoption, or former slave status drawn up by federal officials at near the end of the 19th century. A March 2006 ruling by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court held that the 1866 treaty assured freedmen descendants tribal citizenship. Since then, more than 2,000 freedmen descendants have enrolled as citizens of the tribe. This decision of the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court and the subsequent enrollment of new African-ancestored persons led to the March 2007 referendum vote in which Cherokee members by blood were asked whether membership should be limited to those meeting blood quantum rules. Almost 77% of those voting (representing less than 5% of voting members) opted to amend the tribal constitution to limit citizenship to "blood" tribe members. Over three quarters of enrolled tribe members have less than one fourth Cherokee ancestry.
The decision expelling Cherokee Freedmen has caused dismay in some parts of the African-American and the North American aboriginal communities, as the decision seems to suggest that the practice of race-based discrimination against blacks in the United States is not limited to those of European ancestry. The decision also served as a rather rude awakening to a number of African-Americans who had for generations passed down lore about their Cherokee ancestry either with little knowledge of the fact (or ignoring the fact) that such ancestry may have originated when their ancestors were slaves of the Cherokee. The Cherokee, moreover, were not the only tribe to hold African-ancestored slaves. By 1824, it is estimated that the Cherokee owned almost 1,300 black slaves. The Choctaw and the Chickasaw held over 5,000 blacks in slavery by 1860. In my own family we are well aware that some of our Oklahoma and Arkansas ancestors had ties to the Cherokee, but these ties were shrouded in mystery despite what was an otherwise quite detailed recitation of family descent.
While the right to self-determination is an understood attribute of a sovereign people, it comes in this instance at the cost of expelling persons who, in many cases, have longstanding cultural and often genetic ties to the tribe.
What do you think?
