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Cherokee Nation To Vote on Expelling Slaves' Descendants
The Washington Post ^ | Saturday, March 3, 2007 | Ellen Knickmeyer

Posted on 03/03/2007 9:06:01 AM PST by rabidralph

VINITA, Okla. -- J.D. Baldridge, 73, has official government documents showing him to be a descendant of a full-blood Cherokee. He has memories of a youth spent among Cherokee neighbors and kin, at tribal stomp dances and hog fries. He holds on to a fair amount of Cherokee vocabulary. " Salali," Baldridge says, his face creasing into a smile at the word. "Squirrel stew. Oh, that was good."

What Baldridge, a retired Oklahoma county sheriff, also has is at least one black ancestor, a former slave of a Cherokee family. That could get Baldridge cast out of the tribe, along with thousands of others.

The 250,000-member Cherokee Nation will vote in a special election today whether to override a 141-year-old treaty and change the tribal constitution to bar "freedmen," the descendants of former tribal slaves, from being members of the sovereign nation.

"It's a basic, inherent right to determine our own citizenry. We paid very dearly for those rights," Cherokee Principal Chief Chad Smith said in an interview last month in Oklahoma City.

But the Cherokee freedmen see the vote as less about self-determination than about discrimination and historical blinders. They see in the referendum hints of racism and a desire by some Cherokees to deny the tribe's slave-owning past.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: black; cherokee; followthemoney; freedmen; indians; nativeamericans; slaves
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Very interesting factors in this story. Here's another snip, regarding possible reasons for expelling the black indians

SNIP...Advocates of expelling the freedmen call it a matter of safeguarding tribal resources, which include a $350 million annual budget from federal and tribal revenue, and Cherokees' share of a gambling industry that, for U.S. tribes overall, takes in $22 billion a year. The grass-roots campaign for expulsion has given heavy play to warnings that keeping freedmen in the Cherokee Nation could encourage thousands more to sign up for a slice of the tribal pie.

"Don't get taken advantage of by these people. They will suck you dry," Darren Buzzard, an advocate of expelling the freedmen, wrote last summer in a widely circulated e-mail denounced by freedmen. "Don't let black freedmen back you into a corner. PROTECT CHEROKEE CULTURE FOR OUR CHILDREN. FOR OUR DAUGHTER[S] . . . FIGHT AGAINST THE INFILTRATION."

End of SNIP

Read the rest of the story here

1 posted on 03/03/2007 9:06:04 AM PST by rabidralph
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To: marsapan

Cherokee Nation huh?!! heehee


2 posted on 03/03/2007 9:07:34 AM PST by Shimmer128 (Molon labe)
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To: rabidralph
Yes - the indians had slaves and were slave owners and slave traders. Some they bought and some they captured. The slaves were black, white and other indians.

And now they want to kick out the descendants for not being "indian enough"

This should be fun to watch. Which PC group will give in first...
3 posted on 03/03/2007 9:09:42 AM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: rabidralph
It's a basic, inherent right to determine our own citizenry.

Does that apply to Americans, too?
4 posted on 03/03/2007 9:11:20 AM PST by frankenMonkey (Are there any men left in Washington, or are they all cowards?)
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To: Shimmer128

Chad Smith?

Chief Chad Smith?


5 posted on 03/03/2007 9:12:03 AM PST by michaelt
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To: rabidralph

"It's a basic, inherent right to determine our own citizenry. "
It would be nice if the USA would adopt that principle, and start expelling people whose ideology includes killing us.


6 posted on 03/03/2007 9:12:19 AM PST by Leftism is Mentally Deranged
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To: 2banana

I had no idea about all this. I'd really like to know what they do with the $22B and the all our tax money, while Indians are dirt poor and have so many social problems.


7 posted on 03/03/2007 9:12:40 AM PST by rabidralph
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To: Leftism is Mentally Deranged

Yes, it's funny that all other nations are proud to be pure but only America is concerned with multiculturalism.


8 posted on 03/03/2007 9:15:33 AM PST by rabidralph
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To: rabidralph

Nice, I guess that this is the way of increasing their profit share huh?


9 posted on 03/03/2007 9:15:55 AM PST by vpintheak (Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked)
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To: 2banana

Agreed! Lefties will go into full meltdown mode over this, wondering who to support. Pass the popcorn.....;)


10 posted on 03/03/2007 9:18:28 AM PST by Frank_2001
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To: rabidralph

I know where Jesse Jackson will fall, but what about Ward Churchill?


11 posted on 03/03/2007 9:20:40 AM PST by aft_lizard (born conservative...I chose to be a republican)
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To: 2banana
Yes - the indians had slaves and were slave owners and slave traders. Some they bought and some they captured. The slaves were black, white and other indians.

Yup... gonna' be a lot of lib hand-wringing and brow-furrowing goin' on over this.

12 posted on 03/03/2007 9:22:28 AM PST by johnny7 ("We took a hell of a beating." -'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell)
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To: aft_lizard

"I know where Jesse Jackson will fall, but what about Ward Churchill?"

***
What about the ghost of Will Rogers?


13 posted on 03/03/2007 9:26:22 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
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To: rabidralph
Don't get taken advantage of by these people. They will suck you dry," Darren Buzzard, an advocate of expelling the freedmen, wrote last summer in a widely circulated e-mail denounced by freedmen. "Don't let black freedmen back you into a corner. PROTECT CHEROKEE CULTURE FOR OUR CHILDREN. FOR OUR DAUGHTER[S] . . . FIGHT AGAINST THE INFILTRATION."

Sounds like they're taking lessons from Mr Farrakhan and La Raza.

14 posted on 03/03/2007 9:29:51 AM PST by VeniVidiVici (¡El proletariado del mundo, une! - Xuygo Chavez)
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To: Frank_2001
You all should read the comments on the Post's site, regarding this story.
15 posted on 03/03/2007 9:33:36 AM PST by rabidralph
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To: rabidralph

Follow the money...


16 posted on 03/03/2007 9:38:23 AM PST by BlessedBeGod (Benedict XVI = Terminator IV)
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To: 2banana

Just so you know the whole story, many many Indians were slaves also to white men and Mexican families. I have documentation to this but of course all of you already know it but just don't mention it.


17 posted on 03/03/2007 9:45:20 AM PST by fish hawk (The religion of Darwinism = Monkey Intellect)
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To: rabidralph

I say, Son, there's too much infiltratin' goin' on round 'chere!


18 posted on 03/03/2007 9:49:41 AM PST by Wally_Kalbacken (Seldom right but never in doubt)
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To: rabidralph

Some of those people are... freaks. They even got in the Bush-Bash.


19 posted on 03/03/2007 9:50:12 AM PST by Jaded ("I have a mustard- seed; and I am not afraid to use it."- Joseph Ratzinger)
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To: Frank_2001

Lefties will just bury the story and refuse to didcuss it


20 posted on 03/03/2007 9:55:29 AM PST by SauronOfMordor (Never try to teach a pig to sing -- it wastes your time and it annoys the pig)
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