Actually, he does. You see, tribes have benefits to those they issue CDIB cards (certificate of degree of Indian Blood). If you have a CDIB card, you get free medical care at the IHS clinics etc.
Now, because the Cherokee are intermarried, those with one 16th cherokee blood will have a card, whereas most tribes make the cut off of services as 1 eighth, so that those who are truely living as an Indian will get the poorly funded government services.
Some in Oklahoma think that the Cherokees did this to "inflate" their numbers, to outnumber, for example, the truely larger Navajo tribe in getting government contracts.
Personally, since I am white, I don't care. But if you are an Arapaho or a Cheyenne with 3/4 indian blood, living on the verge of poverty, you might get upset that a one 16th yuppie from Broken Arrow gets free medical care and uses contract health funds...
I have met a lot of the Chickasaws by volunteering in the Cole campaign in 2002 and really nice people.
That said, I know one Cherokee that his Grandfather refused to sign off that he was 1/2 Cherokee because he said he wanted him to earn his own way and he didn't need any handouts. If he wanted a college education, earn it like everyone else.
The license plates in this State are a joke from the Cherokee with their one drop rule. A lot of the other tribes have been disgusted with them for years and I don't think this is going to hurt Dr. Tom as much as some people say. I, for one, am tired of all the handouts and then they do all the Indian gambling. Chickasaws pretty much take care of their own. From all accounts, that cannot be said of the Cherokees -- they have been fighting each other since we moved into the State.
My Income Taxes are so high thanks to all the freebies and lack of paying sales tax that the Indians even though they have their Smoke Shops and Gambling casinos.