tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30048708.post2116852023128957127..comments2024-02-25T21:49:12.425-05:00Comments on Journal de La Reyna (World News Today): Indianz.Com > News > Editorial: Race and citizenship in Cherokee disputeLa Reynahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06475695241687396578noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30048708.post-48891724180312314172007-08-27T11:26:00.000-04:002007-08-27T11:26:00.000-04:00Personally, I support her measure. She is insisti...Personally, I support her measure. She is insisting that the "official" Cherokee political leadership which regards itself as a sovereign state that is also seen conversely as an intrinsic cog within the greater colonial United States, adhere to U.S. Federal law.<BR/><BR/>If the Cherokee Nation accepts the United States government as its parent and accepts and recognises its legal authority in their affairs, they must also honour the legal rules and prohibitions against institutional racial and ethnic bias. Principal Chief Chad Smith refuses to do this and let's not forget that the public vote was a landslide for ejection of their African members. Anti-African racism has always been a part of Cherokee culture primarily because the Nation was among the first and the most successful at plantation slavery. So successful in fact, they were kicked out of the south by envious Whites into what would become Oklahoma. And they took their slaves with them.<BR/><BR/>What the Cherokees did with that vote was genocidal. They legally stripped Natives of African descent of their communal recognition in favour of a xenophobic prerogative. As many (Black) Indians have suggested, if membership should only be based on blood-quantum, (a eugenics measure like the one-drop-rule) DNA examinations could settle the question immediately. The (mostly) White Cherokee population scoffs at this and wave their Dawes Rolls cards which only prove that an ancestor was listed by the Indian Agency sometime in the past. Add to this the several other very different government Cherokee registers in existence, the many thousands of White Americans who claim some degree of Cherokee blood and the proliferation of bogus "Cherokee" incorporated tribes and medicine people littering the U.S. , the DNA idea sounds like a good one.<BR/><BR/>I understand your concern for added strife, but this is an old issue and racist Cherokee are no more comfortable with being called out that your average White American racist. Too bad.TheAngryindianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03461260845144835238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30048708.post-65754846874105193872007-08-25T16:26:00.000-04:002007-08-25T16:26:00.000-04:00To Angryindian,Thanks for bringing up the race and...To Angryindian,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for bringing up the race and citizenship issue regarding the exclusion of Black Cherokees in the membership rolls. Diane Watson is going about it the wrong way by witholding funds until the Cherokees admit their part-black members. That action only excabates the tensions between the black Cherokees and the rest of the tribe. There's more than one way to resolve the problem and punishment isn't the answer.<BR/><BR/>What are your thoughts on the race/citizenship issue?<BR/><BR/>StephanieLa Reynahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06475695241687396578noreply@blogger.com