Cherokee expels black slave descendants & members over money?

My Native-American friends have long talked about the connection between the tribes and the African American slaves. There is a long and positive history between our people as shown in the exhibition IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas. But what will happen to Afro-Natives if they are denied claim to their identity and heritage? A recent article highlighting how the Cherokee Indian tribe expelled all their slave descendants brings up this every issue.

Thousands of descendants of black slaves were brought to Oklahoma more than 170 years ago by Native American owners. The Cherokee nation voted after the Civil War to admit the slave descendants to the tribe. But recently, the tribe's Supreme Court ruled that a 2007 tribal decision to kick the so-called 'Freedmen' out of the tribe could be upheld.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029724/Cherokee-Indian-tribe-slammed-racist-expelling-slave-descendants.html

The interesting unspoken issue here is, are they only denying their "black slave" descendants? Are they allowing their the "non black slave" descendants to remain members of their tribe? If so then this is about race and discrimination and not about tribal history and community. Those "black slave" freeman have married, raised families and lived in the Cherokee Indian community from day one. In my opinion, the Afro-Natives are family and should be accepted.

Do you think the Cherokee Indian's are showing their racist side or is this about something else?

The controversy over the freedmen's status is at least in part about money. The Cherokee nation, the second-largest Native American tribe in the country, receives money from the federal government and earns money from its stake in the lucrative gambling industry, which totaled $26.4 billion for all tribes in 2009. In the run-up to the 2007 amendment vote, some proponents of expelling the freedmen suggested that more blacks might apply for membership to receive tribal money.