from Reply #8
We invite all Black Cherokees, all Mixed Blood Cherokees, all Cherokees who have been denied their rights by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
we have been shoved around by the Federal Recognized Cherokees when we have as much right to be recognized as any of our brothers and sisters in Oklahoma
Mixed-blood Cherokees and the Cherokee Freedmen have been denied our rights and freedoms by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
The CNO continually denies that many of us even exist by saying that ALL Cherokees walked the Trail of Tears during the forced removal of our people by the United States Government. Even history proclaims that many Cherokees hid in the mountains and valleys to escape that dreadful time in our history as a race of people.
How strange...
These people are demanding recognition, but recognition as what, and by who?
If they can prove descent from a person who was Cherokee , are they wanting a note from the President of the United States acknowldging that their genealogy is correct ?
If they can't actually prove one of their ancestors is Cherokee, are they hoping they can get some authoritative people to say their genealogy tracks back to a Cherokee ancestor... and even if they can't prove it, then they don't need to worry about that ?
Are they wanting to see the general requirements for federal recognition as a tribe changed, so that proof of political and cultural continuity is no longer required, and any group of people with any amount of Native blood came claim to be their own Nation?
Is it only the identity of indigenous Nations thats up for grabs, or is the political identity of European Nations such as England , Germany France and Spain on the table to? Being Queen of one of these countries might be fun and finacially lucrative... Is the position open to any NDN person who can prove they have ancestry from one of these countries?
Or are they thinking only people who believe they are Cherokee descendents have the privilidge of getting together for a few potluck dinners, and declaring themself an independant Nation ?
If these rights to recognition as a Nation are not a special privilidge held only by people who imagine themselves to be Cherokee descendents, then would this right to declare Nationhood also extend to any small town in America, which has a few families which trace descent from Pocahontas...?
And I see this article mentions the CNO three times as being to blame for not recognizing these people.
If tribal Nations have membership limitations because they feel it isn't practical to try to reintegrate everyone who has some descent, and these people want to criticize this, then why are they repeatedly criticizing the CNO, which has the most inclusive membership criteria?
If these demands were really based on descendents with Cherokee blood being excluded from being enrolled citizens , it seems it would be the tribes with the most exclusive membership policies, like the UKB , who would be criticized most strongly... But it isn't...
It looks more like it's more that the generosity and inclusiveness of the CNO is percieved as easiest barrier to try to bust their way through.
now the CNO would attempt to strip us of even being able to say that we are Cherokee when may of us have more of that same Blood flowing through our veins than some of those that are on the Rolls that the BIA goes by. I am not saying that anyone having ¼ Indian Blood is anymore Indian that someone who only has 1/8 Indian Blood, but I do believe just as Dragging Canoe said, ‘That if you have one drop of Cherokee Blood, then you are Cherokee through and through.
The importance Cherokee communities seem to put on maintaining relationships with descendents seems like a good thing, but i doubt this inclusiveness was ever in response to a large group of people who popped up out of nowhere, with no connection to any living Cherokee families, who were claiming the right to all resources belonging to Cherokee people...
I have to wonder what privilidges these people imagine they would have, if they were enrolled in the CNO, that an unenrolled descendent would be denied?
I'm not at all clear what it is they are demanding...?
