Salute to all my Cherokee Freedmen folk 
Black power winning outchea 
Black power winning outchea A judge ruled Wednesday that the descendants of enslaved people who were owned by members of the Cherokee Nation — known as Cherokee Freedmen — have citizenship rights.
"The Cherokee Nation can continue to define itself as it sees fit," U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan wrote in his ruling, "but must do so equally and evenhandedly with respect to native Cherokees and the descendants of Cherokee Freedmen."
After Emancipation, the Cherokee Nation granted its former slaves tribal citizenship as part of a treaty with the U.S. government in 1866. But in 2007, Cherokee members voted overwhelmingly to strip 2,800 Freedmen of their membership, defining tribal citizenship as "by blood."
NPR previously reported that the U.S. government had opposed the tribe's vote and that at one point, the Department of Housing and Urban Development suspended $37 million in funding to the Cherokee Nation.
Now, the fight over citizenship has come to an end.
Marilyn Vann, president of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes — one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit — called the decision "groundbreaking."
Waynetta Lawrie (left), of Tulsa, Okla., stands with others at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City in 2007, during a demonstration by several Cherokee Freedmen and their supporters.
AP
A judge ruled Wednesday that the descendants of enslaved people who were owned by members of the Cherokee Nation — known as Cherokee Freedmen — have citizenship rights.
Full article in link.
Judge Rules That Cherokee Freedmen Have Right To Tribal Citizenship
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