'This is 21st Century racism and apartheid': Cherokee Indian tribe expels all slave descendants

The nation's second-largest Indian tribe formally booted from membership thousands of descendants of black slaves who 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 on Monday, the tribe's Supreme Court ruled that a 2007 tribal decision to kick the so-called 'Freedmen' out of the tribe could be upheld.

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Heritage: The case centred on whether the descendants of black slaves taken in by Native American owners should be deemed official members

The controversy stems from a footnote in the brutal history of U.S. treatment of Native Americans.



When many Indians were forced to move to what later became Oklahoma from the eastern U.S. in 1838, some who had owned plantations in the South brought along their slaves.

Some 4,000 Indians died during the forced march, which became known as the Trail of Tears.

Verdict: Members of the tribe site in court to hear the outcome of the case

'And our ancestors carried the baggage,' said Marilyn Vann, the Freedman leader who is a plaintiff in the legal battle.

THE TRAIL OF TEARS

In the winter of 1838, U.S. soldiers rounded up Cherokees and led them on a thousand mile march from their homelands in Tennessee to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

The brutal programme of forced removal, implemented so their land could be annexed, would later be referred to as the Trail of Tears. It is believed that about 4,000 of the tribe died on the journey, which many took completely barefoot. Handed blankets for the trip from a hospital where a smallpox epidemic had broken out, the Cherokees were not allowed into any towns along the way for fear they would spread infection. At one point they were massively overcharged to cross a river and were forced to wait while other travellers took precedence. Many Cherokees died huddled in the cold waiting to cross.



Officially, there are about 2,800 Freedmen, but another 3,500 have tribal membership applications pending, and there could be as many as 25,000 eligible to enter the tribe, according to Vann.

The tribal court decision was announced one day before absentee ballots were to be mailed in the election of the Cherokee Principal Chief.

'This is racism and apartheid in the 21st Century,' said Mrs Vann, an engineer who lives in Oklahoma City.

Tribal member Kenneth Payton told NewsOn6: 'It's my legal right [to be in the tribe]. It's my humane right. This is more of a human rights issue than anything else.'

Member David Adams, however, said: 'A person ought to have at least one member of family to be tribal.'



Spokesmen for the tribe did not respond when asked to comment.

The move to exclude the Freedmen has rankled some African American members of Congress, which has jurisdiction over all Native American tribes in the country.

Support: Many tribal members back the decision, despite accusations of racism

Furious: The decision has been labelled a serious human rights abuse by critics

A lawsuit challenging the Freedman's removal from the tribe has been pending in federal court in Washington, for about six years.

As a sovereign nation, Cherokee Nation officials maintain that the tribe has the right to amend its constitutional membership requirements.

Removal from the membership rolls means the Freedmen will no longer be eligible for free health care and other benefits such as education concessions.





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