Cherokee Identity Fight Reaches Calif
By GILLIAN FLACCUS – 21 hours ago
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — Diane Ross-Neal grew up learning about her Cherokee heritage. So when the tribe began to promote cultural organizations for the thousands of members living in California, she was eager to share her story.
Not everyone wanted to hear it.
Organizers tried to pry the microphone from her hands at meetings, she said. Some called her a liar. The reason, she said, is simple: She is black.
"I went to all the meetings and I felt so unwelcome," Ross-Neal said. "I kid you not, it was like, 'What are you doing here? You're black, you're not Cherokee.'"
Ross-Neal, 62, is one of hundreds of people who call themselves Cherokee freedmen, descendants of slaves owned by the tribe before being freed. They trace their legal status as Cherokees to an 1866 treaty with the United States which they say recognized all the tribe's slaves and their descendants as tribal members.
The tribe decided earlier this year, however, to strip membership from freedmen who cannot prove they have some Cherokee blood. The purge is a contentious issue for the tribe as well as its fledgling cultural organizations in California.
About 20,000 Cherokees live in California, the largest number outside the tribe's homeland in Oklahoma. At least eight cultural groups have formed this year across the state. Similar organizations are starting in six other states.
Organizers say these cultural "communities" are a way to reconnect far-flung Cherokees with their heritage, give them stronger ties to the tribal government, and provide a forum for their concerns.
But some Cherokee freedmen accuse tribal leadership of using the organizations to minimize the voice of black Cherokees at a time when the debate over their rights has spread beyond the tribe. A California congresswoman recently introduced a bill that would punish the Cherokee Nation for purging freedmen. Lawsuits seeking a similar recourse are pending in both tribal and federal courts.
The conflict began in March, when more than three-quarters of the tribe voted to kick about 2,800 freedmen off tribal rolls.
Principal Chief Chad Smith said the vote by the 270,000-member tribe was not racist and targets only those slave descendants with no Cherokee blood. Tribal officials estimate that as many as 1,500 freedmen can prove they have some Cherokee blood and will remain tribal citizens.
"It was the people's decision," he said. "I have a constitutional duty to uphold our laws and constitution."
Still, the vote caught the attention of Rep. Diane Watson, a Los Angeles Democrat, who introduced legislation in June that would sever U.S. relations with the tribe and end their gaming rights. Watson, who is black and claims American Indian blood, estimates the Cherokees could lose $300 million in federal money under her proposal.
John Velie, an attorney for the ousted freedmen, said that freedmen have been more politically active in the tribe than their non-black counterparts. He sees the new cultural organizations as an effort to counter that influence.
"They're scared that if the freedmen come in and vote, a bunch of 'welfare blacks' will come in and take their benefits," he said. "It's just racism."
Taylor Keen, a former tribal councilman and one of the few Cherokees to publicly endorse freedmen rights, said the California cultural groups are little more than propaganda machines designed to push an anti-freedmen message.
Meetings have tightly controlled agendas, Keen said. Freedmen are rarely allowed to speak and sometimes anti-freedmen literature is distributed.
"The message of Cherokee by blood is being spun," he said. "It's another forum for anti-freedmen rhetoric and I think anyone who's been there wouldn't deny it."
Cherokees living outside Oklahoma might be more easily swayed by the tribe's party line, said Marilyn Vann, president of Descendants of Freedman of the Five Civilized Tribes and a plaintiff in the federal litigation.
"They have very little knowledge and a lot of their knowledge has come from the tribal newspaper," said Vann, who lives in Oklahoma City.
The debate has divided even black Cherokees, pitting those who have Indian blood against those who don't — or at least, who cannot prove it.
Lloyd Thompson, who is one-quarter Cherokee, said he supported the tribe's vote to kick out the freedmen because those with no Indian blood were trying to use race to get benefits they don't deserve, such as medical and social services.
"There are people who are dark-skinned, like mine, and they interbred with the Cherokee and they lived with the Cherokee. They are authentic," he said. "These other people are interlopers."
Those who formed the California culture groups say the accusations made by some freedmen are baseless. They say members only want to reconnect with the tribe after being forced to downplay their heritage for generations.
"I don't see that this is connected to the freedman issue," said Julia Coates, who helped start the cultural communities.
Organizing the communities became a priority when the tribe voted four years ago to add council seats for members living outside Oklahoma, she said. Coates was recently elected to one of those seats.
That doesn't convince Ross-Neal, who is now trying to gain support to form a separate tribe for the ousted Cherokee freedmen.
"We're invisible," she said. "It's not like they were treading the Trail of Tears by themselves. Our ancestors died on the trail too — but we were there as slaves."
Associated Press Writer Justin Juozapavicius in Tulsa, Okla., contributed to this report.
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