Monday’s ruling means that enrolled freedmen descendants who voted in the tribe’s general election on June 25 or its run-off election on July 23 will not be eligible to vote in the new election for Principal Chief.

 

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — The Cherokee freedmen controversy Monday, immediately terminating the tribal citizenship of about 2,800 non-Indians.

Issued late Monday afternoon, the court ruled 4-1 in that neither it nor the tribe’s district court has the authority to overturn the results 2007 referendum that amended the Cherokee Nation’s constitution to exclude freedmen descendants.  According to the justices’ decision, their lack of authority stems from the fact that the election was held in accordance with the tribe’s election code.

Citing an 1866 treaty between the Cherokee Nation and the United States that granted equal rights to the freedmen, Cherokee Nation District Court judge John Cripps ruled in favor of the freedmen descendants earlier this year.

In Monday’s decision, Chief Justice Darell Matlock Jr., wrote that citizenship was extended to freedmen descendants via an 1866 constitutional amendment, not the treaty. Had the treaty extended citizenship rights, Matlock wrote, then the freedmen descendants would not have sufficient standing to sue.

“It stands to reason that if the Cherokee people had the right to define the Cherokee Nation citizenship in the … 1866 constitutional amendment, they would have the sovereign right to change the definition of Cherokee Nation citizenship in their sovereign expression in the March 3, 2007 constitutional amendment,” Matlock wrote.

The ruling also parries the argument that excluding the freedmen descendants is a violation of the 13th Amendment by stating that descendants who can show that they have at least one ancestor on the Dawes Rolls can retain their tribal citizenship or, if not already a member, apply for citizenship.

“The Cherokee Nation constitution does not exclude people from citizenship in the manner the 13th Amendment protects against,” Matlock wrote. “It includes for eligibility those whose verifiable ancestors are listed on the Dawes Rolls as Cherokee by blood.”

Ralph Keen, Jr., from Stilwell, Okla., is the lead council for the 386 freedmen descendants in the class action lawsuit. On Tuesday, he expressed his dismay in the justices’ ruling.

“On behalf of the Cherokee freedmen, I am both disappointed and saddened at the court’s ruling handed down yesterday,” he said. “Because the Cherokee Nation justice system has failed them, the Cherokee freedmen have no option to resort to the federal courts or the halls of Congress for the vindication of their rights.”

Two lawsuits regarding the rights and citizenship of Cherokee freedmen descendants are still pending in federal district court in Washington, D.C. Diane Hammons, the tribe’s attorney general, said Thursday that she expects at least one filing prior to Labor Day.

“We don’t know what it will be yet,” Hammons said of the potential filing. “We’re considering all options on how to best address the situation.”

The tribe is in the process of determining how many how many people would lose access to tribally-subsidized health care, housing and scholarships but would not abruptly interrupt service for individuals already receiving benefits.

“We are coordinating activities with our different programs,” Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Melanie Knight said Thursday. “Nothing is happening immediately; we won’t just yank away someone’s health services.

“If someone is in the middle of, for example, a contract health service, then we will see it through to completion. If they are on a waiting list however, then they will be removed.”

Monday’s ruling means that enrolled freedmen descendants who voted in the tribe’s general election on June 25 or its run-off election on July 23 will not be eligible to vote in the new election for principal chief, set for Sept. 24, unless they are a tribal citizen by blood. Absentee ballots are scheduled to be mailed out Tuesday and Wednesday.

Marilyn Vann, lead plaintiff in one of the two pending lawsuits and president of the Descendants of Freedmen of Five Civilized Tribes Association, renounced the decision Tuesday.

“My nation and the nation of my ancestors has expelled us on our Trail of Tears over a century after our ancestors carried baggage on the original trail,” she said. “It is a dark day for the Cherokee Nation, for Indian Country and for mankind.”

The organization has scheduled a protest for in front of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Eastern Oklahoma regional office in Muskogee, Okla.

Vann also said the freedmen and their supporters would be on hand during the Cherokee National Holiday parade Saturday to “publicize their plight.”

The lone dissenting opinion, offered by justice Darrell Dowty, was not made available to the public.