The Cherokee Nation vote this weekend to revoke the citizenship of the descendants of people the Cherokee once owned as slaves was a blow to people who have relied on tribal benefits.
Velie said Saturday's vote already has hurt the tribe's public perception.
....It's throwback, old-school racist rhetoric," Velie said.
"And it's really heartbreaking, because the Cherokees are good people and have a very diverse citizenship," he said.
Miller, the tribal spokesman, defended the Cherokees against charges of racism, saying that Saturday's vote showed the tribe was open to allowing its citizens vote on whether non-Indians be allowed membership.
"I think it's actually the opposite. To say that the Cherokee Nation is intolerant or racist ignores the fact that we have an open dialogue and have the discussion, he said.
I dug a little further and found a piece from down under that told the whole story. It seems like the Cherokees are not very tolerant when it comes to sharing their casino money.
The election has also high-lighted the massive gambling revenues many tribes now enjoy because, as "sovereign nations", they are free to build casinos on tribal lands in a country where gambling is largely illegal.
The vote limits citizenship to those who can trace their heritage to a "Cherokee by blood" list, part of the Dawes Rolls census created by Congress in 1906. Under that census, anybody with a trace of African-American blood – even if they were half Cherokee – was placed on the freedmen roll.
Those with full Cherokee or mixed white and Cherokee ancestry – even if seventh-eighths white – were put on the "Cherokee by blood" roll.
Today about 25,000 of the 270,000 Cherokees are descendants of freedmen, but the tribe is growing rapidly with new citizens enrolling each month. Members are entitled to a share of the $350 million annual budget from federal and tribal revenue, housing and medical support.
Those who want to expel the freedmen have said that, without the vote, thousands more descendants would seek to cash in on the tribe’s revenue and welfare network.
"Don’t get taken advantage of by these people. They will suck you dry," wrote Darren Buzzard in a widely circulated e-mail last year.
"Don’t let black freedmen back you into a corner. Protect Cherokee culture for our children."
Chad Smith, the tribe’s principal chief, said that about 8,700 people had voted in the special election, more than the turnout for the Cherokee constitution vote four years ago.
That sounds very open and tolerant indeed Mr Smith.
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