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More about the Freedmen

Well, this is interesting:

According to the American Chronicle:

Oklahoma Cherokee Nation members have voted to exclude a group of African Americans going by the name of Freedmen and Intermarried Whites. Members of the Freedmen group claim to be descendents of runaway Black slaves, some claim Indian heritage. Some Eastern Indian Nations were forced by the federal government to give full tribal citizenship to the runaway Black slaves through the treaty of 1866 at the end of the U.S. Civil War 1861-1865. (I wonder if they mean Western Indian Nations)

(I guess they should be described as descendants of slaves WITHIN the Cherokee Nation - although it sounds like some were not in the Nation or missed the cut off date for the Dawes Roll, that was all up to the Dawes Commission - those dates etc. So I think for the Freedmen to blame the Cherokee People or any of the Tribal Officials is really over reaching and just a plain stretch of common sense. So this might be how the 13th Amendment got tied to the 1866 Treaty - in other words - any 13th Amendment argument would be overridden by the 1866 Treaty and it's subsequent changes made by congress. The original former slaves would have had their opportunity to contest the Dawes rulings and subsequent changes - so it would appear their descendants would be bound by the same decisions. Not being Black I'm not up on all the dates and civil rights issues Blacks have expounded over the years - but with a Black candidate for president it seems that some of these Black arguments are outdated as well. Again the Civil War was fought so former slaves could become US Citizens, not so they could become Citizens of an Indian Tribe)

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