Skip to main content

Freedmen case in the Federal Court of Claims

This is a separate case than the case filed in the Federal District Court. They appear to be asking for a bit more than just citizenship and voting rights in the Cherokee Nation. Those Freedmen involved in this case, are those that do not have a Cherokee Ancestor on the Cherokee base roll required for citizenship in the Cherokee Nation.

Complaint Filed Against U.S. Department of Interior Seeking Treaty Benefits for Black Indians and Freedmen

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

Dr. Claud Anderson, president of the Harvest Institute Freedmen Federation (HIFF) announced that it has filed a Complaint in the United States Federal Court of Claims in Washington, D.C. against the United States Department of Interior and its Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) seeking legal redress and civil and property rights for the descendants of Black Indians and Black Freedmen.

HIFF discussed background and details of the Complaint at a noon press conference at the National Press Club in downtown Washington, D.C. Dr. Anderson said, "The Complaint is based upon treaties of 1865 and 1866 that were negotiated after the Civil War, between the United States government and slave-holding Indian tribes who had fought on the side of the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War." The slave-owning tribes included the Creek Nation, Cherokees, Seminoles, Choctaw and the Chickasaw Nations. Before the Civil War, these tribes had treaties with the United States. However, when these Indian tribes repudiated allegiance to the United States and supported the rebelling states by joining the Southern Confederacy, they in effect violated the terms of all existing treaties with the United States and rendered them null and void. When the Civil War ended, Congress passed the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. The slave-holding Indian tribes claimed sovereign nation status, and refused to
abolish slavery within their respective territories. Having just fought a war that ended slavery, the country could not allow Indian tribes within its borders to defy Congressional mandates and continue to hold slaves. The United States demanded that the Indian groups abide by the outcome of the War and free their Black slaves.

In order to reconcile differences over slavery, the United States entered into a series of agreements with the affected tribes. The treaties of 1865 and 1866 resulted from those negotiations. The treaties abolished slavery and mandated allotments of land and other benefits for the Freedmen and Black Indians. Freedmen were the emancipated slaves previously owned by Native Indians. Black Indians were the offspring of Indians and Blacks, whether slave or free. The Harvest Institute Freedmen Federation's lawsuit seeks enforcement of these treaties.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of Interior is responsible for implementing the terms of treaties between Native American tribes, the United States government and Black Freedmen. Dr. Anderson said, "HIFF's legal complaint asks the Department of Interior to acknowledge responsibility of the United States government to the descendants of Black Indians and Black Freedmen. It further seeks that the Department establish contemporary procedures to distribute the allotments of land and other benefits such as tax exempt status, free college educations, rights to own and build casinos, annual income allotments and medical, health and housing services to the descendants of Black Indians and Black Freedmen."

The Harvest Institute Freedmen Federation (HIFF) is a partnership organization between The Harvest Institute and the Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund. The purpose of the new organization is to pursue common legal issues.

SOURCE Harvest Institute Freedmen Federation
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Americanization of Native Americans

Americanization can refer to the policies of the United States government and public opinion that there is a standard set of cultural values that should be held in common by all citizens. Education was and is viewed as the primary method in the acculturation process. These opinions were harshly applied when it came to Americanization of Native Americans compared to immigrant populations who arrived with their "non-American traditions". The Americanization policies said that when indigenous people learned American customs and values they would soon merge tribal traditions with European-American culture and peacefully melt into the greater society. For example in the 1800s and early 1900s, traditional religious ceremonies were outlawed and it was mandatory for children to attend English speaking boarding schools where native languages and cultural traditions were forbidden. The Dawes Act of 1887 , which allotted tribal lands to individuals and resulted in an estimated total o...
Read more

Indian Boarding Schools - the US Solution to the Indian Problem

American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many by Charla Bear This is the first in a two-part report. For the photos with this piece and the rest of the story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865 May 13, 2008 Col. Richard H. Pratt founded the first of the off-reservation Native American boarding schools based on the philosophy that, according to a speech he made in 1892, "all the Indian there is in the race should be dead." CORBIS 'Kill the Indian...Save the Man' According to Col. Richard Pratt's speech in 1892: "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." From Need to 'National Tragedy' Early in the history of American Indian boarding schools, the...
Read more

UKB and Cherokee Nation Today

Hello, everyone – I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and didn’t overdo too much. It was a foodfest in my neighborhood and it was really fun! In this installment we will bring the story of the UKB and the Cherokee Nation to the present. As the Cherokee Nation began to recover its sovereign powers in the 1970s, after having being squelched for most of the twentieth century by the “bureaucratic imperialism” of the BIA as the judge in the Harjo case described it, the UKB was dwindling. As the Cherokee Nation elected its first Chief since statehood, developed a superseding Constitution, reinstated its citizens, reconstituted its Tribal Council (also a result of the Harjo case), established Cherokee Nation Industries and investigated other economic development enterprises, the UKB receded and was basically defunct by the end of the 1970s. But in 1979, there was a particularly nasty runoff in the Principal Chief’s race between incumbent Ross Swimmer and his opponent, Jim Gordon. Swi...
Read more