U.S.  Senate Agrees to Let Courts Decide Freedmen Issue

Washington, D.C.— The United States Senate passed a measure today preserving Cherokee Nation’s federal funding for housing services as long as a tribal court order allowing citizenship for non-Indian Freedmen descendants remains in place throughout the tribal court case that will determine their eligibility for citizenship in the Cherokee Nation.

The provision was included in the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act reauthorization passed by the Senate today.  Currently, more than 300 non-Indian descendants of Freedmen are suing the Cherokee Nation in tribal district court over a Constitutional amendment passed by Cherokee voters in March 2007 that restricted citizenship to people who had an Indian ancestor listed on the Cherokee Nation’s base roll.  That amendment effectively ended a one-year period in which non-Indians were allowed to register as citizens based on a 2006 tribal court ruling.  Those non-Indian Freedmen whose citizenship is in question have full citizenship rights, including access to social services and the right to vote, because of a May 2007 tribal court order that continues citizenship while the case is pending.  

“While it is unfortunate that Congress voted to single out an Indian tribe over a disagreement about the tribe’s internal citizenship criteria, it is a good sign that they have decided that this is a matter that should be decided by the courts and not by politics,” said Smith. “I want to thank Senators Coburn, Dorgan and Murkowski for their leadership and for proposing this solution in a way that is not punitive to Cherokees who need housing assistance, since the matter is still being decided in a court of law.”

More information on the Cherokee Nation and the issue of non-Indian Freedmen citizenship is available online at www.cherokeenationfacts.org and www.meetthecherokee.org.