Vann gave a presentation at a Delaware tribal council meeting in May in which she explained that the Cherokee Freedmen are currently denied citizenship in the Cherokee Nation. She offered her organization's friendship and support to the Delaware Tribe. Delaware Chief Joe Brooks followed by offering his support for the return of citizenship to the Cherokee Freedmen.
Vann said the Delaware and the Cherokee Freedmen are both non-Cherokee groups whose shared history gives each the right to claim Cherokee citizenship. The Cherokee Nation officially allied with the confederacy during the Civil War. Following the Union victory, the Cherokee Nation was obliged to sign a treaty of surrender with the United States, Vann said. In this 1866 treaty, the Cherokee Nation was forced to discontinue the practice of African slavery and grant full citizenship rights to their former slaves. It was also agreed to in the 1866 treaty that the Cherokee Nation would cede a large section of land to the federal government and allow non-Cherokee Indians to settle as citizens in the Cherokee Nation.
Vann said the former Cherokee slaves were subsequently given full citizenship rights and identified as the Cherokee Freedmen. The immigrant Delaware and Shawnee tribes that migrated to the Cherokee Nation following the Civil War retained their tribal institutions while also gaining citizenship in the Cherokee Nation. From 1867 to 1907, the Delaware, Shawnee and the Cherokee Freedmen enjoyed full suffrage in Cherokee elections and received per capita payments as tribal members, Vann said.
When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, the Cherokee Nation was dissolved and it's land distributed to individual tribal members. The Delaware, Shawnee and the Cherokee Freedmen received land allotments as citizens of the former Cherokee Nation. When the Cherokee Nation was reorganized, the Delaware, Shawnee and Freedmen were included as citizens of the Cherokee Nation. As the Cherokee Nation's influence grew in subsequent years, the Cherokee leadership decided to significantly alter their tribal membership policy. They continued to include the Delaware and Shawnee as Cherokee tribal members but identified both as "Cherokee," Vann said.
The Cherokee Nation then excluded the Freedmen from tribal membership on the basis that such individuals were not "Indian." This policy was codified in the 1976 Cherokee Constitution and since that time many concerned Cherokee Freedmen have fought for the return of their citizenship rights in the Cherokee Nation, Vann said. The Delaware Tribe and the Shawnee Tribe were also reluctant to accept their new Cherokee status and have subsequently regained their federal recognition separate from the Cherokee Nation.
The Cherokee Nation has not sat idle while the Delaware and the Cherokee Freedmen challenged Cherokee policy. The Cherokee Nation appealed the Delaware Tribe's federal recognition in 1996 and their case is still under litigation.
The Cherokee Nation argues that the Delaware Tribe should not be federally recognized because the Delaware are Cherokee citizens based on the current Cherokee tribal membership policy. The Cherokee Nation has also not changed their position on excluding the Cherokee Freedmen.
Vann said in response, The Descendants of the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes filed suit on behalf of the Cherokee Freedmen against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for allowing the Cherokee Nation to disenfranchise tribal members on the basis of race. The Cherokee Nation contends that the Freedmen are not Cherokee citizens because they are not able to demonstrate any Cherokee ancestry.
Vann said the contradictory position taken by the Cherokee Nation in their tribal membership policy is that they exclude the Freedmen while including the Delaware even though both the Delaware and the Freedmen were granted citizenship in the Cherokee Nation by the 1866 treaty.
Vann said the reality is that the Cherokee Nation does not base its membership policy on the Treaty of 1866 but on the divisive concept of race. The Cherokee Nation includes the Delaware because they are "Indian" and excludes the Freedmen because they are "black," she said.
"It is this racially motivated contradiction in the Cherokee Nation's tribal membership policy that the Delaware-Freedmen alliance hopes to bring attention to and abolish," Vann said.
