Recently I saw a fascinating story in the news: the Cherokee Nation had just voted to expel the descendants of freed slaves from their tribe.
Reading on, I discovered layers of suffering spread across multiple generations. When the Cherokee were expelled from their homelands in the 19th century and forced to resettle in what would become Oklahoma, the richer members of the tribe brought their black slaves with them. This doesn’t quite fit the modern image of the Indian as a New Age guru spouting wisdom about buffalo and rivers, but then again, the myths constructed by guilty white folks to compensate for past sins always disintegrate upon contact with reality.
The story gets a lot more complex. In 1866- having fought on the side of the slave owning Confederacy in the Civil War- the surviving tribe members signed a treaty with the Federal Government, granting their freed slaves equal rights as members of the tribe, and soon after they were recognized in the Cherokee constitution as citizens. Thus there were around 2800 “Cherokee” of African descent in 2007, when they were suddenly expelled as a result of a referendum, a decision which was just upheld by the Cherokee Supreme Court.
At once the black Cherokee lost their identity, access to benefits, and the right to vote in tribal elections. Meanwhile the Cherokee Nation is about to elect its principal chief- and one of the candidates has been campaigning to get the Freedmen kicked out for ten years. Easier to win now, that their votes have disappeared, perhaps…
My first response to this was: wow. In 21st century America, with a black president in the White House, it’s still totally legal to dispossess and humiliate black people. Crazy! What are the Feds going to do?
I didn’t have to wait long for an answer. The Bureau of Indian Affairs declared that it would not recognize the results of the Cherokee election if the Freedmen were not allowed to vote; meanwhile the US Housing and Urban Development department froze $33 million in funds allocated for the Cherokee. Outraged, the tribe’s acting chief, Joe Crittenden declared: "The Cherokee Nation will not be governed by the BIA, (the Bureau of Indian Affairs)" On TV I saw the matter cast as a question of self-determination- the Cherokee can decide for themselves who is Cherokee, and if they demand proof of Indian blood, that is their right.
The minority-on-minority aspect of this story is especially troubling for those who prefer it when the USA or Israel or maybe Russia is the baddie. For instance, The Guardian- which bills itself as “the world’s leading liberal voice” ran a piece on the story with a headline so psychedelic as to be inconceivable; until it was actually conceived:
The Cherokee nation must be free to expel black freedmen
Apparently, because the Federal Government has done bad things to Indians in the past, they should now do nothing, because if they do something, it will only make things worse… or something. Cherokee sovereignty trumps all other considerations. Thus the bizarre moral calculus of “liberal” guilt. So does that mean the Feds should cut off all funding to the tribe, since surely that also interferes with their ‘sovereignty’; or do you keep handing out the free stuff, even as the recipients do things you abhor?
Furthermore, reneging on treaties is a two way street. If the Cherokee want to toss out terms agreed to in 1866, then the Feds can do likewise … and you really don’t really want to encourage Uncle Sam to go back on his agreements. The Cherokee should know that better than anyone.
Well, the threats issued from on high appear to have worked- for now. On Tuesday it was announced that the Freedmen would be permitted to vote in upcoming tribal elections.
What to make of this sad story? On the one hand I can understand Cherokee concern over the definition of a tribe member. I get annoyed when I meet exceedingly European looking people claiming to be part Indian, and I’m not Indian. These individuals appropriate an identity and a tragic history merely to add bogus exoticism to their mundane life stories. On the other hand, when the tribe accepts as members people who are a mere 1/2048 Cherokee- which they do- then the definition has already been rendered pretty meaningless. Go back long enough and we are all African, Arab, Jew, whatever. Meanwhile those freed slaves who were granted citizenship in 1866 received it from Cherokee who were most likely 100% Cherokee, by blood, culture and language. I assume they knew what they were doing.
Oppression is not the privilege of the powerful alone; the weak can lash out and hurt those even weaker than themselves. But just because your great-great grandfather suffered abuse at the hands of the Federal Government, I don’t see how that justifies inflicting fresh abuse upon the descendants of the people he enslaved.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Why Solzhenitsyn still matters
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Waiting to burn
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Colonel Gaddafi’s Conan the Barbarian moment
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Faith in helicopters
Transmissions from a Lone Star: American election watch, Part II – the cowboy cometh!
Transmissions from a Lone Star: When fools go to war
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Living in a natural disaster area
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Will America go into default?
Transmissions from a Lone Star: My local mega mosque
Transmissions from a Lone Star: July 4th, Russian Style
Transmissions from a Lone Star: On rock stars, slaves and free men
Transmissions from a Lone Star: The Sound of silence
Transmissions from a Lone Star: These days I get my truth from the tabloids
Transmissions from a Lone Star: American election watch, part 1
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Of Chukchi and Irishmen
Transmissions from a Lone Star: How I slayed the serpent
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Osama bin Laden, the great unifier
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Bury my heart on Nameless Road
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Party of the damned
Transmissions from a Lone Star: R.I.P. Yury Gagarin, long live the Russian space program!
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Freedom of speech and cosmic stupidity
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Why I am immune to Royal Wedding fever
Transmissions from a Lone Star: My life of crime
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Russian pop acts abroad with stars in their eyes
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Overnight sensations
Transmissions from a Lone Planet: Let a thousand concealed handguns bloom
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Robocop Forever!
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Life During Wartime
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Ice storms, snowfall and the last man on Earth
Transmissions from a Lone Star: A Brief Encounter with Holy Death
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Ancient wisdom of the Apache
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Transmissions from a Lone Star: Things Coca-Cola has taught me
Transmissions from a Lone Star: The Ghost in the Rage Machine
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Parallel Lives. Russian literature at home and abroad
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Is America becoming more Texan?
Transmissions from a Lone Star: For instant Christmas spirit, blow here
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Finding magic in everyday places
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Everything was forever until it was no more
Transmissions from a Lone Star: The city and the country
Transmissions from a Lone Star: God and germs are everywhere
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Whatever happened to the Fort Hood shooter?
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Post-election psychosis American style!
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Messiah Time - Apocalypse in Russian-American Politics
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Border Blues
*
What does the world look like to a man stranded deep in the heart of Texas? Each week, Austin- based author Daniel Kalder writes about America, Russia and beyond from his position as an outsider inside the woefully - and willfully - misunderstood state he calls “the third cultural and economic center of the USA.”
Daniel Kalder is a Scotsman who lived in Russia for a decade before moving to Texas in 2006. He is the author of two books, Lost Cosmonaut (2006) and Strange Telescopes (2008), and writes for numerous publications including The Guardian, The Observer, The Times of London and The Spectator.
