Cherokees expel slaves’ descendants from tribe, cutting medical care, housing, other services.According to the Washington Post —
The tribe never owned black slaves, but some individual members did. They were freed after the Civil War, in which the tribe allied with the Confederacy. An 1866 treaty between the tribe and the federal government gave the freedmen and their descendants “all the rights of native Cherokees.”
But more than 76 percent of Cherokee voters approved the amendment stripping the descendants of their citizenship. Tribal leaders who backed the amendment, including then-Principal Chief Chad Smith, said the vote was about the fundamental right of every government to determine its citizens, not about racial exclusion.
The freedmen’s descendants disagree.
OMG is right! Might I add a little WTF to that? I'm speechless.
ReplyDeleteOppressed people are oppressed, not necessarily saintly. Compare the attitude of many Black churches towards gay rights.
ReplyDeleteAs Auden put it, rather neatly,
Those to whom evil is done,
Do evil in return.
And it won't fly as an excuse to stiff the natives once again. Our past history puts us into a pretty weak position to preach morality to them. Not that we shouldn't try, in a case like this. But I doubt they are in the mood to listen.
Here is a good book on the topic, What it must of been like being Black and owning slaves
ReplyDeletehttp://www.enotes.com/known-world