A bill before the U.S. House that could curtail federal housing funds to the Cherokee Nation could be voted on early this week.

The House Committee on Financial Services approved an amendment that calls for restricting U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding until the Cherokee Nation restores full tribal citizenship rights to its Freedmen.

U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.D., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus’ Cherokee Nation Task Force, proposed the amendment, which includes halting the funding until the tribe complies with the Treaty of 1866.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith was disappointed by the action, saying it was not a racial issue for the tribe. Smith contends it is an issue of the right to control its membership — that you have to be an Indian to be in an Indian tribe.

In March 2007, the Cherokee Nation voted in a special election to oust the Freedmen from the Cherokee Nation. In May, the Cherokee Court temporarily reinstated the Freedmen on a limited basis.

The amendment echoed a bill that U.S. Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., introduced in June, H.R. 2824, which has 23 sponsors. The bill proposed severance of federal government relations with the Cherokee Nation and the halt of federal funding to the tribe.

“The Cherokee Nation’s push to disenfranchise the Cherokee Freedmen represents a fundamental injustice that must not go unchecked,” Watson said. “Nothing less than an affirmative and decisive Congressional response will suffice.”

Watson is planning a trip to Oklahoma in August to participate in a series of town hall meetings in Muskogee, Oklahoma City and Tulsa as a show of support for the Freedmen.

“What the Cherokees hope we forget is that the Cherokees were once the largest slave-holding tribe in America,” said Marilyn Vann, the chief of the Freedmen Band of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

“They hope we will forget that in 1861 they severed their relationship with the United States, allied themselves with the Confederate States and waged war against America to defend the abominable practice of slavery.

“To make amends, they signed the Treaty of 1866, promising us full citizenship rights. We plan to hold them to that promise.”

U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., was a co-sponsor and supported passage of the bill but hoped negotiations in the works would settle issues.