<font color=green>P.M. UPDATE</font>: U.S. Senate agrees to let courts decide Freedmen issue

September 26, 2008 04:36 pm

— WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Senate passed a measure 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. More than 300 descendants of Freedmen are suing the Cherokee Nation over an 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. Freedmen whose citizenship is in question have full citizenship rights because of a May 2007 tribal court order that continues citizenship while the case is pending.
Information: www.cherokeenationfacts.org and www.meetthecherokee.org.