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Cherokee Nation To Vote on Expelling Slaves' Descendants
The Washington Post ^ | Saturday, March 3, 2007 | Ellen Knickmeyer

Posted on 03/03/2007 9:06:01 AM PST by rabidralph

VINITA, Okla. -- J.D. Baldridge, 73, has official government documents showing him to be a descendant of a full-blood Cherokee. He has memories of a youth spent among Cherokee neighbors and kin, at tribal stomp dances and hog fries. He holds on to a fair amount of Cherokee vocabulary. " Salali," Baldridge says, his face creasing into a smile at the word. "Squirrel stew. Oh, that was good."

What Baldridge, a retired Oklahoma county sheriff, also has is at least one black ancestor, a former slave of a Cherokee family. That could get Baldridge cast out of the tribe, along with thousands of others.

The 250,000-member Cherokee Nation will vote in a special election today whether to override a 141-year-old treaty and change the tribal constitution to bar "freedmen," the descendants of former tribal slaves, from being members of the sovereign nation.

"It's a basic, inherent right to determine our own citizenry. We paid very dearly for those rights," Cherokee Principal Chief Chad Smith said in an interview last month in Oklahoma City.

But the Cherokee freedmen see the vote as less about self-determination than about discrimination and historical blinders. They see in the referendum hints of racism and a desire by some Cherokees to deny the tribe's slave-owning past.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: black; cherokee; followthemoney; freedmen; indians; nativeamericans; slaves
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To: Old Student; varina davis; All
i believe that Sequoya would be HORRIFIED, as HE was also a "mixed-blood"!!! (his mother was also a white woman, as mine is.)

i do NOT understand this at all, as it is divorced from our long-held TRADITIONS. for eons, BEING Tsalagiyi was WANTING to BE a TSALAGIYI badly enough to make the sacrifices to BE Tsalagiyi! (i.e., marrying into the nation,adhering to a band, joining a clan, accepting/inculcating our laws/traditions/culture/etc as one's OWN, etc.).

for example, David "Runs-the-Path" Williams had blond hair & blue eyes & was the son of a Tsalagiyi woman & an English horse-trader. in the 19th Century, NOBODY would have doubted that David (OR his FATHER, for that matter!!!) was an AUTHENTIC Tsalagiyi, as he BELIEVED himself TO BE Tsalagiyi & LIVED the life of a traditional Tsalagiyi warrior ALL of his LIFE.

those ,who have bothered to read this far into my post, will therefore understand why i am HUMILIATED by what the "tribal BIGSHOTS" have done.

forgive me, but i cannot end this writing without quoting an OLD proverb:

"Before a man puts away as valueless his people's beliefs of life & his traditional way of being, he had better assure that he was something of worth, with which to replace them."

free dixie,sw

101 posted on 03/04/2007 5:42:02 PM PST by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: aft_lizard
ward churchill is NOT now, nor has he EVER been an AI.

a through investigation, by the band that he CLAIMED to belong to, indicates that he has NO AmerIndian ancestors for at least SIX generations. NONE.

therefore, he is something else, but NOT an Indian.

free dixie,sw

102 posted on 03/10/2007 12:37:03 PM PST by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: highlander_UW
see my #101.

that ACCURATELY describes what BEING Tsalagagiyi traditionally MEANS.

fyi, my father (an enrolled FULL-blood) KNEW "Runs the Path", when he was an old man. my dad said (i asked him, as a child will, about the BLOND guy that i had heard stories about.) that NOBODY questioned that he was a TRUE member of his clan/society/band/tribe/nation, despite his blue eyes & blond hair. NOBODY!

he WAS Tsalagiyi because he LIVED Tsalagiyi!

free dixie,sw

103 posted on 03/10/2007 12:46:06 PM PST by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: CJ-50
about as long as the ink took to dry. and MAYBE not THAT long.

free dixie,sw

104 posted on 03/10/2007 12:47:11 PM PST by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: stand watie

"He was Tsalagagiyi because he LIVED Tsalagagiyi"
And thats how it SHOULD be!
Thanks for the knowledge,stand.


105 posted on 03/10/2007 1:07:07 PM PST by Riverman94610
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To: Riverman94610; All
you're WELCOME!

i don't know if it comes through clearly in my posts on this subject or not, but i'm BOTH distressed & shamed by this NONSENSE, which has been pushed by the "tribal BIG-shots".

imVho, the "BIG-shots" are a HUMILIATION to everything that it means to BE Tsalagiyi/"Cherokee".

free dixie,sw

106 posted on 03/10/2007 1:14:01 PM PST by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: stand watie

no sh&% sherlock, does one need to put sarcasm tags on everything? I think it was very obvious at what I was getting as you are the only person to make an issue of this.


107 posted on 03/10/2007 1:17:05 PM PST by aft_lizard (born conservative...I chose to be a republican)
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To: Riverman94610; All
btw, ward churchill is NOT Tsalagiyi, because he SAYS he IS Tsalagiyi, but does not LIVE Tsalagiyi. SAYING & BEING are NOT the same!!!

"in the olden days" a person who wished to BE Tsalagiyi (as a portion of BECOMING an adoptee, during the ceremony) used to say:

"i truly regret that i was not born a Tsalagiyi, and feel myself to be UNWORTHY to be so, nonetheless i, humbling myself before each of you,state the desire to BECOME one with the people."

free dixie,sw

108 posted on 03/10/2007 1:28:27 PM PST by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: aft_lizard
if i have in some way offended you, i am sorry.

i thought that you, like all too many other people, might NOT know how the investigation of his ancestory came out.

free dixie,sw

109 posted on 03/10/2007 1:30:58 PM PST by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: stand watie

Not really offended, bugged me a little, but not offended.


110 posted on 03/10/2007 1:34:55 PM PST by aft_lizard (born conservative...I chose to be a republican)
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To: aft_lizard
fyi, the KETOWAH band took his claim, at first, seriously.

free dixie,sw

111 posted on 03/10/2007 1:35:59 PM PST by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: aft_lizard
one final thought. we Tsalagiyi took this "to heart", because ward churchill shamed us with his lies (and was rewarded with a faculty position BECAUSE of his lies!!!) AND because we get enough (and often,far too much) BAD publicity.

every time something like this happens, the BIGOTS & RACISTS "have a field day" at our expense.

it IS important to those of us who are legitimately part-bloods, if to nobody else.

free dixie,sw

112 posted on 03/10/2007 1:44:19 PM PST by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: stand watie
i believe that Sequoya would be HORRIFIED, as HE was also a "mixed-blood"!!! (his mother was also a white woman, as mine is.)

I am also bewildered by what the tribal leadership has done with the Cherokee Freedman descendants. My grgrgrandfather and your namesake, Stand Watie who was married to my grgraunt, fought the federal government for years after the Civil war to give the Freedmen the same land allotments etc. that the Cherokee got because they considered them family. The slaves came with them on the trail of tears, they volunteered and fought in the civil war, built the South and considered themselves Southerners.

My grandfather, a lawyer, was such a pain about it all that the Union arrested and tried him for 'treason' 10 years after the war. He won that case as well as the one giving the Freedman tribal rights.

It appears the civil war within the Cherokee tribe never ended. Which was really the war the Cherokees were fighting at the time and a centuries long story in itself.

For some interesting reading and a glimpse into that era, take a look at the testimonies of some of those freedman slaves. Freedom for the slaves of the Cherokee often brought more pain, poverty and suffering than before.

" Of course I hear about Abraham Lincoln and he was a great man, but I was told mostly by my children when dey come home from school about him. I always think of my old Master as de one dat freed me, and anyways Abraham Lincoln and none of his North people didn't look after me and buy my crop right after I was free like old Master did. Dat was de time dat was the hardest and everything was dark and confusion."

http://www.african-nativeamerican.com/estelusti.htm

113 posted on 03/10/2007 2:02:56 PM PST by AuntB (" It takes more than walking across the border to be an American." Duncan Hunter)
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To: stand watie

Sounds like the"big shots"are out of touch with their own cultural roots.
Very sad situation.


114 posted on 03/10/2007 2:24:14 PM PST by Riverman94610
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To: AuntB
well said. fyi, the unionuists did NOTHING for the AI. except of course,constantly LIE & STEAL our lands.

free dixie,sw

115 posted on 03/11/2007 10:32:43 AM PDT by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: Riverman94610
YEP. actually, the "BIG SHOTS" are interested in TWO things:

$$$$$$$$$$$$$ & more POWER.

that's it, finis, the end.

free dixie,sw

116 posted on 03/11/2007 10:34:01 AM PDT by stand watie ("Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God." - T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: rabidralph
I'd really like to know what they do with the $22B and the all our tax money,

Every Indian I've ever met asks the same question.

117 posted on 03/11/2007 10:39:35 AM PDT by MaxMax (God Bless America)
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To: stand watie
YEP. actually, the "BIG SHOTS" are interested in TWO things: $$$$$$$$$$$$$ & more POWER. that's it, finis, the end.

And that fact, a part of human nature, has never and will likely never change. Unfortunately.

I think a cousin (several times removed) of mine said it best.

When called before congress to testify on Indian Affairs after the civil war, congress asked,

“What is your trade, calling, or occupation?”

Bell replied, “Various things. I practice law a little, farm some, run for office occasionally. Now and then take a hand at poker and never miss a horse race, if I get to it.

The rest of the time I spend in trying to fool God like you white folks do.”

118 posted on 03/11/2007 10:41:08 AM PDT by AuntB (" It takes more than walking across the border to be an American." Duncan Hunter)
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To: afnamvet; StoneWall Brigade; L98Fiero; RFEngineer; DarthDilbert; James Ewell Brown Stuart; ...

Cherokee ping


119 posted on 03/11/2007 10:41:41 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: michaelt
Chief Chad Smith?

And though I wear a shirt and tie
I'm still part redman deep inside.

120 posted on 03/11/2007 10:43:31 AM PDT by Tribune7 (A bleeding heart does nothing but ruin the carpet)
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