© 2024 KGOU
News and Music for Oklahoma
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Interior Department Sides With Cherokee Freedmen

U.S. Department of the Interior

The Department of the Interior says certain descendants of black slaves once owned by some members of the Cherokee Nation should be afforded tribal citizenship rights.

The Tahlequah Daily Press reports that U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell filed the motion Friday in federal court in the longstanding case between the descendants, known as freedmen, and the Cherokees.

The Interior Department believes the federal court should declare that the Treaty of 1866, signed between the U.S. government and the Cherokees, gives certain freedmen and their descendants the same rights of native Cherokees.

About 2,800 freedmen are seeking citizenship rights.

A 2007 tribal vote kicked the freedmen out of the tribe.

A Cherokee Nation spokeswoman says the brief is in response to one the tribe filed in November.

  ________________________________

KGOU is a community-supported news organization and relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online, or by contacting our Membership department.

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.
More News
Support nonprofit, public service journalism you trust. Give now.