Cherokee Nation accepts Freedmen citizenship ruling

[NVMojo]

The Cherokee Nation will abide by a court ruling that reaffirmed the citizenship rights of the Freedmen, the tribe's top legal official said on Wednesday.

In court, the tribe argued that the Freedmen, the descendants of African-American slaves who were made members of the tribe after the Civil War, weren't entitled to citizenship unless they could demonstrate Indian blood.

But the Judicial Appeals Tribunal, the Cherokee Nation's highest court, rejected that view. In a 2-1 decision issued Tuesday, the court said the tribe's constitution that was adopted in 1975 didn't include an Indian blood requirement.

"There is no ambiguity to resolve," Justice Stacy L. Leeds wrote. "The words 'by blood' or 'Cherokee by blood' do not appear."

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