Cherokee tribe retreats from effort to oust some members

[The Northerner]

(Reuters) - The Cherokee Indian tribe on Wednesday retreated from a plan to banish 2,800 African Americans from its citizenship ranks after the federal government froze some funding to the tribe.

The Cherokee, the second-largest tribe in the country with 300,000 members, asked the tribal Supreme Court to withdraw a ruling that allowed the so-called Freedmen to be removed from membership.

The tribe's legal retreat "is in the best interest of The Nation," said A. Diane Hammons, the Cherokee attorney general, in a one-page court filing.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development withheld a $33 million disbursement and the Bureau of Indian Affairs said it would not recognize results of an upcoming election for tribal principal chief because of the membership issue.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/15/us-usa-cherokees-idUSTRE78E5IX20110915

[Angry Dragon]

1. So much for the US reconizing a sovereign nation

I guess one should expect this when the government goes around playing king
with every other nation

[Xithras]

3. They did treat them as a sovereign nation.

1. The Cherokee Nation signed a treaty with the United States guaranteeing that the slaves would be freed and granted citizenship. The Cherokee Nation was violating its treaty, which gave the U.S. a legal right to respond.

2. Article 15 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has been binding even on non-signatory nations since the 1970's, prohibits nations from stripping citizenship from its people en masse. If the Cherokee Nation is sovereign, then it's actions may have been a violation of international law. Again, the United States has a right to respond when U.S. monies are funding those actions.

[DeSwiss]

2. K&R n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. good