Second-largest U.S. Indian tribe expels slave descendants

[Renew Deal]

The nation's second-largest Indian tribe formally booted from membership thousands of descendants of black slaves who were brought to Oklahoma more than 170 years ago by Native American owners.

The Cherokee nation voted after the Civil War to admit the slave descendants to the tribe.

But on Monday, the Cherokee nation Supreme Court ruled that a 2007 tribal decision to kick the so-called "Freedmen" out of the tribe was proper.

The controversy stems from a footnote in the brutal history of U.S. treatment of Native Americans. When many Indians were forced to move to what later became Oklahoma from the eastern U.S. in 1838, some who had owned plantations in the South brought along their slaves.

Some 4,000 Indians died during the forced march, which became known as the "Trail of Tears."
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/24/us-oklahoma-cherokee-idUSTRE77N08F20110824

[Heywood J]

1. I don't feel so bad for them now.

Looks like they learned how to use people and kick them to the curb, just like everyone else.

[Major Hogwash]

2. If they're the second-largest US Indian tribe, then who is the largest US Indian tribe?

Does anyone know?

[NNN0LHI]

4. I think it is Navajo now?

But I am not a hundred percent sure.

Don

[a la izquierda]

5. You're right.

[TheKentuckian]

3. I guess my thoughts of going tribal have hit a roadblock.