Black Freedmen Expelled From Cherokee Nation

“What’s wrong with being all black? Are you too good to be just black?” Often, black folks who acknowledge and honor their Native American family lineage are misunderstood and criticized. But separating the two groups is complex, and not often helpful – it’s estimated that 85 percent of African Americans have Native ancestry.

And divisiveness comes from all directions. On March 3, the Cherokee Nation voted to expel many black members, known as Freedmen.

The expulsion could have a far-reaching effect, as other tribes follow the precedent. Ignorance and misinformation run rampant about the Freedmen. One widely circulated email characterized them as “infiltrators” trying to cash in on Cherokee culture and resources. While most statements aren’t that inflammatory, debate tends to be about blood quantum and portraying Freedmen as outsiders.

A shared history

Before African enslavement began on this continent, an Indian slave trade flourished. Some tribes integrated war captives into their society to replace their own lost warriors and treated them as equals; others mutilated and tortured captives from opposing tribes. Irrespective of how captives had been treated, European colonists readily bought or traded for them or captured Indians outright for slave labor. Profiteers sought to avoid the cost of transport from Africa, but as Indians were able to escape into familiar terrain and began to decline in population – due to the fighting and European diseases – the African slave trade developed. Pictures from the era show Indians shackled together with Africans on the auction block.

Some First Nations assimilated to help their odds of survival. Designated as the “Five Civilized Tribes,” the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole held African slaves, and some fought for the Confederacy. But solidarity persisted even so: Seminoles helped African slaves escape into the Everglades, an area very difficult for whites to navigate.

Check out pictures of the Trail of Tears – you’ll see black and Native American faces integrated. Warriors from Africa fought alongside Native warriors. Sometimes Native Americans pretended black family and community members were slaves in order to keep white intruders from re-kidnapping them. Cherokees rescinded their alliance with the Confederacy and abolished slavery three years before the U.S. did – hence, the term “Freedmen.”

The Cherokee Nation wrote in their treaty of 1866 that their former slaves had full rights of citizenship, regardless of whether they had any Cherokee blood lineage. In this treaty, they also extended citizenship to the Delaware and Shawnee. The March 3 vote this year to disenroll Freedmen did not affect the Delaware or Shawnee or any adopted – or bought-in – white members. It is clearly discriminatory.

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