Black Cherokees to challenge ouster from tribe

By Ben Fenwick

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Black Cherokee Indians said on Tuesday they will challenge a weekend vote to kick them out of the tribe that once owned their ancestors as slaves.

They threatened legal action to overturn the vote on Saturday in which 77 percent of those who cast ballots said they should no longer be Cherokees.

"We are working with our attorneys," Marilyn Vann, president of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes, told Reuters. "Rest assured, we will be challenging this."

The vote would remove from tribal rolls 2,800 people who were mostly "freedmen," or descendants of slaves owned by the tribe before the U.S. Civil War brought their freedom.

They were adopted into the tribe under a 1866 treaty with the United States, but there has long been controversy among Cherokees about whether they belonged.

Exclusion from the tribe means the black Cherokees cannot vote in tribal elections or receive entitlements such as health benefits or a share of casino revenues on tribal lands.

The tribe has about 250,000 people, but only 8,500 cast ballots in Saturday's vote.

The vote, which calls for amendment to the Cherokee Nation constitution, was described by Cherokee authorities as a move to more clearly define who is a tribe member. Opponents said it was motivated by racism and money.

Tribe spokesman Mike Miller, based in the tribal headquarters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, said, under tribal regulations, the black Cherokees have until Monday to protest the vote.

"The Cherokee Nation is not going to implement anything until that protest period passes," he said.

Miller said that if the black Cherokees lose their tribal benefits, they will be phased out gradually.