I don't get it. Slaves freed under the Emancipation Proclamation became citizens of the US-- the nation in which they resided (were owned). If they resided in the Cherokee Nation (were owned there), how is it that it could be justified not to include them as part of that Nation, if they wanted to be counted there and be governed by its tribal law?

Did the Freedmen also get US citizenship? What was and has been their legal status? Did they have any options after slavery as to cotizenship choices, or since then? Have they been governed by tax law as it pertains to Native Americans?

I understand that the treaty designating the former slaves as included in the Cherokee Nation was imposed upon the Cherokee by duress.... I understand the paradigm of citizenship by blood... Is the Cherokee Nation saying that there was no "intermarriage"?

~Susan