to whoever said the point of the relocation to Oklahoma (my birthplace) was to move them to a self-sustainable place outside the U.S.:

The part of Oklahoma that was Indian Territory couldn't sustain much more than chiggers at the time. There were 2 points: (1) greed - many of the Cherokee Nation, as previously mentioned, had large land holdings and were quite prosperous, and whites, especially poor whites resented it, felt threatened by it, and wanted that wealth in white hands, and (2) they had recently acquired a written language and the Cherokee newspapers that were being distributed were written and read by educated, well-to-do people who knew the constitution, wanted equal rights, and were seen as a rising political as well as economic threat. Solution: do what we always did, take their land away from them and send them off to some godforsaken hell hole where they will probably die. Nobody knew about the oil, of course.

regarding the recent vote: I live in Massachusetts now and purposefully do not watch television or keep up with the news, so I don't know what the H is going on. However, when I read the actual wording of what was voted on, I saw that, at least according to the wording, it was not directed specifically at blacks. The point may have been, sounds like it from what ya'll are saying, but there is more to the native identity question than just the black issue. Some have pointed out the possible economic benefits of being card carrying natives, but today the social cache of being native is a huge problem. I call them the Wannabe tribe - people who take on cute native names and study shamanism and have a "sweatlodge" in their back yard. The woods here are full of them, all claiming with a Boston or Bronx accent that their great-great-great grandma was Indian. I can't say whether any particular person is or isn't of native descent, and it kind of doesn't matter, because the real problem is the sheer numbers of people claiming to be native, and in particular claiming to be Cherokee because it is the easiest to claim. In my gradeschool in Tulsa in the 1950's the teacher went around the room and everybody said what their heritage was. Every single person but me was native, and almost everybody was some combination of Cherokee and something else - Creek, Osage. EVERYbody I knew growing up was part Cherokee except me, and that includes my half-sister who is half Cherokee. (and who is no more culturally native than I am, except I do talk more ;)). Recently I discovered my grandmother was probably at least part Cherokee, so I have rethought the question and come up with the same answer: I have no claim to Cherokee CULTURAL IDENTITY. I was raised thoroughly whitebread.

Speaking as a cultural anthropologist trained in Oklahoma, the question of cultural identity for members of the Cherokee Nation is a very important one. At a wild guess there are 10,000 Wannabees for every person who has some real connection to their native heritage. I think it is a disservice to the people who are full or 1/4 (or even an 1/8 but raised with some connection to their heritage) to be forced by OTHERS to share their "identity" with us clueless whitebreads. If you go by blood, it's been mixed up so much I believe anybody who's family goes back more than 2 generations in this country has at least some native and black ancestors. For all those who get upset and say "one ancestor a long time ago does not make me black", I answer: neither does it make you Indian. If anybody with a drop of Cherokee blood can claim to be Cherokee, than what does it mean to be Cherokee? How can they keep their tenuous hold on what little cultural heritage remains?

As I said at the outset, I know nothing of the current issue, and if the point is to disinfranchise those with some black ancestry, than that is deplorable, of course. And if, as speculated, it is being used as a political or economic weapon and the vote was influenced by a deliberate misinformation campaign, even worse. But before we get holier than thou about it, think what "whites" have done to take their heritage away from them. I'm not saying it's OK, I mean really think about it before you cast any stones. They have had to fight hard against a lot of ugly mean stuff to maintain what little they have. I personally know older native people who were sent away to boarding schools and beaten if they spoke their own language. A guy I know, my age, in Pawnee Oklahoma in 1959, watched as his 3 year old sister was set on fire (and burned to death) for being a "dirty Indian."