Thanks for your post, lennice.

I agree with you that "there is more to the native identity question than just the black issue...and "the social cache of being native is a huge problem."

You asked "How can they [members of the Cherokee nation] keep their tenuous hold on what little cultural heritage remains"?

If the members of that nation had voted to exclude from citizenship in the Cherokee nation all persons who could not provide documentation that they had an ancestor who was listed in either Dawes roll, then I would have supported that {not that my support or lack of support matters one bit}.

However, the Cherokee voted to repeal the citizenship of person who had ancestors listed on the Dawes Freedmen roll, no matter what documentation they have or did not have of those ancestors' Cherokee blood. At the same time, there were persons listed on the non-Freedmen Dawes roll who had no Cherokee ancestry at all since they were 'adopted Whites'.

Therefore, no matter what other valid or invalid reasons that Cherokees and others have been offerred for this recent vote, in my opinion, racism did play a large role in the structuring of the question to be voted upon, if not the actual vote of the majority of Cherokees. I believe that greed probably played a larger role, but it seems to me to be factual that racism was definitely in the mix. This should not come as too much of a surprise since racism [against people of African descent] is so heavily a part of Cherokee history.

I agree that this vote is an attempt to redefine who is and who is not Cherokee. And while I appreciate the fact that for reasons of greed or for "social cache" {as you phrased it} there are a lot of Indian wannabees out there, this recent vote certainly appears to me to most negatively impact Black Cherokees who can document their Indian [and African] ancestry.

Unlike some White people with Cherokee ancestry, some of these Black Cherokees had never denied or played down their Indian identity. This may in part because they truly treasured their Indian heritage. This may also be partly true because among many African Americans, having Indian ancestors has historically been considered and currently is still considered something to brag about.

Be that as it may or may not be, there are a lot of real Cherokees with African ancestry who must be both sad and angry at this recent vote to discount their identity.

As an outsider {meaning someone who has no Cherokee ancestry or other Indian ancestry that I can prove}, I am also very disheartened at this recent Cherokee vote because of its impact on Black Cherokees and because I believe it to be a demonstration of the Cherokees nations racism and greed much more than a real attempt to determine who is really Cherokee.

I also believe that there are also some Cherokees without African ancestry who also recognize that this vote does not speak well about their nation.

In my opinion {and I don't think that it's a holier than thou position}, the Cherokee nation should have done much better than this.