The Black Cherokee

In one of the first posts I did here I talked about the Black Cherokee, descendents of slaves owned by the Cherokee prior to the Civil War. After they were freed, they stayed affiliated with the tribe in Oklahoma and many were accepted onto tribal rolls. Today's NY Times has an editorial titled "The Shame of the Cherokee" that reports the tribe has voted to revoke the tribal citizenship of 2,800 Black Cherokee and calls for Federal sanctions against the tribe. In my earlier post I pointed out that many tribes in California were expelling members to increase the the casino money shares of the remaining members. This would appear to be another sad story of that type, more unintended consequences of Indian gaming.