Fund threat: Civil rights or ‘scorched earth' plan?

A congresswoman and the Cherokee Nation's principal chief waged a news conference war Tuesday at the state Capitol over a March 3 tribal vote that stripped some freedmen of tribal citizenship.

Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., who has a bill to cut $300 million a year in federal funding for the tribe, said the tribal vote disenfranchised 2,800 freedmen.

She said people cannot "use public dollars to discriminate.”

Freedmen are descendants of freed black slaves once owned by Cherokees.

Watson said the vote was a violation of the Cherokee Nation treaty with the United States in 1866 and the Cherokee Constitution.

Watson said Congress is involved in policy, and this is a policy issue. She said her bill has support of 23 members of the U.S. House.

If the government gives the tribe $300 million, it cannot arbitrarily disenfranchise a protected class, she added.

Watson's bill would suspend any gaming funds until the tribe is in compliance with all treaty and other obligations with the United States.

In an earlier news conference at the state Capitol, Chad Smith, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, urged Watson and Congress to withhold action on the legislation until the issue involving freedmen is settled in court.

He said Watson's bill would hurt Cherokees, including the elderly who use nutritional centers and those who need cancer treatments.

"Why enforce and proceed with a scorched-earth policy?” Smith asked.

Smith said those freedmen who can prove they have a Cherokee ancestor can be a member of the tribe.

Right now, the freedmen in question retain their rights and benefits from the Cherokee Nation, he said. He said the tribe's attorney general is going to ask the federal court where one lawsuit is filed to delay any action on the 2,800 freedmen until a decision is made in court.