DeclinetoState
03-04-2007, 09:12 PM
I wonder if this will make Donkey Union (http://www.democraticunderground.com)'s list of "conservative idiots" for this week. I'm sure Ann Coulter's comment about John Edwards won't take all the room.
Sun Mar 4, 7:43 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Native American Cherokees voted to expel descendants of black slaves from their tribe nation in a special election that has prompted charges of racism, according to returns made public early Sunday.
But a vote of 77 percent to 23 percent, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma adopted Saturday an amendment to their constitution that strips membership from so-called "Freedmen," those descended from slaves once owned by Cherokees, blacks who were married to Cherokees and children of mixed-race families.
"The Cherokee people exercised the most basic democratic right, the right to vote," Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, said in a statement. "Their voice is clear as to who should be citizens of the Cherokee Nation. No one else has the right to make that determination."
AFP (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070304/ts_alt_afp/usnativevotecherokee;_ylt=AlEpUr_ln9ykSB8TorAWy.6s 0NUE)
Sun Mar 4, 7:43 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Native American Cherokees voted to expel descendants of black slaves from their tribe nation in a special election that has prompted charges of racism, according to returns made public early Sunday.
But a vote of 77 percent to 23 percent, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma adopted Saturday an amendment to their constitution that strips membership from so-called "Freedmen," those descended from slaves once owned by Cherokees, blacks who were married to Cherokees and children of mixed-race families.
"The Cherokee people exercised the most basic democratic right, the right to vote," Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, said in a statement. "Their voice is clear as to who should be citizens of the Cherokee Nation. No one else has the right to make that determination."
AFP (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070304/ts_alt_afp/usnativevotecherokee;_ylt=AlEpUr_ln9ykSB8TorAWy.6s 0NUE)