Political Organization: Prior to their removal to Oklahoma, the Cherokee were organized in towns and governed by councils of elders with representation from each of the clans and based on whether or not it was a time of war or peace. However, with the influence of their white settler neighbors by 1827 the Cherokee would adopt a republican-style bicameral system of government with executive, legislative and judicial branches, which it maintains today. Several commissions oversee various functions of the Cherokee government and the Marshal Service is the law enforcement division which works in conjunction with other governmental law enforcement bodies. Historical Highlights: The Cherokee are indigenous to the Southeast region of what is now Georgia. One of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, they were named by white settlers who were impressed with the Indians ability to adapt to their changing circumstances by adopting the institutions of white European society. But their adaptation would not be enough to ensure their ability to remain in their homelands; after the discovery of gold in Georgia the state pressured for the removal of tribes who were seen as an obstruction to white progress. In 1830 President Andrew Jackson would sign the Indian Removal Bill, resulting in the Trail of Tears in which the Cherokee and other Five Civilized Tribes would be forcibly marched over 800 miles in the dead of winter to their new home in the Oklahoma territory. It is estimated that over 8,000 Cherokee died on the journey. The Cherokee nation would be the first Native Americans to challenge the United States in the Supreme Court, resulting in a triumvirate of decisions known as the Marshall Trilogy and what is today the bed rock of federal Indian law and contemporary policy. The Marshall Trilogy and its subsequent legal doctrines has been referred to by scholars as the creation of a legal fiction that justifies the American domination over Native American nations without their consent. In their efforts to adapt to the influx of European immigrant culture, a mixed blood Cherokee elite class would emerge in the 19th century who profited from the owning of slaves. The integration of black slaves into Cherokee culture through intermarriage resulted in a segment of the Cherokee citizenship known as the Freedman. In the 1980s a series of actions in the Cherokee government moved to disenroll the Freedman from the Cherokee citizenry (with then Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller issuing an executive order requiring a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood as a prerequisite for enrollment, a mandate the Freedman could not meet because they were not counted on the original Dawes Rolls). Amid accusations of racism, numerous lawsuits would be filed within the Cherokee and federal court systems and in 2011 the Department of Housing and Urban Development would freeze $33 million in Cherokee funding after a Cherokee court ruling would exclude the Freedman from voting in a special election. The controversy pits the tribal right to determine its own membership against the federal governments ability to interfere in tribal matters and continues today.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 22:09:00 +0000
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