By STU WOO
The UNITY News

Kenneth Cooper felt he and his fellow Freedmen were left out.

Last March, the Cherokee Nation voted to define requirements for citizenship. Now, only ancestors of Native Americans registered under the Dawes Commission — a century-old federal government census of Native Americans — can become citizens.

But Cooper felt that was a racially tinged snub to the Freedmen, ancestors of the tribe’s former African slaves. So when Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith said Friday at a UNITY forum that race didn’t matter under the new requirements, Cooper stepped up to the microphone during the question-and-answer session.

“The first thing that you said … made me really angry,” said Cooper, who identifies as a Cherokee Freedman. The two then exchanged testy comments for the next five minutes.

In March 2007, 77 percent of Cherokee Nation citizens voted to approve a constitutional amendment allowing only those who have a Cherokee, Delaware or Shawnee ancestor listed on the Dawes Commission rolls. The commission took a census of Native Americans, taken from 1898 to 1907, to divest the Nation of its lands and allot them to individual citizens. The 2007 amendment overturned a 2006 Tribal Court ruling allowing non-Indian descendants of Freedmen and intermarried whites to become citizens.

Cooper said he found the amendment unjust, especially given that some of the tribe’s wealth came from slave work. He found the new restrictions unfair to Freedmen who had Cherokee blood because “there was no effort by the Dawes Commission (the federal census project) to find out if the Freedman had blood.”

Smith said that there were some Freedmen with Cherokee blood who were registered by the Dawes Commission, but Cooper said those were by far in the minority.

“The federal government provided due process,” Smith responded. “We cannot go back and second-guess that process. I cannot – perhaps you can.”

Friday’s forum, titled “Who is an Indian? Your Guide to Covering Native Americans,” was presented by the Native American Journalists Association.

Afterward, Cooper and Smith chatted outside the meeting room. The two had never met, though Smith was familiar with Cooper’s Louisiana Weekly column about the constitutional amendment last year. The meeting was amiable, both said, and Smith invited Cooper to discuss the topic with him in Cherokee Nation.

Both Cooper and Smith said they were glad to meet each other. Cooper said he would accept the offer to meet in Oklahoma as soon as his schedule allows.

Afterward, Cooper seemed to regret the surly nature of their question-and-answer session exchange, especially if he came off as an “angry black man,” Cooper said, smiling.

topic: Current Events
tags: Chad Smith, cherokee, native american

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