Cherokee Nation processing freedmen citizenship applications
September 8, 2017
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) — The Cherokee Nation has started processing tribal citizen applications for the descendants of black slaves once owned by tribal members.
A federal court in Washington, D.C., ended a longstanding fight last week by ruling that descendants of the slaves, known as freedmen, have the right to tribal citizenship. About 3,000 applications had been on hold amid the legal dispute.
The tribe has begun processing those applications, and its registration office near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, received about 75 visits and a "couple hundred" phone calls after the ruling, tribal spoke...
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