What a book this is! I'm so glad author Aaron Kushner did not give into political correctness (as it is today) or go sentimental on us as he reported the complications of Cherokee Nation Citizenship. So very many Americans are today seeking the truth of their ancestry and family history and many of them have heard they have some tribal ancestry as well. I would say that the Cherokee may be the most famous of all the tribes.
Excerpt page 107 -
"In 1883 a group of Eastern humanitarians, led by Senator Henry L. Dawes, began meeting regularly to discuss the "Indian problem." They observed the influx of white settlers into Indian Territory and the lack of stable law enforcement therein; since the Cherokee Nation and other tribal nations could not prosecute crimes where an American was involved, lawlessness spread like wildfire, especially among white squatters."
Excerpt page 108 - William Ross was the leader of the Cherokee at that time.
"William Ross argued that their system (of communal tenure) created no "landless paupers" or "absent landlords" to brutally eject them; the Cherokee had among them poverty but not starvation.
By 1890 the white settlers were outnumbering the Cherokee and they wanted to acquire property.
Excerpt page 110 -
"Undeterred by the Cherokee Nation or the half-hearted attempts made by the United States to escort them out, non-citizen whites continued to pour into the Nation. The most dangerous of these were those who advanced "some fantastic claim to citizenship, and who loudly demanded every privilege enjoyed by the Indians" despite tribal authorities repeatedly denying them access. Cherokee leaders soon found themselves operating a minority government in their own territory. The United States census of Indian Territory of 1890 listed 56,309 inhabitants in the Cherokee Nation. 29,166 were coded white. 5,127 were coded Black, and 22,015 were coded Indian.
Excerpt page 111 -
"Up until 1887, Cherokee leaders had successfully resisted American pressures for allotment and territorial assimilation. In 1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act, better known as the Dawes Act, to turn the I*Indians into private land holders,. By allotting land to individual in tribal nations, the thinking went, the total lands allotted would not equal the total acreage held in common by the tribes, the remainder would be left for white settlers and corporations to consume. The Dawes act, however, did not app;ly to the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks,m= Chickasaws, or Seminoles because of prior Treaty agreements. Nevertheless, the writing was on the wall." (These were the Five Civilized Tribes.)
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