Melvin Watt: “I am offering this amendment not proudly, unfortunately, but because of circumstances that have arisen that I will…”

“I am offering this amendment not proudly, unfortunately, but because of circumstances that have arisen that I will describe briefly and create the context for the amendment. In 1866, after the Cherokee Nation, which at that time also owned slaves, had gone through tremendous imposition by the United States and forced off of their land, including the people that they owned as slaves, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma entered into a treaty with the United States under which it agreed to make not only the Indians who were Cherokees, but their slaves, members of the Cherokee Nation. Unfortunately, in March of 2007, the Cherokee Nation decided that it would, in violation of the 1866 treaty, take action to, in effect, rescind the citizenship of the descendants of the African Americans who had been their slaves, the so-called 'Cherokee Freedmen.' That has created a tension between the African American community and the Cherokee Nation, which can best be described as unfortunate because there is so much common heritage there between the Cherokee Nation and African Americans, and common experience. And this has created a divide which we hope will soon be repaired and restored. I'm in the unique position of understanding both sides of this because I understand when the Cherokee Nation says that in order to be a Cherokee, one has to have some Cherokee blood. And that is a position that is not a racist position.”