Freedmen and the Cherokee Nation: A History

1975	The Cherokee people decided to approve a superseding Constitution that citizenship should be limited to Cherokees on the Dawes Roll including Shawnees and Delawares.
1988	The federal court in the Freedmen case of Nero v. Cherokee Nation held that Cherokees could decide citizenship requirements and exclude Freedmen.
2001	The highest Cherokee court ruled in a Freedmen descendant case that the descendants of Freedmen were properly excluded in 1975.
2003	Cherokee people approve another Constitution knowing that the Constitution was held by Cherokee court in 2001 to exclude Freedmen descendants and inter-married whites.
2006	The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court writes that the 1975 and 2003 Constitutions were not clear enough to exclude descendants of Freedmen and allowed these descendants and inter-married whites access to citizenship.
2006	Three thousand Cherokees bring a petition to allow the Cherokee people to vote on who should be a Cherokee citizen.
2007	On March 3, 2007 Cherokees and descendants of Freedmen vote to limit Cherokee citizenship to those with a Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware ancestor by blood regardless of other race, blood or appearance. Vote results: 77 percent to 23 percent.