Interior secretary approves new Cherokee constitution providing citizenship rights for freedmen

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced Wednesday that the department has approved a new constitution for the Cherokee Nation that affirms the citizenship of people formerly enslaved by members of the nation. The constitution, which Cherokee law requires be approved by the Interior secretary, settles disputes dating back to the end of the Civil War over the so-called Cherokee Freedmen. Cherokee delegates drafted a new constitution in 1999 which was approved by the Nation in 2003 but not formally submitted to the Interior Department until this March. In the meantime, a federal district court ruled in 2017 that the Cherokee Freedmen had full citizenship rights within the nation “coextensive with the rights of native Cherokees.” The Nation’s own Supreme Court declared that decision binding in February. The new constitution would provide citizenship for both formerly enslaved peoples and their descendants...MORE