When I think of all the people who depend on tribal benefits (which they certainly deserve) for what they need to stay well and even to survive, I can hardly believe the results of this vote. Over two thousand people will be cut off if this vote stands. The benefits that will be denied include vital necessities such as food, housing and health care.

Marilyn Van, the president of Descendents of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes, says this will definitely be challenged.

These people were "adopted" into the tribe in 1866 under a treaty with the U.S. government. There is a long history of not only intermarriages but shared lives that go back even farther than that. Does this count for nothing now?

Wilma Mankiller wrote this in her autobiography.

"It should be remembered that hundreds of people of African ancestry also walked the Trail of Tears with the Cherokee during the forced removal of 1838-1839. Although we know about the terrible human suffering of our native people and the members of other tribes during the removal, we rarely hear of those black people who also suffered."
-- Wilma Mankiller (autobiography Mankiller: A Chief and Her People)