PITBOSS

This tribe owned slaves at the time slavery was abolished, and the Fed made the slaves tribal members. Now the tribe wants to do something about that. I mean really and truly they aren't native Americans, aren't you supposed to prove ancestry to be recognized as a tribal member??

Looks like the gov't is trying to use the old blackmail trick on them by cutting off funding. Should be interesting to see how this turns out.

Article here. http://www.npr.org/blogs/newsandview...1.html?sc=emaf

Lerxstcat

LOL @ Diane Watson saying she is of the "Pocahontas tribe"! Unless by that she means she can make and change the rules as she sees fit, then I guess she has a point.

A comment that it's ironic that a Democrat is upset by a democratic vote was appropriate....

wilthrill

OK heres a crazy thought.....

WHY do we EVEN bother with these outdated fictions of a "pure race".

THERE IS NO SUCH THING!!!!!!!!!

When they were mapping the human genome one of the "curious" things they found was that some black people are genetically CLOSER to some white people than to some other black people. This is most likely the result of eons of cross breeding. Whatever the cause it invalidates the concept of race. For example, a "pure" Labrador retriever is genetically closer to EVERY OTHER Labrador retriever in the world than it is to any poodle or any other breed of dog or any other animal.

WHY DO WE BOTHER WITH THESE LABELS???? We are all human. Are we so stupid that it will not be until we are ALL light brown before we realize this???

Lerxstcat

Even then people will look for a reason to hate. The light brown skinned people with straight hair will probably look at those with curly hair as a different race at that point.

Remember that in Europe when it was Germanic people against Kelts they considered themselves different races because they had different languages and cultures. To a Nigerian they'd look the same except one side tended to red hair and the other to blond - though both sides were mixed in that regard too.

Although I wish we could,I don't think people will ever get past that kind of bias, sadly...

PITBOSS

Since we all came from Africa, I'd expect some relation on the genome thing. Then again many left Africa, evolved with different physical features, different cultures, different values. hmmm...maybe theres something to these labels...

Lance_the_Black

I'm not so sure about the indiginous to Africa thing. I like to cling to the possibility of that cracka's skeleton they found in North America that supposedly predates Indians. Not for racial purity, but to throw a monkeywrench into the silly things involved with it. Not that it matters anyway. The English are really German, the Stotts are really Irish, the Japanese are really Chinese, etc., etc., and there's a lot of ethnic contention with most of those cultures.

Really, regardless of what the circumstances are, and regardless of what happened hundreds of years ago, I think the time left for reservations as sovreign states is finite. This is an industrialized nation, and the farther along the timeline you get with that sort of thing, the less ethnicity matters. These cultures exist on the basis of race, and that actually goes against the grain of most of the country.

That said, of course I'm not surprised that they would try to execute moves to keep their so-called racial purity. Understand -- disagree.

Somewhere back the line, my Teutonic ancestors oppressed my Gaelic ancestors. I guess I just need to take all the money from my left pocket and stick it into my right.

PITBOSS

I'm not so sure it's a racial purity thing. It's a tribal thing. I understand these freedslaves may have been members of say the Zulu tribe, but not Cherokee. They are allowing the mixed race people to stay.

Lance_the_Black

The idea of expelling those not of pure stock is racial, but I'll concede. I'll even admit that I haven't offered any constructive criticism of it. It was quite a short article, and I'm sure there are many in the tribe of each mind.