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1975
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To rejuvenate the Cherokee Nation after decades of U.S. policy to terminate Indian nations and to return to its roots as an Indian tribe made of Indians, the Cherokee people approved a new Constitution defining citizenship as being open only to descendants of Indians who were original enrollees on the Dawes Rolls, the federally authorized census of the Cherokee people taken in 1906. To become a citizen, the Cherokee people decided that one must trace one lineal Indian ancestor (specifically, Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware) listed on the Dawes Rolls. Descendants of original enrollees in non-Indian categories on the Dawes Rolls (the Freedmen and Intermarried Whites categories) would not be eligible for citizenship.
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1988
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The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rules in Nero v. Cherokee Nation that Cherokees could decide their own citizenship requirements and thus exclude Freedmen descendants. The facts involved with this case are similar to the current Vann v. Kempthorne case that is currently being litigated in U.S District and Appeals Courts in Washington, D.C.
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2001
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The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court (the Nation’s highest court) rules that Freedmen descendants were properly excluded through the 1975 Constitution.
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2003
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The Cherokee people approve another Constitution knowing that the 2001 Cherokee Nation Supreme Court decision said that descendants of original enrollees under the Freedmen and Intermarried Whites categories of the Dawes Rolls would be excluded from citizenship in the 1975 Constitution. This leads to the filing of what has become known as the Vann v. Kempthorne case by six Freedmen descendants against the U.S. Department of the Interior in U.S. District Court in Washington , D.C.
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March 2006
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The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court rules in the Lucy Allen case that language in the 1975 and 2003 Constitutions was not clear enough to exclude descendants of original enrollees in non-Indian categories on the Dawes Rolls. To limit citizenship to descendants of Indians on the Dawes Rolls, the Court says the language must be explicit.
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The Cherokee Nation begins granting citizenship with full social services (including health care, education and housing assistance) and the right to vote to descendants of Freedmen and Intermarried Whites.
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2006
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Three thousand Cherokee citizens sign a citizen-organized petition calling for a Cherokee people’s referendum on a new Constitutional amendment that, per the Allen decision, would explicitly limit citizenship in the Nation to descendants of Indians on the Dawes Rolls.
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December 19, 2006
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The U.S. District Court in the Vann litigation rules that the Cherokee Nation’s sovereign immunity has been abrogated and thus can be a defendant in the lawsuit. The Nation immediately appeals this decision to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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March 3, 2007
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The new Constitutional amendment is approved by 77 percent of the vote. To be eligible for Cherokee citizenship under this amendment, one must trace back to a Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware ancestor on the Dawes Rolls. Citizenship is colorblind and has nothing to do with race and everything to do with whether one is an Indian.
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As a result, 2,867 Freedmen descendants and 9 Intermarried Whites descendants who had become citizens since March 2006 (after the Lucy Allen decision) are disenrolled after being citizens for less than one year.
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May 14, 2007
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Since the amendment’s passage, more than 300 disenrolled Freedmen descendants file challenges to the March 2007 amendment in Cherokee Nation District Court since its passage. The tribal court issues an order reinstating the 2,867 Freedmen descendants and 9 Intermarried Whites descendants to citizenship with full social services assistance and the right to vote through the duration of the litigation. Proposed by the plaintiffs, the order had the full support of the Cherokee Nation Attorney General.
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May 17, 2007
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The Cherokee Nation District Court issues another order specially reopening voter registration for the Freedmen descendants who were reinstated pending the litigation.
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June 23, 2007
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The Cherokee Nation holds its June General Election for Principal Chief, Deputy Chief and Tribal Council officers. Previously, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) approved the Nation’s election procedures. Registered Freedmen descendants vote in the election. A new Constitutional amendment revoking federal government oversight of Cherokee Nation Constitutional amendments is approved by 67 percent and later approved by the BIA.
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June-September 2007
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Despite the fact that litigation over the Freedmen descendants’ citizenship status continues in tribal and federal courts (both U.S. District and Appeals Courts in Washington, D.C.), Members of the House introduce a bill to terminate the Cherokee Nation and cut all its federal funding (H.R. 2824) and an amendment to prohibit federal housing funds assistance until and unless the Nation permanently reinstates the Freedmen descendants and extends citizenship for this group’s own living descendants (attached to H.R. 2786). In FY 2008 alone, that means $300 million in federal funding overall. Oklahoma Congressman Dan Boren attaches a measure to prohibit H.R. 2786’s funding cut until the tribal court resolves the litigation.
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February 2008
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The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. stays the Vann litigation at the trial level until the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decides the appeal of the December 2006 opinion that first captured the Nation in the Vann litigation.
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May 6, 2008
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Oral arguments will be held in the Vann case at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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