Cherokee Nation v. Nash — Cherokee Freedmen Citizenship
Aug 30, 2017OUTCOME: Landmark victory — Federal court ruled Cherokee Freedmen have full citizenship rights under the 1866 Treaty. Cherokee Nation accepted without appeal and began processing Freedmen applications.
Jon Velie represented Marilyn Vann and the Cherokee Freedmen — descendants of formerly enslaved people held by Cherokee citizens — in a landmark federal case to secure their tribal citizenship rights. ... The case centered on whether Article 9 of the Treaty of 1866, signed between the Cherokee Nation and the United States after the Civil War, guaranteed the Freedmen and their descendants "all the rights of native Cherokees," including full citizenship. After the Cherokee Nation amended its constitution to restrict enrollment to citizens "by blood," effectively disenfranchising thousands of Freedmen descendants, the case was filed in federal court. The litigation spanned three presidential administrations and was argued before U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan.
