(NewsNation) — The Cherokee Nation is pushing to reform a 19th-century federal law that governs criminal jurisdiction involving Native Americans on tribal lands based on “blood quantum,” a racial classification many tribes now reject, Axios reported.
The tribe wants Congress to revise the 1885 Major Crimes Act, which federal courts have interpreted as requiring tribal citizens to have a certain “Indian blood” level to be prosecuted in federal or tribal court for alleged crimes committed on reservations.
Those without sufficient blood ties are instead tried in state court.
Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. told Axios the law discriminates against tribal citizens of Freedmen descent, the descendants of Black people once enslaved by Native Americans. He argues all Cherokee citizens should face jurisdiction within their sovereign nation regardless of race.
The push comes as the Cherokee Nation, one of the largest Indigenous tribes with 437,000 citizens, has begun welcoming Freedmen descendants as members following a 2021 court ruling. The tribe has enrolled around 15,000 Freedmen citizens so far, Axios reported.
A 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling determined a large portion of eastern Oklahoma remains a reservation, preventing state authorities from prosecuting Native Americans on tribal lands in certain cases. However, some Black Cherokee members are still being tried in state courts due to lacking “Indian blood.”
Hoskin says the tribe will lobby Congress for changes and may pursue legal challenges. Other tribes who once enslaved Black people, like the Muscogee Nation, are resisting Freedmen membership claims, Axios reported.