On May 14, Rhonda Brown Fleming sued the Cherokee Nation in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., over whether she should be allowed on the ballot for the June 1 election for President of the Cherokee Nation. She is a descendant of a slave. Until 1866, the Cherokee Nation permitted slavery.
She was kept off the ballot because she is not a blood member of the tribe, but she argues that it had previously been determined that descendants of slaves held by members of the Cherokee Nation are also part of the tribe. Here is the complaint. The case is Brown Fleming v Cherokee Nation, 1:19cv-1397. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan. She was also kept off the ballot because she does not live on the reservation.
Gee golly whiz and just WOW!
She was removed as a candidate not because of blood issues, but because she doesn’t live within the tribe’s jurisdiction. According to the Cherokee Nation Constitution, principal chief and deputy chief candidates must live within the tribe’s jurisdiction in NE Oklahoma at least 270 days prior to the election. She didn’t meet that qualification. Therefore, she was deemed ineligible. If she lived in the tribe’s jurisdiction 270 days before the June 1 election, she would have been deemed a candidate. She is considered a CN citizen. She can vote. She can run for office. She just has to follow the CN Constitution and election laws to do so. She didn’t meet the residency requirement. She keeps saying she was deemed ineligible because she’s a Freedmen citizen. That’s not the case.