Hello David,

Excellent response to "The CNO version of the 'Truth' About Cherokee Citizenship." What I felt you gave vital attention to was the Cherokee Nation's historical status as a Confederate State. Their status as a Confederate state may or may not have been a reluctant one, but they certainly were a slave owning nation and can not revert back to Confederate legal status and expect to be recognized, no former Confederate State can do that. As for the treaties, all treaties are legally binding, including the ones that the U.S. broke. The U.S. has exercised the option of either honoring those treaties that they violated or providing monetary compensation. The 1866 treaty is a legally binding contract between the U.S. and a former Confederate State.
The Cherokee Nation will always maintain its sovereign status as long as it chooses to do so, but the present government is an illegal one which has reverted back to its Confederate state status with the March 3, 2007 vote.
I always like to back my position up with source material, which will follow,
Allen

"First Nations Histories
CHEROKEE HISTORY©
Lee Sultzman

"...When Union soldiers withdrew during the summer of 1861, the Confederate army occupied the Indian Territory. The Cherokee Nation voted to secede from the United States in August, 1861, and a formal treaty was signed at the Park Hill home of John Ross between the Cherokee Nation and the new Confederate government. Four years later, this agreement was to cost them very dearly."
http://www.tolatsga.org/Cherokee2.html