"In order to join the Cherokee Nation, you must first have a CDIB card. In order to get a CDIB card you must prove that you are directly related to a Cherokee Indian on the Dawns roll. Is that not clear enough?"

Before the USA existed, how did people join the Cherokee communities?

Before the USA started issuing CDIB cards, how did people join the Cherokee communities?

When the USA stops issuing CDIB cards, how will people join the Cherokee communities?

After the USA is relegated to the pages of history, how will people join the Cherokee communities?

Freeman joined and were accepted as full members of Cherokee communities, before and after the arrival of Europeans.

The Cherokee agreed to accept the Freedman as full members of their communities in 1866.

The Cherokee agreed to accept the descendants of the Freedman as full members of their communities in 1866.

Cherokees did not reduce community membership to something as simple as blood.

Those that choose to make one drop of Cherokee blood the only defining marker of what it means to be 'Cherokee' are sadly diseased. To say that ONLY blood matters, that blood is the ONLY deciding factor, do so in the highest disrespect for all of the real factors that make one an Indian, A Cherokee.

When only blood matters, then:

Participation in the community is irrelevant.
Contribution to the community is irrelevant.
Singing songs is irrelevant.
Stomp dancing is irrelevant.
Speaking the language is irrelevant.
Taking a meal to someone bedridden is irrelevant.
Taking a meal to someone just because is irrelevant.
Caring for one's grandma is irrelevant.
Sharing with one's neighbor is irrelevant.
Patching the roof of an elder is irrelevant.
Telling stories to children is irrelevant.
Listening to the stories is irrelevant.
Sitting on the porch swing with someone is irrelevant.
Learning lessons from the stories is irrelevant.
Gathering around the fire is irrelevant.
Burning cedar is irrelevant.
Collecting medicine is irrelevant.
Planting medicine is irrelevant.
Knowning one's history is irrelevant.
Living in harmony with the earth is irrelevant.
Giving tobacco is irrelevant.
Respecting worms is irrelevant.
Respecting the ancestors is irrelevant.
Respecting the eagles is irrelevant.
Respecting elders is irrelevant.
Respecting children is irrelevant.
Respecting the sun is irrelevant.
Respecting the water is irrelevant.
Respecting the moon is irrelevant.
Respecting the buzzard is irrelevant.
Telling a good joke is irrelevant.
Laughing at a good joke is irrelevant.

It matters not whether:
"The 'chiefs' shall be mentors of the people for all time. The thickness of their skin shall be seven spans -- which is to say that they shall be proof against anger, offensive actions and criticism. Their hearts shall be full of peace and good will and their minds filled with a yearning for the welfare of the people of the tribe. With endless patience they shall carry out their duty and their firmness shall be tempered with a tenderness for their people. Neither anger nor fury shall find lodgment in their minds and all their words and actions shall be marked by calm deliberation."

Nothing else matters.
Only one drop of Dawes recorded blood.
It matters not if Dawes recorded truthfully.
It matters not if Dawes recorded accurately.
What Dawes decided to record is all that matters.
Dawes decides who is in and who is out, not the Cherokee.

Really now. Just one drop of blood? As recorded by Dawes? that seems to be ludicrous.

It is calculated that by the rule of the Dawes rolls, in another 9 generations, some tribal members will have as little as 1 part per million of Cherokee blood [that's 1/1,048,576 degree].

Even if one has 1/4 degree, but has largely ASS-emulated to the European culture and lifestyle, and displays little if any of the above list of traits or other valid indicators of Indian culture, could he still rightly claim to be Indian?

Exactly what makes an Indian an Indian?

I think more than blood matters. To reduce being Indian, being Cherokee, to that single factor is disrespectful of the people, to the ancestors and dangerous to the unborn.