You need to learn to read with better comprehension or at least pay attention. NOWHERE in my father's post did he say there is a "Cherokee race." In fact, he said the opposite: Cherokees (including Freedmen) are NATIONALS of the Cherokee Nation, a nation, plain and simple. No one has demanded that anyone in the tribe be anything other than what their own personal choices and culture dictates. A white person with a drizzle of Cherokee blood is not asked to put on feathers and prance around a powwow drum. Neither are the Freedmen asked to be anything other than the culture that they already live. The Freedmen are black, that is their race. They are Americans. That is one of their citizenships. They also are Cherokee, that is their other citizenship. Since there is no Cherokee race and Cherokee is the identity of the nationals of the Cherokee Nation, being a Cherokee does not interfere in any way with whatever race or culture someone may be or claim.

I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma and anytime I see a Cherokee Nation or Keetoowah Cherokee car tag, I look into the car for some recognition from that person of our shared tribal heritage. What I find is generally the Cherokee Nation members are not tribal in their culture and most don't even notice when another Cherokee tag passes their car. On the other had Keetoowah Cherokees do notice and they do show recognition when another Keetoowah passes. I have even walked up to people with Cherokee Nation car tags and invited them to some degree of recognition and participation. More often than not, I am rebuffed.

But I do not begrudge them their culture or lack thereof anymore than I would begrudge them their citizenship. They are citizens of my Nation with the right to live as they choose, even if that life is foreign to me and not recognizable as Cherokee culture.