Cherokee vote to pare rolls of their former slaves

I'd love to know the internal politics that led to this.

Cherokee Nation members voted Saturday to revoke the tribal citizenship of an estimated 2,800 descendants of the people the Cherokee once owned as slaves.

With all 32 precincts reporting, 76.6 percent had voted in favor of an amendment to the tribal constitution that would limit citizenship to descendants of "by blood" tribe members as listed on the federal Dawes Commission's rolls from more than 100 years ago.

As common as "White Indians" are throughout the country, most people in the north and the west don't realize that there are "Black Indians" too. They are most common amongst the Five Civilized Tribes. Some have descendants from the tribes, while others, such as these Freedman, have been adopted into the tribes over the years. They have a pretty rich history with the Five Civilized Tribes, so I was a bit surprised to see this.