June 05, 2008

Cherokee PR or propaganda

Cherokee Nation rolls out new Web sitesThe Cherokee Nation is rolling out a public relations campaign this week in response to federal lawmakers who say the tribe should be denied benefits unless it recognizes descendants of the tribe’s former black slaves, known as freedmen.

But one freedmen rights activist accused the nation of resorting to “propaganda” to make its case.

The campaign includes two Web sites designed to address misconceptions about a 2007 special election where Cherokee voters decided to remove about 2,800 freedmen descendants and other non-Indians from tribal rolls, said Mike Miller, spokesman for the nation.

3 comments:

dmarks said...

Too often, "propaganda" is merely a pejorative to mean that one person does not like what another is saying.

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
writerfella has seen newstape (CNN, FOX, C-SPAN) and print photos of the "federal lawmakers" who are calling for Cherokees to lose their benefits. They are Black almost to exclusion and it is writerfella's experience that such persons usually claim Cherokee descent almost to exclusion...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Carole McDonnell said...

sooooo true, writerfella.

I'm black and about 1/16 Native American. I don't go around saying I'm Native American. I cannot tell you the amoung of black cherokee folks I have met who simply call themselves cherokee as if there's a cachet to being Native (while at the same time rejecting their African side totally.) I think the Cherokees shouldn't have broken a 100 year old bond with their freedmen descendants but at the same time, those freedmen shouldn't have severed their bonds from their black brothers and sisters either. -C