Seminoles to vote on blood requirement

(Wewoka-AP) -- Members of the Seminole Nation will vote July first on a resolution that could eliminate more than two-thousand members. <br><br>The resolution would require proof of one-eighth-degree

Wednesday, March 22nd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Wewoka-AP) -- Members of the Seminole Nation will vote July first on a resolution that could eliminate more than two-thousand members.

The resolution would require proof of one-eighth-degree of "Seminole Indian blood" for all tribal members. There is no blood requirement for membership now.

If adopted, two-thousand-and-27 black Seminoles would essentially be removed from tribal rolls.

Black Seminoles have sued the government over recognition as tribal members. At stake is access to $39 million dollar awarded to the Oklahoma Seminoles in 1991 for Florida land ceded by treaties over 160 years ago.

The Seminole tribe, made up of Creek Indians and members of three other tribes which banned together, often intermarried with former slaves. An 1866 treaty officially recognized black Seminoles as equal tribal members, but the 1897 Dawes Commission distinguished between Indians and freedmen.