Director Sam Russell
Countries United States
Duration 58 min
Synopsis
By Blood chronicles Native Americans of African descent, or Freedmen, as they battle to regain their tribal citizenship. The film explores the impact of this battle, which has manifested into a broader conflict about race, identify, and the sovereign rights of indigenous people. Largely excised from American history, the Cherokee Nation—like the Seminole, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Nations—is a former African slave-owning tribe. The Cherokee Nation was just one of several American Indian slave-owning nations that fought on the side of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. As part of a post-Civil War treaty that the Cherokee Nation and other tribes entered into with the U.S Government, freed black slaves were bestowed with the name: Freedmen. They were also granted tribal membership, the 1866 Treaty stipulated that Freedmen and their descendants must maintain their tribal membership in perpetuity. Beginning ten years ago, however, the Cherokee Nation started removing their Freedmen descendants from the tribe. Tribal officials claimed that because Freedmen descend from slaves once owned by their forefathers, they are not true Indians “by blood.” Experts contend, however, that the Cherokee Freedmen may in fact have Native American blood running through them as a consequence of relationships—often forced—between Native American masters and black slaves. Today, most Cherokee, particularly in positions of power, appear white—their Native American bloodlines have diminished. Most Cherokee Freedmen descendants appear black. Not surprisingly, to the Cherokee Freedmen, their recent disenfranchisement was largely seen as racially motivated. By Blood’s narrative rests on the shoulders of Freedmen descendants and their advocates. They include Roshon Jones and David Cornsilk. Jones is a Freedmen descendant and cowboy. Jones lives with his two sons in a trailer in Boley, Oklahoma—one of nearly fifty towns across Oklahoma that was founded by Freedmen and African-Americans after the Civil War. David Cornsilk appears white, though he is eighth-generation Cherokee. He is also a self-taught civil rights advocate and genealogist. Cornsilk traces his Cherokee slave-, owning ancestors back to their aboriginal lands of Georgia and Tennessee—to a period before the Trail of Tears. Over the last decade, Cornsilk has fought for the citizenship rights of Freedmen descendants. By Blood documents their journeys and interweaves past and present events as the civil rights case advances towards the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals. By Blood also examines how the legacy of racism in Oklahoma—a state that is officially interwoven into a patchwork of Native American Nations—has informed the present-day Freedmen controversy. After Indian Territory was reduced and replaced by the formation of Oklahoma, the first law that sailed through the state’s legislature separated blacks and whites on rail cars—just one of the many Jim Crow laws that followed. The film also illustrates how the embers of Tulsa’s Race Riot are still piping hot especially among residents of the city’s north side: a predominately African-American neighborhood that is also Cherokee Territory and home to many Freedmen. The film also explores the history of oppression experienced by the Cherokee and other American Indian Nations at the hands of the U.S. Government. The film contextualizes how federal encroachment over Indian Territory led to Oklahoma’s statehood, and fueled its complicated and often violent history between American Indians, whites of European descent, and African-Americans. Indeed, the film demonstrates both sides of the battle, the shared emotional impact of the issue, and the rising urgency of the debate: a Native American and African American history has been overlooked, and a tribal body feels as though their identify is under siege and sovereignty threatened.
By Blood chronicles Native Americans of African descent, or Freedmen, as they battle to regain their tribal citizenship. The film explores the impact of this battle, which has manifested into a broader conflict about race, identify, and the sovereign rights of indigenous people. Largely excised from American history, the Cherokee Nation—like the Seminole, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Nations—is a former African slave-owning tribe. The Cherokee Nation was just one of several American Indian slave-owning nations that fought on the side of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. As part of a post-Civil War treaty that the Cherokee Nation and other tribes entered into with the U.S Government, freed black slaves were bestowed with the name: Freedmen. They were also granted tribal membership, the 1866 Treaty stipulated that Freedmen and their descendants must maintain their tribal membership in perpetuity. Beginning ten years ago, however, the Cherokee Nation started removing their Freedmen descendants from the tribe. Tribal officials claimed that because Freedmen descend from slaves once owned by their forefathers, they are not true Indians “by blood.” Experts contend, however, that the Cherokee Freedmen may in fact have Native American blood running through them as a consequence of relationships—often forced—between Native American masters and black slaves. Today, most Cherokee, particularly in positions of power, appear white—their Native American bloodlines have diminished. Most Cherokee Freedmen descendants appear black. Not surprisingly, to the Cherokee Freedmen, their recent disenfranchisement was largely seen as racially motivated. By Blood’s narrative rests on the shoulders of Freedmen descendants and their advocates. They include Roshon Jones and David Cornsilk. Jones is a Freedmen descendant and cowboy. Jones lives with his two sons in a trailer in Boley, Oklahoma—one of nearly fifty towns across Oklahoma that was founded by Freedmen and African-Americans after the Civil War. David Cornsilk appears white, though he is eighth-generation Cherokee. He is also a self-taught civil rights advocate and genealogist. Cornsilk traces his Cherokee slave-, owning ancestors back to their aboriginal lands of Georgia and Tennessee—to a period before the Trail of Tears. Over the last decade, Cornsilk has fought for the citizenship rights of Freedmen descendants. By Blood documents their journeys and interweaves past and present events as the civil rights case advances towards the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals. By Blood also examines how the legacy of racism in Oklahoma—a state that is officially interwoven into a patchwork of Native American Nations—has informed the present-day Freedmen controversy. After Indian Territory was reduced and replaced by the formation of Oklahoma, the first law that sailed through the state’s legislature separated blacks and whites on rail cars—just one of the many Jim Crow laws that followed. The film also illustrates how the embers of Tulsa’s Race Riot are still piping hot especially among residents of the city’s north side: a predominately African-American neighborhood that is also Cherokee Territory and home to many Freedmen. The film also explores the history of oppression experienced by the Cherokee and other American Indian Nations at the hands of the U.S. Government. The film contextualizes how federal encroachment over Indian Territory led to Oklahoma’s statehood, and fueled its complicated and often violent history between American Indians, whites of European descent, and African-Americans. Indeed, the film demonstrates both sides of the battle, the shared emotional impact of the issue, and the rising urgency of the debate: a Native American and African American history has been overlooked, and a tribal body feels as though their identify is under siege and sovereignty threatened.