Blood Will Tell, Part 2

A good article from Wired Magazine about the Freedmen controversy, and one of the few that gets it right by discussing the random, capricious and racist nature of the Dawes Rolls. It also points out the shortcomings of using DNA testing to determine Indian heritage, something that seems to be all the rage lately to judge from my GoogleAds. However, the author does imply, unfairly, that this is all about money, mentioning how much the Five Tribes are raking in from casino gaming. That's a cheap shot; it might be true for small tribes in California or New England (several of whom are currently engaged in nasty purges of their membership), but Cherokee citizens don't get any kind of allotment or dividend from gaming operations. All that money goes to fund the tribal government, making it self-sufficient. There are plenty of legitimate complaints to make about the anti-Freedmen faction, but money isn't one of them. As the saying goes, a white (CDIB) card and fifty cents will get you a cup of coffee.