"After years of controversy, it is important to let the federal courts settle this issue," Chad Smith, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, said in a statement Tuesday. "This filing today is the Cherokee Nation keeping its word, and letting the federal courts have a clear path to reaching a decision on the merits without compromising the nation's sovereign immunity, and without the risk of setting procedural precedents that may affect other tribes."
In 2007 the U.S. House voted to take away some of the Cherokees' federal funding if they did not restore citizenship rights to freedmen, but the bill was later amended. The nation can continue to receive housing benefits as long as the tribal court order giving freedmen citizenship remains in place.
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