From ancient times, it was only through the clan system that blood relationships had importance. Children were born into their mother’s clan. Women owned the home and property, so children received birthright citizenship from their mothers. However, property was passed down only to female children. If a white man married a Cherokee woman, he was adopted into the tribe and their children were of her clan. However, if a Cherokee man married a white woman, his children would not be considered part of his clan. Men also had no inheritance to pass on, so these children would not have a birthright to tribal citizenship.
Over time, white intermarriage occurred so often that the council made changes to the law allowing Cherokee men to pass tribal citizenship (but not their clan) to their wives and children. This citizenship by intermarriage was abolished in 1895. Any individuals on the rolls as “Intermarried-white” after November 1, 1875, were removed after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1906.
The intermarriage of Cherokees with members of other tribes was allowed without restrictions. When the “Loyal Shawnee” joined together with the Cherokee Nation, the whites who were intermarried with Shawnee before 1869 or with a Cherokee before 1875 were considered to be Cherokee.
Indian Territory, which encompassed lands that the Cherokee had been forcibly relocated to from their ancestral homeland, became the state of Oklahoma in 1907. As with many things Cherokee, the federal government’s interference with tribal customs and values created confusion about terms like “by blood”, while social constructs such as “race” and “blood quantum” were forced on the Cherokee.
Today the Cherokee Nation, the largest of the federally recognized Cherokee tribes, has no blood quantum requirement for citizenship. It is obtained by proving lineage to an ancestor listed on the Dawes roll whether that ancestor is listed by blood or not.
