The so-called Cherokee Freedmen will be expelled from membership in the Cherokee nation, the tribe's Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The Freedmen, descendants of black slaves brought to Oklahoma by American Indian owners in 1838 during the forced removal known as the "Trail of Tears," were given membership in the tribe after the Civil War.
The tribe voted in 2007 to revoke the membership of the 2,800 Freedmen, and the court upheld the vote one day before the election to choose the tribal chief. Another 25,000 Cherokee Freedmen could have been eligible to join the tribe, Reuters reported.
"This is racism and apartheid in the 21st century," Marilyn Vann, the Freedmen leader who sparked the lawsuit, told Reuters.
Tribal spokesmen did not respond to Reuters' request for comment. A lawsuit concerning the Freedmen is still pending in a federal court in Washington.