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Though they were perpetually oppressed throughout America’s history, some Native American tribes were themselves guilty of oppression: they owned African slaves, a piece of American History that is often overlooked. After siding (and losing) with the Confederacy in the Civil War, the Cherokee Nation, among other tribes, signed a treaty with the Lincoln administration formalizing the tribal citizenship of its former slaves. Nearly 140 years later, the Cherokee Nation began removing their African-American citizens. Today, the tribes continue to argue that their African-American citizens are not real Indians “by blood.” BY BLOOD chronicles Native Americans of African descent, or Freedmen, as they battle to regain their tribal citizenship.