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Cherokee Nation leaders marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day by acknowledging the tribe needs to come to terms with its treatment of former slaves, known as Freedmen.

 

The tribe - one of the country's largest - recognized the King holiday for the first time Monday with participation in a parade and a visit to the Martin Luther King Community Center in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

 

Cherokee Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. says Principal Chief Bill John Baker decided the tribe should honor of the King holiday this year because of ongoing racial tensions nationwide and because the tribe is seeking to make amends on the slavery issue.

 

A federal court ruled last year that the Freedmen had the same rights to tribal citizenship, voting, health care and housing as blood-line Cherokees.