Equal Protection

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/09/15/tribal-sovereignty-vs-racial-justice/the-use-of-blood-quantum

I read an article about the Cherokee nation and their blood quantum rules/laws. In this article, the Cherokee denied individuals the rights to join their nation as equals due to them not being blood related. Some people think that this is due to the fact that the Cherokee discriminate against other races. Other people say that this is because they do not want to be colonized or destroyed. The questionable part about this article is the fact that the courts do not know whether it should be treated as their right or having sovereignty or if this is truly another discrimination case.
The Cherokee are likely to act in defense saying that they are using their rights that they were given by the constitution such as popular sovereignty. The people that were expelled from the Nation happened to be black freedmen and so the court automatically assumed that they were acting out of racism, however, there have been many nations before the Cherokee that have expelled due to the blood quantum law also. This means that their blood quantum law is not uncommon and maybe the courts are just cracking down on this one case because it involves people of a different race.