Albuquerque, N.M. • Cherokee Nation leaders marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday 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 with participation in a King parade and a visit to the Martin Luther King Community Center in Muskogee, Okla.
Cherokee Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. said Principal Chief Bill John Baker decided the tribe should honor the King holiday this year because of ongoing racial tensions nationwide and because the tribe is seeking to make amends with slavery.