Mealey's (May 17, 2019, 9:26 AM EDT) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — A descendant of a Cherokee freedman who wants to run for the office of principal chief of the tribe lost her bid to challenge a tribal law limiting election eligibility to a Cherokee “citizen by blood” by failing to respond to the tribe’s and federal government’s motions to dismiss, a District of Columbia federal judge ruled May 14 (Rhonda Leona Brown Fleming, et al. v. The Cherokee Nation, et al., No. 18-02041, D. D.C., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81275)....