With 90% of the American people claiming Cherokee ancestry--why have Native Americans has such a hard time getting basic civil rights?

Facetious or not, you hit upon a true American phenomenon. It is out of control!

I would dispute your statement that "90%" of Americans claim Cherokee ancestry. There are many Americans desc. from persons in the country before 1900... but also MILLIONS of immigrants came in the late 1800s (think, like through Ellis Island). Numbers wise, I would guess that more fall into the later immigrant group. My ancestry is from Poland just prior to 1900, so I have no illusion of Cherokee ancestry.

It is popular to claim Native American ancestry, and many "family histories" that are passed down orally, with no proof of any kind, seem to include that. The 90% figure would more likely be that 90% of those are flat wrong. I don't think 90% of persons CLAIM this at all.

I won't address the civil rights issue you bring up, since that isn't a genealogical topic.

Calming to be Native American and being Native American is two very different things. Your question is about Civil Rights and History, and has nothing to do with Genealogy, which is the study and documentation of a specific direct ancestral lineage within a biological Family.

Less than 5% of the general population has any native ancestry. Most non natives who falsely claim native blood are repeating family stories passed down to hide black/white admixtures and doing geneology shows this.

out of all those who claim to be Cherokee, the vast majority (upwards of 95%) claim a gr gr grandmother who was full blood. Not a gr gr grandfather. If you believed all of them, it would appear that several generations ago, all Cherokee were women.

As for civil rights? The answer is simple. The tactics of the governments of Canada and USA have changed, but their intent is the same--to do away with their "indian problem". That problem seems to be that we are still alive and they still have obligations as outlined in treaties.

You would be better to repost your question in a category that deals with civil rights in the USAsuch as All Categories >Politics & Government >Law & Ethics

In genealogy we research the written records of our ancestors to prove or disprove our ancestry in order to build a family tree and putting the word 'ancestry' into your question has automatically placed it in this category instead of you choosing the right one.......

"Claim" is the operative word here. Most are lying.

As to why - straight white males wanted to keep as much as they could for themselves. Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, women, and most recently gays have all had to fight for civil rights.

Marriage is the current hot button for civil rights. It was illegal for a white person to marry a black one - or an Asian or an Indian - in California until 1951. Enough veterans brought home wives from Japan, and later Korea, that they had to change the law.

Homosexuals still can't marry each other in most states, but that is changing.