June 26, 1976. Article III, Section 1 of the new constitution defined citizens as those proven by reference to the final Dawes Commission Rolls, including the adopted Delaware and Shawnee. Efforts to block the Freedmen descendants from the tribe began in 1983 when Principal Chief Swimmer issued an executive order stating that all Cherokee Nation citizens must have a CDIB card in order to vote instead of the previous Cherokee Nation voter cards that were used since 1971. The CDIB cards were issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs based on those listed on the Dawes Commission Rolls as Indians by blood. Since the Dawes Commission never recorded Indian blood quantum on the Cherokee Freedmen Roll or the Freedmen Minors Roll, the Freedmen could not obtain CDIB cards. Although they were Dawes enrollees, received funds resulting from tribal land sales via the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Whitmire v. Cherokee Nation and United States (1912), and voted in previous Cherokee Nation elections, the Cherokee Freedmen descendants were turned away from the polls and told that they did not have the right to vote. According to Principal Chief Swimmer in a 1984 interview, both the voter registration committee and the tribal membership committee had introduced new rules in the period between 1977 and 1978 that declared that according to the Cherokee Constitution of 1976, an individual must have a "Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood" (CDIB) card from the U.S. government before enrollment or voting rights were allowed. However, Article III of the 1976 constitution had no mention of blood requirements for membership or voting rights. Swimmer's executive order was analyzed by some observers as one way Swimmer excluded people who were supporting a rival candidate, former deputy chief Perry Wheeler, for Principal Chief. After the 1983 Cherokee Nation elections and the re-election of Swimmer, Wheeler and his running mate, Agnes Cowen, initiated a series of legal proceedings such as filing cases with the Cherokee Judicial Appeals Tribunal, petitioning the Bureau of Indian Affairs to conduct an investigation of the election, and filing a case with the US District Court. Wheeler and Cowen alleged that the election was a violation of federal and tribal law and that the Cherokee Freedmen were unjustly removed from voting because they were allies of Wheeler. All cases and subsequent appeals were defeated. Swimmer's successor and former Deputy Chief, Wilma P. Mankiller, was elected in 1985.