Milestones in Don Cheadle's ancestry: 1865 In March, Don Cheadle's great, great grandfather enlists in the US Colored Troops in Western Florida. 1866 A sovereign nation within the US, the Chickasaw Nation did not recognize the end of slavery until 1866. After 1866, the freedmen in the Chickasaw Nation, Don Cheadle's family among them, hold neither US nor Chickasaw citizenship until the 1890s when the Dawes Commission redistributes communally held land. 1964 Don Cheadle is born on November 29 ...