The federal government of the United States has still not complied with the provision contained in the new Ehot Treaty of 1835, signed by President Andrew Jackson.“Under this treaty, the Cherokee agreed to move west from their lands in the southeastern United States of Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina,” says Kevin Washburn, dean of the faculty of law from the University of Iowa. “Section 7 of this treaty provides that the tribe shall have the right to have a delegate in the House of Representatives when Congress makes proper provision therefor.”Chief chief of the Cherokee Nation – the largest Cherokee tribe with more than 440,000 members – Chuck Hoskin kicked off the campaign in 2019 when he nominated Kimberly Tichy, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, as a delegate.“Over the past 200 years, our people have endured much humiliation, suffering, and deprivation at the hands of the United States government. The Cherokee were just trying to survive for most of those two centuries,” says Chuck Hoskin. – Now we are in a stronger position as a people. Over the past decades, we have been able to build ourselves economically. We started working with members of Congress, members of federal agencies, and even here with local lawmakers in Oklahoma.”
Chief of the Cherokee Nation Chuck Hoskin. Courtesy of the Cherokee Nation
Last November, the House Rules Committee held a historic hearing to determine how Congress might elect a delegate from the Cherokee Nation.“The members of this committee recognized that there was a promise, recognized that the promise was made to the Cherokee people and recognized that the country had to do the right thing. This is remarkable considering that until now, Congress has never held a hearing on the 1835 treaty,” Hoskin said.However, a number of questions remain in this story. Before the House of Representatives agrees to vote on creating of delegate, it must be determined whether it will cause constitutional problems and whether other tribes can seek similar representation.Thus, the Delawares, who were the first of the Indian tribes to enter into an agreement with the American government in 1788, already began to talk about the right to have their own delegate, according to which their representation in Congress was also guaranteed to them.Moreover, even among the Cherokee themselves, there is no unity as to which tribe should have a delegate to Congress. In addition to the Cherokee Nation, the United Kituwa Tribe of Cherokee Indians (Oklahoma) and the Eastern Tribe of Cherokee Indians (North Carolina) also named their representatives.
In an email to media, Eastern Cherokee Tribe Chief Chief Richard Sneed expressed the view that his tribe has the same delegation rights as other Cherokees:“In the years following the treaty, the actions of the federal government divided the Cherokee people into three geographically distinct groups, which eventually became three sovereign tribes representing all of the Cherokee people. It is impossible to maintain this treaty with the Cherokee people without the participation of the three tribes.Chuck Hoskin strongly disagrees with this point of view:“Each of the treaties signed between the United States and the Cherokee was made with the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee Nation signed the treaty of 1835 and the treaty of 1866. It was only after that that the eastern tribe appeared. In 1950, more than 100 years after the signing of the new Echot Treaty, the Kituwa Tribe was created by an act of Congress. So the idea that there are three tribes with equal treaty rights is actually absurd. It doesn’t even stand up to a superficial check of the facts.”Kevin Washburn agrees with Hoskin:”It’s the largest Indian tribe in the United States out of 574 tribes. I’m not saying the United Kituwa Tribe and the Eastern Cherokee Tribe shouldn’t have a say. But they don’t even come close in terms of population. with over 400,000 Cherokee Nation. And I think they are successors to this treaty in every sense of the word. The Cherokee Nation formed the main group of people who traveled west on the Path of Tears, and they are today the descendants of those people.”However, even if the Cherokee win a seat in Congress, their delegate will join half a dozen other delegates representing the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and other territories who can sit on committees and present projects. bill, but cannot vote on the House floor for final approval.
