Two more Cherokee tribes say they are entitled to a non-voting member of Congress, countering claims by the Cherokee Nation they are the only ones who were promised a seat.
Why it matters: The dispute over a congressional delegate, outlined in a treaty that forcibly removed Cherokees from ancestral homelands, shows how complicated matters evolve when promises aren’t kept to Indigenous people for nearly two centuries.
Details: The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina challenge the notion that the 1835 Treaty of New Echota applies exclusively to the Cherokee Nation, one of the largest tribal nations in the U.S.
- They say that treaty was signed by the Cherokee people — not the Cherokee Nation — and President Andrew Jackson, then ratified by the Senate.
- The treaty promised a nonvoting House delegate to represent the Cherokees.
Catch up quickly: Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. named Kim Teehee, a citizen…
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