The Cherokee Nation is once again requesting that the US House of Representatives seat a congressional representative to fulfill a treaty it made in 1835.
The Cherokee Nation released a video last week citing the Treaty of New Echota, which forced them to give up their homeland and move to what would become the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of Cherokees.
But in a video released last week, it noted that the treaty gave the nation the right to send a delegate to Congress.
“For two centuries, Congress has failed to honour that promise,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr said in a video and noted how he nominated Kim Teehee, a former Obama administration official, as the nation’s delegate.
Ms Teehee told NPR that Congress spent decades marginalising and attemtping to erase Cherokee culture, noting how Congress didn’t allow the nation to even elect its own chief until 1975.
“And in the mid-’70s is when federal dollars through Congress started flowing out to our nation, where we could actually start serving the needs of our citizens,” she said. “And so it took all that time to rebuild a nation where we finally feel that we're in a place today where we can focus on this long-standing treaty right.”
The tribal council nominated Ms Teehee in 2019 and said there was momentum toward seating her before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“And so we picked the ball back up,” she said. “And we've got great momentum again. And we've got bipartisan support. And we're asking for a hearing this fall to seat the delegate.”
In order for Ms Teehee to be seated, the House Rules Committee would need to have a hearing and then a vote before it going to the rest of the House.
Congress has recently seen an increase in female indigenous representation in Washington. Representative Sharice Davids from Kansas was elected as one of the first two Native American woman in Congress in 2018 while Representative Yvette Herrell of New Mexico became the first Native American Republican woman elected to the House in 2020. Most recently, Representative Mary Peltola became the first Alaska Native to represent the state when she won a special election.
“When we talk to our citizens, our citizens absolutely believe that the Cherokee Nations' treaty must be fulfilled by the United States. It would show that the U.S. honors its treaties,” Ms Teehee told NPR. “It would show that the U.S. keeps its word.”
