Related Research Articles
The Cherokee people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century,they were concentrated in their homelands,in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern North Carolina,southeastern Tennessee,southwestern Virginia,edges of western South Carolina,northern Georgia and northeastern Alabama consisting of around 40,000 square miles.
The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by the United States government in the early federal period of the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast:the Cherokee,Chickasaw,Choctaw,Muscogee (Creek),and Seminoles. White Americans classified them as "civilized" because they had adopted attributes of the Anglo-American culture.
Tribal sovereignty in the United States is the concept of the inherent authority of Indigenous tribes to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.
Wilma Pearl Mankiller was a Native American activist,social worker,community developer and the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Born in Tahlequah,Oklahoma,she lived on her family's allotment in Adair County,Oklahoma,until the age of 11,when her family relocated to San Francisco as part of a federal government program to urbanize Indigenous Americans. After high school,she married a well-to-do Ecuadorian and raised two daughters. Inspired by the social and political movements of the 1960s,Mankiller became involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz and later participated in the land and compensation struggles with the Pit River Tribe. For five years in the early 1970s,she was employed as a social worker,focusing mainly on children's issues.
Non-voting members of the United States House of Representatives are representatives of their territory in the House of Representatives,who do not have a right to vote on legislation in the full House but nevertheless have floor privileges and are able to participate in certain other House functions. Non-voting members may vote in a House committee of which they are a member and introduce legislation.
The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma is a federally recognized tribe of Cherokee Native Americans headquartered in Tahlequah,Oklahoma. According to the UKB website,its members are mostly descendants of "Old Settlers" or "Western Cherokees," those Cherokees who migrated from the Southeast to present-day Arkansas and Oklahoma around 1817. Some reports estimate that Old Settlers began migrating west by 1800,before the forced relocation of Cherokees by the United States in the late 1830s under the Indian Removal Act.
Cherokee society is the culture and societal structures shared by the Cherokee people. The Cherokee people are Indigenous to the mountain and inland regions of the southeastern United States in the areas of present-day North Carolina,and historically in South Carolina,Tennessee,Virginia,and Northern Mountainous areas,now called the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia and its lowlands. The majority of the tribe was forcibly removed to Indian Territory in the winter of 1838-1839.
Jesse Bartley Milam (1884–1949) was best known as the first Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation appointed by a U.S. president since tribal government had been dissolved before Oklahoma Statehood in 1907. He was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941,who reappointed him in 1942 and 1943;he was reappointed by President Harry S. Truman in 1948. He died while in office in 1949.
The Cherokee Nation,formerly known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma,is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated,due to increasing pressure,from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears. The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen and Natchez Nation. As of 2023,over 450,000 people were enrolled in the Cherokee Nation.
The Original Keetoowah Society is a 21st-century Keetoowah religious organization dedicated to preserving the culture and teachings of the Keetoowah Nighthawk Society in Oklahoma. It has been described as the surviving core of the Cherokee movement of religious nationalism originally led by Redbird Smith in the mid-nineteenth century. After the Cherokee were forced to move to Indian Territory,various groups associated with the Keetoowah Society worked to preserve traditional culture and its teachings.
The Cherokee Freedmen controversy was a political and tribal dispute between the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and descendants of the Cherokee Freedmen regarding the issue of tribal membership. The controversy had resulted in several legal proceedings between the two parties from the late 20th century to August 2017.
Dennis Wolf Bushyhead was a leader in the Cherokee Nation after they had removed to Indian Territory. Born into the Wolf Clan,he was elected as Principal Chief,serving two terms,from 1879 to 1887.
Samuel Houston Mayes of Scots/English-Cherokee descent,was elected as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory,serving from 1895 to 1899. His maternal grandfather belonged to the Deer clan,and his father was allied with members of the Cherokee Treaty Party in the 1830s,such as the Adair men,Elias Boudinot,and Major Ridge. In the late nineteenth century,his older brother Joel B. Mayes was elected to two terms as Chief of the Cherokee.
William Wirt Hastings was an American lawyer,educator and politician who served nine terms as a U.S. Representative from Oklahoma between 1915 and 1935.
Kimberly Teehee is a Cherokee attorney,politician,and activist on Native American issues. She is a Delegate-designate to the U.S. House of Representatives from the Cherokee Nation. She served as senior policy advisor for Native American affairs in the administration of President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2012. In February 2020,she was named by Time as one of 16 activists fighting for a "More Equal America."
The Cherokee Nation was a legal,autonomous,tribal government in North America recognized from 1794 to 1907. It was often referred to simply as "The Nation" by its inhabitants. The government was effectively disbanded in 1907,after its land rights had been extinguished,prior to the admission of Oklahoma as a state. During the late 20th century,the Cherokee people reorganized,instituting a government with sovereign jurisdiction known as the Cherokee Nation. On July 9,2020,the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation had never been disestablished in the years before allotment and Oklahoma Statehood.
Keith Michael Harper is an American attorney and diplomat who was the first Native American to ever receive the rank of a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council. He is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and as a lawyer he is known for working on behalf of Native Americans. He was,from June 2014 to January 2017,the U.S. representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Cherokee descent,"being of Cherokee descent",or "being a Cherokee descendant" are all terms for individuals with some degree of documented Cherokee ancestry but do not meet the criteria for tribal citizenship. The terms are also used by non-Native individuals who self-identify as Cherokee despite lacking documentation or community recognition.
The Cherokee delegate to the United States House of Representatives is an office established via the Treaty of New Echota in 1835. The office was intended to represent the Cherokee people and was instrumental in negotiations of land transfer and sovereignty in the Treaty. The office went vacant until 2019,with the appointment of Kimberly Teehee of the Cherokee Nation. Teehee and tribal leadership attempted to get her seated in the 116th and 117th United States Congresses. In 2021,the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians designated their own delegate,lawyer Victoria Holland.
Sara Elizabeth Hill is a Cherokee and American attorney who has served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma since 2024. She previously served as the attorney general of the Cherokee Nation from August 2019 to August 2023 and as the tribe's secretary of natural resources between October 2015 and August 2019.
References
- ↑ Owens, Crystal (April 10, 2023). "UKB Delegate Wants Tribal Unity In Quest For US House Seat". Law360 . Retrieved 2023-11-16.
- ↑ Guthrie, Lee (September 26, 2023). "Cherokee tribes vie for congressional delegate rights". Tahlequah Daily Press . Retrieved 2023-11-16.
- 1 2 3 "Congressional Delegate Tori Holland". www.ukb-nsn.gov.
- ↑ https://comanchenation.com/sites/comanchenation.com/files/2021-10-TCNN.pdf
- ↑ "Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma could get first delegate to Congress in 200 years". The Guardian . 2022-11-16. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
- ↑ "Legacy Of The Trail Of Tears Complicating Bid For Cherokee Representation In House". HuffPost . 2023-07-08. Retrieved 2023-11-16.