Cherokee tribes vie for congressional delegate rights

Sep. 26—Before colonial encroachment, all Cherokee people resided in the southeastern United States, and over the decades division occurred between the bands because of Congress' treatment of Native American tribes, a United Keetoowah Band delegate said.

In the New Treaty of Echota, Article 7, a delegate to Congress is guaranteed, yet that promise has not been fulfilled, according to the tribal representative. Other Native American tribes, in particular representatives of the UKB and the Eastern Band of Cherokees, claim they also have the right to a delegate in Congress.

Victoria Holland, known as Tori, has been appointed as a delegate to Congress by the UKB, if and when Congress agrees to allow Cherokee delegate(s) into Congress.

Other tribes also have delegate appointees, like the Delaware and Choctaw, Holland said.

"If Congress decides to seat a delegate for the Cherokee people, they have to do so equally and at the same time, because we are all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes," Holland said. "So if Congress were to just seat one, then they are now choosing a favorite Cherokee tribe. Now, regardless of who that is — if it's Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, [or] the Eastern Band, it doesn't matter. You're still doing a disservice to the other two."

Congress either has to seat all three at the same time or they do not need to seat anybody. By choosing only one, the U.S. is breaking the promise to the other two Cherokee tribes, Holland said.

"I also believe that there are other tribes who have a right to a delegate and Congress needs to be cognizant to that," Holland said.

In an earlier interview, Kim Teehee, delegate for the Cherokee Nation, addressed UKB's claim to also have the right to send a delegate to Congress.

"They claim that this treaty right is theirs," Teehee said. "Every treaty between the U.S. and the Cherokee Nation belongs to us, that's clear. Every court decision regarding Cherokee Nation, every act of Congress expressly regarding Cherokee Nation, we have been the beneficiaries of all those decisions, good or bad, and all those acts of Congress, good or bad."

Ultimately Congress will decide how the Native American delegate(s) work with the seated Congress and how this position would work with the elected members of the U.S. Congress.

"So far, we've based it off of the other delegate provisions like Guam and Puerto Rico, where they can vote on committee action, but [not on final vote]," Holland said.

When the treaty was written, Native Americans were not citizens of the U.S., or a state. Once they became citizens, with the right to vote, there is an argument that the treaty obligation has been fulfilled, Holland said.

"There's also a claim that that's double representation, so if I'm a member of a tribe I not only have my state representative, I also have my tribal representative. So at this time, there's more questions than there are answers," Holland said.

The Cherokee Nation delegate, Teehee, claims the UKB changed its history, and were here before the removal. The UKB also claims it was terminated politically, part of Oklahoma being a state, Teehee said.

"Which is wrong, too. We continued to exist through statehood. Now because of acts of Congress in the 19th century they continued to dismantle our government, it didn't abolish the government," Teehee said. "We were kind of limping along, for sure, because look, even the Congress chose to take away our right to elect our own chief, which wasn't restored by Congress until the '70s."

Before colonial encroachment, the tribes all had their own form of governing.

"At that time, we all had our own form of government, [and] we did all those things that a government does," Holland said.

Prior to the Trail of Tears, a band of Cherokees, the Keetoowah, went to what is now Arkansas and were known as the Western Cherokees or Old Settlers. Because the Keetoowah were the more traditional Cherokees, they did not want to assimilate to the white man's way of life, Holland said.

"So they went ahead and moved because they saw the writing on the wall that there was going to be an assimilation," Holland said.

Another group of Cherokees, the Eastern Band, moved into the mountains of North Carolina and were not part of the removal.

"Here in Oklahoma, we have the Cherokee people, but there's division between the full-bloods and the mixed bloods. [Full-bloods is] how Keetoowah refer to themselves," Holland said.

The Keetoowah opposed slavery and they fought for the Union in the Civil War. Within the Cherokee people, there was a division over the Civil War, Holland said. Others owned slaves and fought for the Confederacy.

Congress passed two acts pertaining to the Cherokee people, to strip away all of the rights of sovereignty and do away with tribes, Holland said.

One of the first, the Curtis Act, abolished the tribal court system, and also declared that tribal chiefs had to be appointed by the president.

"So they stripped away all of these rights of the Cherokee people because they were going to abolish tribal government," Holland said. "The full-bloods fought adamantly to keep their tribal government."

Newspaper articles from the early 1900s talked of how the Keetoowah went to Washington, D.C., to oppose this legislation because the Keetoowah wanted to stay a government, Holland said.

Then came the allotment. The Keetoowah fought against it, because it was considered assimilation and historically the land had been held collectively.

"Everyone had a role that they [played] within their communities, but we didn't believe in individual ownership of property," Holland said.

Many did not want to enroll in the Dawes Commission and the Keetoowah Society was formed to attempt to maintain a form of government while still complying with all of the federal laws, Holland said.

Attorney Frank J. Boudinot represented the Keetoowah Society. Boudinot brought claims on behalf of the full-bloods/Cherokee/Keetoowah, in order to try and protect those tribal members and their interests, Holland said.

Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934 and the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act was passed in 1936.

"When the OIWA was passed, [the full-bloods] decided to organize pursuant to this new right of Congress and create the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma," Holland said.

Around this time, several tribes reorganized pursuant to that act, to combat the actions done previously by Congress, like the Curtis Act that stripped away the court system, Holland said.

"If you were organized under the OIWA you [could] have a court system again," Holland said.

In the beginning, the UKB and the historic Cherokee Nation would work together.

"We had this form of government that was the historic Cherokee Nation," Holland said. "We decided to help revamp the Cherokee Nation and [we started] collectively having joint meetings. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, what we call them today, passed a new constitution in the 1970s."

The tribes worked together and had joint tribal council meetings and were part of each other's holiday celebrations, Holland said.

"It was very much a sisterhood or brotherhood," Holland said.