WXMI — When the Cherokee Nation put pen to paper on the Treaty of New Echota in December of 1835, they did so under duress and under the guise of promises that were never kept.
The treaty dictated that the Nation relinquish their ancestral land in what is now Oklahoma, and begin a relocation to designated Indian Country that decimated a large chunk of the Nation’s population. In return, among other things, the Cherokees were promised a delegate to represent them in Congress – a promise that has gone unfulfilled even to this day.
But after more recent pushes by current-day members of the Cherokee Nation, on Wednesday, the U.S. House Rules Committee held hearings to begin the process of finally, after 187 years, seat a Cherokee delegate.
“As I study this issue, I believe it’s the right thing to do; it’s the moral thing to do,” said committee chairman Rep. Jim McGovern, (D) – MA. “This can and should be done as quickly as possible.”
The appointment seemed to have overwhelming support among the panel, but would still need the full approval of the House to be enacted. The delegate would become a non-voting member of Congress, able to sit on committees and draft legislation, but not vote on it. There are currently six non-voting delegates in Congress, to Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Washington, D.C.
There are 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States, each one a sovereign nation of its own inside the United States. Through their own tribal legislative process, the Cherokee Nation has already chosen a prospective representative: Kimberly TeeHee, an attorney who formerly worked in the Obama administration’s Office of Native American Affairs and in the office of Michigan Congressman Dale Kildee.
“Kim is a very good friend of mine and somebody that I respect greatly,” said House Rules Committee ranking member Rep. Tom Cole, (R) – OK, who is a member of the Chickasaw Nation. “It’s really not a partisan issue, it becomes an institutional issue.”
The sovereignty of tribal nations has been upheld several times by the U.S. Supreme Court and Levi Rickert, a Native American journalist and author, says the move to appoint a Cherokee Nation delegate would be more than symbolic. TeeHee would be a representative for all of Indian Country – an in-house expert, Rickert says – for lawmakers appropriating billions of dollars each year to tribes with which they have very little familiarity.
“I do think that a seat at the table is very important for Native Americans as we do live in modern society,” said Rickert. “That’s why I think it is important for somebody like Kim TeeHee to be in Congress representing Native Americans and having that voice to push back.”
“Treaties are business agreements,” he continued. “When people think that they’re old or that they’re obsolete – why should we honor them? – I like to say, well so is the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Those go back to 1776, so that should not negate the fact that treaties should be upheld.”
Rickert says the COVID-19 pandemic brought some light to the struggles many Natives are facing. He points to the Navaho Nation, which has experienced 30,000 cases, and is approaching 2,000 deaths from COVID – deaths Rickert says were unnecessary, but happened because those communities often get overlooked.
“Americans found out, maybe for the first time, that about a third to half of their citizens out there live in houses that don’t have running water, or electricity, and the roads are just impassable sometimes,” he said. “When we were reporting on it, we found out a lot of the deaths probably were unnecessary, but they just couldn’t get to the people, the roads were impassable. I think having someone there with that knowledge is just really going to be beneficial.”
During the hearing, some questions arose as to what would happen in the midst of a transition of power in Congress after last week’s midterm elections. One witness, Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., said any agreement made in the interim should stand.
“I would think it’d be breathtaking for the next Congress to say, we’re then going to break this promise,” said Hoskin Jr. “Now, I’m a tribal leader, I know my history, I know the United States has broken a promise or two… but I think in the 21st century, when this House of Representatives seats Kim TeeHee, there won’t be another Congress that will dare break that promise to the Cherokee Nation.”
The House Rules Committee also received correspondence from other nations asking Congress to consider seating their own delegates under other broken treaties. The Choctaw Nation is guaranteed one under the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the Delaware Nation under the 1778 Fort Pitt Treaty, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma have requested their own delegate as members of the Cherokees under the New Echota Treaty.
“Each one of these should be considered separately, they’re not linked together in any way. Each document we should look at, each decision we should make individually,” said Rep. Cole. “The fact that others have a claim shouldn’t affect the claim that the Cherokee Nation is advancing.”
“The history of this country is a history of broken promise after broken promise, to Native American communities,” said Rep. McGovern. “This cannot be another broken promise.”
November is Native American Heritage Month. Rickert says in years past, more and more Native American representation has seeped into the halls of Congress and the White House. There are eight indigenous Americans – four Republicans and four Democrats – currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, is also indigenous.
Correction: the original article listed Kimberly TeeHee as having previously worked in the office of Dan Kildee. In fact, she worked for former Mid-Michigan Congressman Dale Kildee, Dan's uncle.
