The Cherokee Nation released a video — shared exclusively with The Early — ahead of the historic hearing. In it, tribal leaders from across the country urge the House to pass a resolution “in return for what they sacrificed and what they lost.”
As we reported in September, the right to send a nonvoting delegate to the House is afforded to the Cherokee Nation by the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. Under the treaty, the Cherokee were forcibly removed from their ancestral land in the South. Thousands of Cherokee people died during the exodus to present-day Oklahoma, now known as the “Trail of Tears.”
“Treaties matter,” Teehee said in a statement. “It is time for the United States to deliver on its commitment. The Cherokee Nation has fulfilled its part. We’re asking the United States to do the same.”
