Nearly 200 years ago, members of the Cherokee Nation signed the Treaty of New Echota, eventually contributing to the infamous forced flight now referred to as the Trail of Tears.
The 1836 treaty, signed between the United States and the self-appointed representative group Treaty Party against the will of the majority of the Cherokee Nation and its principal chief John Ross, delivered their homeland (now the southeastern US) to the federal government in exchange for land in present day Oklahoma, five million dollars, and a delegate to Congress. As the majority of the nation viewed the treaty as invalid, the treaty was rejected in an 1836 vote from the Cherokee National Council and Ross sent Congress a petition with almost 16,000 signatures, yet Congress still ratified the treaty. The federal government allowed two years for the Cherokee people to relocate before sending troops to forcibly march the remaining majority to their allocated lands some 1,200 miles to the west. Around one fifth of the Cherokee people in this brutal migration lost their lives to hunger and disease. While the Cherokee Nation were involuntarily upheld to their portion of the treaty, the US never fulfilled their guarantee to the nation of a seat in Congress.
In 2019, the Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. designated Kimberly Teehee, the nation’s vice president of government relations, to be the delegate to the nation’s theoretical seat in the House of Representatives, initiating conversations with lawmakers on how to make the dated promise a reality. As of September 2022, the US’s largest tribal government has reinitiated their push to seat Teehee in the House of Representatives in accordance with Article 7 of the Treaty of New Echota. The Cherokee Nation emphasizes that beyond providing representation and a voice to advocate for Native American issues, Teehee’s presence would pave the way for improved US government-Indian Country relations through the involvement of tribes in policy making. The campaign states that the nation is “asking the U.S. government to follow its own law and treaty.” and that “It is past time for the House of Representatives to seat the delegate and honor the commitment made.” Kim Teehee is well-experienced in Washington D.C., having served as Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs under former President Barack Obama, worked on policy development and implementation with federal agencies, and contributed support for justice Native American women who have experienced domestic violence, besides having worked with representatives on a variety of issues. The Cherokee Nation citizen and Oklahoma native earned her J.D. at the University of Iowa and received the title of visiting Sequoyah Fellow from Northeastern State University, her alma mater. The campaign conveniently provides visitors to the website with a link where citizens of the US can support the Cherokee Nation’s push for the US to fulfill the promises of the Treaty of New Echota and seat Kim Teehee as their delegate in the US House of Representatives by contacting their Member of Congress. Teehee would join representatives from American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, to become the seventh nonvoting Congress member.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.