“In those days, there was only one Cherokee nation,” he said. “The fact that we do share this wonderful and beautiful heritage and lineage does not trump any aspect of federal Indian law or any aspect of our individualized sovereignty,” Hoskin said.īut Joe Bunch, the chief of the United Keetoowah Band, sees the tribes’ connected histories in a different light.

However, leaders of the United Keetoowah Band believe that same treaty also guarantees a delegate for their tribe, a stance that officials from the Cherokee Nation strongly dispute.Ĭhuck Hoskin Jr., the Cherokee Nation's principal chief, said the treaty is an agreement between two sovereign governments - his tribe and the United States - and continues to apply solely to those two, not the United Keetoowah Band or the related Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. Nearly 200 years later, the Cherokee Nation is building a groundswell of support around its campaign to finally seat a non-voting House delegate. Those tensions are resurfacing today around the push for Cherokee representation in Congress.Īn 1835 treaty promised the Cherokee Nation a congressional delegate in exchange for ceding millions of acres of land to the growing United States. The two tribes share a history and operate less than three miles apart, but disputes over land and status have divided them for generations. Leaders of the United Keetoowah Band have tried, so far unsuccessfully, to revive their gaming operations, which acted as the tribe's main economic driver.

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