Reflected respective Indigenous People, their culture, and governments long before the ships arrive to jamestown. He brought the lack of a permanent memorial on virginia capitol grounds, as did other tribal leaders, to the attention of governor kane, resulting in the formation of the virginia Indian Commemorative commission, in 2018. Chief adams has generously dedicated himself to numerous to numerous himself to numerous causes and organizations across the commonwealth. It is an honor to introduce chief adams. [applause] chief adams thank you for the kind words. It is an honor to be here today to be a part of this event. We started this about 15, 18 months ago, when we briefed each other on what the possibilities were for us to have such an event as this. We are fortunate to have it in this special location today. I am going to give you a brief history of the tribe in virginia. As indians know well, the doctrine of discovery are still very well alive in the United States. In some cases, it is well alive in virginia here. Indigenous people continue to suffer from the effects of the doctrine of discovery which came about at 1452, 1453, from the Catholic Church through the post , to claim that all holes across the planet were available to be taken, were available to be killed, were available to be annihilated, and so it happened. When the first british ships came to virginia in 1507, they 1607, they knew full well via planning the flag of great britain, they were claiming this land for the united kingdom. And today, some of us still suffer from the effects of the planning in 1607 in jamestown. When the british first came, they were hungry. They did not have any food so they started going out and locating small indian towns and stealing their corn, stealing their fields of corn. The ones that they did not steal, they destroyed so the indian people that were living there became hungry themselves. As steve mentioned, shortly after the british came, on one of those trips, they went to a town on the james river, just below jamestown, looking for food, and the goal was to take the corn from those people, which they did, and burn what was left. As they were going to jamestown, the children they had captured were thrown into the water. As the articles read, their heads were blown out, the brains were blown out. They were taking the wife of the king back to jamestown with them. Ran herk her ashore through, because they had had enough fighting for one day. They alluded to the fact that she would be burned at the stake. So instead of doing that, they ran through her with the sword. They basically annihilated the tribes. That process of annihilation, that process of stealing from the indians, that started in jamestown in 1610, 1607 through 1610, that process continued from virginia all the way to the west coast. In other words, in the 100 years after landing, 90 of the population of Indigenous People in virginia, was gone. 300 years after landing, 90 of the entire indigenous population of this country was gone. 90 . Imagine what would happen today if 90 of a population of a nation was destroyed, annihilated. We would be shouting from the rooftops. There was not shouting then except for what came from the in dians. They eventually ended up at a place that is a place name, a place for chiefs, on the york river, not far from jamestown, but that was the place where pocahontas and john smith and the chief came together and you know the fable, the pocahontas saved john smiths life and therefore, the colony was saved. Is that true . Not many people believe it. She was only 10, 11, or 12 years old at the time. It is doubtful she had the authority to save the life of the governor of the colony. That is perpetuated from films and other stories. Were up the river from wicomico. If you follow the york river north and west, it divides into two rivers. The same rivers in the same names today. The people still reside on a reservation which was established in the early 1600s, possibly oldest in the country. The reservation was affirmed by the assembly in 1568. One of the oldest reservations in the country. In 1670, the largest concentration of indians in the entire commonwealth of virginia was a little town where my people live today. We still live in the same vicinity designated on the map in 1670. But in some ways we got there because of removal. In 1640, after the second uprising against the british, all of the local indians were moved west and north to king william county, where the two reservations are today. At one time, there was another reservation around the 1670s to the 1690s. They eventually moved back to where theynal place, reside today. That reservation, the large concentration of 1670 one the map for u. S. Historians, it shows the largest concentration of indians in the commonwealth of virginia. Years later, i myself lived to witness a separation of my family as they were forced out of the commonwealth of virginia to get a High School Education. Three of my family members went to oklahoma. A college right next to cherokee land in oklahoma. I served on the board for years. My family members had to leave the commonwealth of virginia to get a High School Education in and 1950s. Several family members of mine are forced to go to michigan to complete high school. Another piece of the whole puzzle is this racial integrity act. This also caused a serious disruption in virginia among indian communities. The General Assembly approved a law that indicated that there were no indians living in virginia that were either colored or white. What it did was it just ripped the hearts out of people and said basically, you cannot even document on not even your records. Birth certificates, marriage license. You cannot document you are a native american in this state. That started in 1923. Because of that, my uncles and grandparents and great uncles documented on the draft certificate, the draft certificate, they were documented as indians. When they went to join the service, the service said no. You cant do that. So they actually left the state in order to register as indians when they were drafted. That is a brief piece of the history. This history is the same for the other indians in virginia but my time is up. , it is my pleasure. Adkins, you need to step this way, please. [applause] i am just bring him up on a stage because i have some other work to do. I am going to introduce chief hoskin. Chuck hoskin was elected to serve as the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation with more than with more than 300,000 citizens. He served as the Cherokee Nation secretary of state. As principal chief, he increased minimal wage at Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation businesses and secured the largest language investment in tribal history to expand the cherokee preservation. Chief hoskin also appointed the first delegate to the u. S. Congress, doubled the funding for career Tech Education and , established housing jobs and Sustainable Community act to repair hundreds of homes for cherokee elders as well as Public Community buildings across the tribes. 14 counties. Additionally, as cherokee of state, hoskin worked to secure funding from the federal avernment to fund billiondollar joint venture. He has served his Cherokee Nations strongest advocate of sovereignty protection. I like it. He formerly served as a member of the security nation. He represented district 11 and served his final two years as deputy speaker. On the council, he worked with fellow councilmembers to build homes for Cherokee Nations and increased funding and sponsored legislation to expand Health Care Service through casino dollars. Chief hoskins has testified at the United Nations on behalf of the Cherokee Nation and serves on multiple boards and commissions, including the United States health and Human Services secretarys tribal advisory committee. , innd his first lady january, our parents of two children tristan and jazmine. , he graduated from the university of oklahoma and university of Obama College of law, and is a member of the Cherokee Nation and oklahoma bar association. Chief hoskin, we welcome you to this stage and to this community. [applause] i have one little controversial word i have to say. As i was researching the history of virginia many, many years ago, there was one brief Little Corner way down in southwest virginia that, it appeared, i am not going to disagree with anyone, but it appeared that there were cherokee people who lived in that one little small area of virginia. Very small. But chief hoskin, since the cherokee did live in virginia, according to my little recognition, welcome home. [laughter] [applause] we have a guest for chief hoskin from the virginia indians and the preservation virginia. Gift for chief hoskin from the virginia indians and the preservation virginia. [applause] chief hoskin hello to the chiefs and to virginia. What a wonderful opportunity it is to be before you. I am so honored that the Cherokee Nation has been asked to be a part of this. I think it speaks highly of the History Association and Virginia Preservation that you would include the indigenous aspects of the history of this great state and this great country. So i do thank you all for being here. She was mentioned, but i do want to recognize in the audience a lady that i would not be without her, and that is the first lady of the Cherokee Nation, january. [applause] it is quite something to be talking about cherokee history law in front of noted historians, including jack baker and former law professor lindsay robinson. So next month, a symposium will be on everything chief hoskin about history and law. That should take most of the day [laughter] being in the audience and then being in front of professor robertson, it kinda feels like old times, although there will be no test. Now he is saying there will be a test. [laughter] we will get through it. I am going to pick up where jack baker left off, and i am going to attempt to get the right slide, the great seal of the Cherokee Nation. September 6, 1839, we will talk about that in a moment, of course on the cherokee, we say we have existed from time immemorial, but there is a date on that, and there is a reason. That is when we got back together. We talked about removal. One thing worth touching on is before the trail of tears, there was an earlier migration, and when we got our new home, there was a lot of fighting and controversy. You hear people talk about being at each others throats, well, cherokees were literally at each others throats and jack baker talked about that, we were quite literally at each others throats, but John Marshall and his decision might be the reason i exist, because who knows what wouldve happened to the cherokee people and my ancestors, but i certainly would not be here had it not been for that decision, which is a bedrock of federal indian law that stays with us today, so i am so honored to be here with you for that reason. So the dark chapter of American History leading up to and including the trail of tears is something that this country ought to remember, and i think jack baker did a great job in talking and very personal terms and how it affected his family and other cherokees. We ought to remember that in this country. We ought to remember there was a time in the country where the governor of the United States thought it was a good idea to round people up into cages. That was not a good idea then, it is not a good idea today. But we ought to always take those lessons from our history. If you think about what happened, the great destruction that took place against the Cherokee Nation. You think about the fact in human terms we lost a quarter of our population, 4000 women, children, grandbabies, and wiped off of the face of the earth. And you think about it further and it necessarily ripped our economy apart. Before removal, remember what was happening. It was touched on before. We had adapted and strengthened ourselves as a nation to deal with what was happening, in terms of the encroachment of settlers. To deal with the government of the United States in a fairly apid period of time, getting constitution. Sequoia, the great genius, he gave the cherokees something that was more powerful than any shield or any sword we could have wielded, communication, and then translating and communicate with the world. There was a great resistance by the cherokee people before removal we were not simply. Removed because of the president of the United States says so or because a majority of factions of cherokees signed a treaty. We stood our ground. John ross stood his ground, went to washington, d. C. To plead his case to resist removal and if it andtimately defeat make it as good as it was for his people. That took a great amount and i of effort think that that period of time and the period that followed, which i will get to, did something, shape something, built something in our National Character that stays with us today. People of tremendous grit and determination, who have resisted, who have overcome, and as we got to our new home in what is today northeast oklahoma, we had a lot of work to do, so we had to rebuild. Keep in mind what we were rebuilding. We were rebuilding the great cherokee democracy that existed before removal. We, again had a system of laws, we had a system of justice based on the rule of law and constitution could i think it says something about the cherokee people, that when we were removed and we were rebuilt, and you saw that date in 1839, that is when we got back together, the active union of the cherokees that had been moved out before and the treaty party and the rock parties all all at oddsparty with each other, but we found it within ourselves to rise above that after some lives were lost but we still rose above it and got our Government Back together. It strikes me that even though justice in this country let us down, we still believed in it. We still thought that is what we ought to do, and that would be what would be best to rebuild a Great Society we still believed. In democracy, and we invested in that in addition to law and justice, and look what else we did, this is the cherokee female seminary. That the First Institution of Higher Learning for any woman of building is Higher Learning for race, west ofny the mississippi, in the history of this country, and it happened because the cherokee people believed in education, and we did not just believe in that form of Higher Education, a free system of Public Education in what is now oklahoma long before there was an oklahoma. 1841, we passed an act establishing free Public Education. Why did we do it . For the same reason i think the rest of society does it, because you want to invest in the future, but i also think that our people and our possessions we had lost so much blood and treasure that we knew this was going to be our home forever. It was promised to us. It was going to be our last stand. We ought to make the most of it. How do you do that . You look beyond what is happening right in front of you, and you look toward the horizon. Investing in education is a good way to do that. You would predict that a people who were forcibly removed rounded up in stockades at the , hands of an unjust article, at the hands of a federal government that ignored its own Supreme Court and had its economy, the cherokee economy life, out, our way of lost so many people. You would think it would take years and years, perhaps generations, before we could rebuild, if we ever did. In fact, you might believe that predict that people would not sustain themselves. I suspect there were people in this country that figured the cherokee problem would be solved, not just by moving them, but by moving them to their demise. I think people probably thought that some people did. And what is remarkable to me, and this is why i think the chapter that happens after removal is something that people in this country ought to know, really as much as they ought to know about removal, this is why i think it is amazing, and people ought to know about it, as we did all of this within about a decade. So within a decade we are seeing , there ought to be a system of free Public Education, there ought to be a system of Higher Education for men and women, we ought to rebuild a system of commerce, so we can build up our economy again. We were saying these things. We were saying that we ought to invest in a system of government that was a democracy and was based on the rule of law, and we ought to have a constitution for we did all of this within a short period of time. I think it is remarkable, and again, i think it is what fuels leaders of the Cherokee Nation today, thinking back to what our ancestors day. Ancestors did. As rough of a day that i might have as chair of the Cherokee Nation, it is not as bad as what john ross went through. I have to remind myself about that from time to time. I mentioned reunification feud i i cannotication and stress enough the division between the Cherokee Nation. It is not just that we were removed and we had to pick ourselves back up, it was that we were removed, and we were split apart. John ross, the elected leader of the Cherokee Nation had been the unitedecause states believed they ought to. Can you imagine if that happened today, if the president of the United States does not like the way negotiations are going on with france, and he says forget about the president of france, we will do with the other french, and we will strike a deal, and everyone will think it is ok. That is what happened 100 some odd years ago. 100 years before, we are governing ourselves out here. We have our own government. How they came together is remarkable, and every time i read about it, i am still struck by the level of compromise. I think it is a lesson for cherokees today. From time to time, tribal elections can get pretty raucous. They can get pretty rough. I have been involved in politics for a long time, and quite honestly, mainstream politics do not have anything on tribal politics, in this guys opinion. [laughter] i think there is a lesson to be learned, and it is something i try to take with me when i took office as chief, which is there are plenty of things that divide cherokees, just like everyone, there are things that divide us, but if we focus on those things that unify us, and if we look at the horizon like the cherokees after removal did, then we can put enough aside that is bigger for our individual sites and is our individual selves and is bigger for our future, and we ought to do that for this country, i think. [applause] so we reunified, you saw it on our seal in 1839. A remarkable time for the Cherokee Nation. Heres two amazing individuals in the history of the Cherokee Nation. You see john ross. Jack will know this better than i do, probably closer to the 1860s, jack. Then you have stan wadie. These two represent the faction t is probably when he was that is probably when he was later on in years. These two represent the faction of cherokee political life that will carry on through the 19th century. John ross, quite an amazing person. Wadie was one of the most stubborn men. He kept fighting the war when the civil war was over, and he kept fighting. These represent two factions that would carry through, and you get through the civil war, which has been mentioned. The cherokee people were split concerning the civil war, and some of those reasons probably had something to do with what split the United States, so there was slavery in the Cherokee Nation, before removal and after removal. I want to talk about the institution of slavery in a bit, but that surely was a difference. There were other things that split cherokees apart during the civil war. John ross wanted to stay neutral, and he urged his people and his counsel to stay neutral. Why did he do it . Not just for respect of the United States but, look, we are a recognized sovereign. Who are we recognized by . The United States. Who are we party to treaties with, multiple treaties . The United States of america. What happens to the Cherokee Nation if we side with the confederacy that has split from the United States, what are the consequences . The confederacy did a great deal of courting of the cherokee. They offered essentially a better deal. It did not help anything that the United States was not really keeping a lot of its promises during this time period. I dont know if you can imagine that, the United States and the Indian Tribes, but it happened. The government of the Cherokee Nation, wanting to remain neutral, was feeling a great deal of pressure from people who said look, the United States is not really living up to its word, and it looks like the southerners may have an edge and , the southerners are offering us so much, in terms of treasure, land, and control, maybe we ought to have a better deal with that. So the folks who lined up with the confederacy, they line up with stan wadie. Ultimately, john ross signs an agreement with the confederacy. In 1861, i am always looking at jack to make sure i have got the date right, but 1861 as i think when he signed it. He signs it, and even then, he is not fully body, and he thinks it is the best way to keep the Cherokee Nation whole and intact because of the tremendous amount of pressure, but ultimately, that pressure is too much. It starts to rip us apart again. Now, we lost a lot of blood and treasure and life in the removal, and we ought to always are memory that. We lost more life in the civil war, probably more in terms of operative destruction in the civil war. Certainly the political divides reopened during the civil war and sort of was repeating itself. So this nation that had gone through so much, that had built up so much and had started to invest in a future, so it could keep its home forever and keep in mind, that treaty said we would have it forever. There is a land pact in the Cherokee Heritage center, signed by martin van buren, that says that land is ours forever. You can see the symbol, by the way. So we are starting to get ripped apart again. The future is not looking so bright, even though we invested in the things i think a Great Society should invest in for a sustainable future. So the civil war, again, is ripping us apart. A lot of destruction, a lot of the communities that we built. Those communities, if youre from oklahoma, you go back there, you look at this map, and you see communities that still stand today, but much of it suffered a great deal of destruction. I am getting ahead of myself. I have jumped all the way to the 2020s from the 1860s. [laughter] so let me focus for a moment on aha, here we go. So we get through the civil war, with all its destruction. Somehow we get back together, but, and this has been mentioned, the United States says if you are going to rejoin the family of governments and the United States, if you are going to get your recognition back with United States, you are going to sign a new treaty, and that is where we have a treaty of 1866, the last treaty that we have with the United States, still in full force and effect. This treaty did some things, and it has been mentioned, we had to give up some things. One of the things that we had to give up that really hastened our demise was our ability to keep the railroads out. I am from a little town called vinita. Nobody knows where that is somebody knows by the way, this is a washington, d. C. Cherokee organization. They came all the way here. If you look at vinita, and i grew up there, two Railroad Tracks cross there. It was founded in 1871. Vinita is right there. The railroads us are coming in, settlers start coming in, what happens to cherokees when settlers start going in . I seem to remember something earlier about that in the state of georgia. It is the same story over and over again not just for the cherokees but Indigenous People all over the continent you might say all over the world. Outsiders, in this case, more white settlers, wanting what we have, that pressure of western migration, that philosophy, notwithstanding what John Marshall might say, that the whole country, most of the continent belongs to the United States and its white settlers, so that pressure started to come to bear on the Cherokee Nation. We still did a great deal of rebuilding if you go now, you. If you go now, you will see a capital building, it became our Supreme Court building, and you will see our old Supreme Court building, and you will see a prison. Those buildings and others were built after the civil war, so we start to rebuild again, even after this treaty, even after the destruction of the civil war, we start to invest again in what it means to have a Great Society, so we reinvest in education. The seminaries burn. We rebuild them. We start to develop commerce again. We start to you know, improve , infrastructure around the Cherokee Nation, so that we are more connected. We tried to keep a foothold in an area that the United States had said would always be ours. They said it would always be ours. But all of that pressure came to a tipping point. Now, there was a quote up there, i think during jack bakers presentation, when they were talking about the point of a bayonet, cherokees were rounded up at the point of a bayonet. You could say we lost a great deal at the point of a bayonet, before removal. It was not the point of a bayonet, it was the point of a pen, it was federal law at this point that would probably do, in some ways, more destruction to the Cherokee Nation then removal ever could. In 1887, we had the general allotment act, which was about tribal lands. It did not get to cherokee land just yet, but it was more than the Cherokee Nation. A lot of tribes held land in common. This is completely antithetical to what they think about in the United States in terms of property ownership, and the general allotment was to move individualize landholdings to community landholdings. 1898, the United States passes the curtis act really suppresses our government. I will never say they extinguished our government, but they suppressed it, abolishing our courts and our counsel. The writing was on the wall at that point. So after those acts passed, and the cherokee people had to vote on it, by that time, all of this pressure is being brought to bear. Even elected chiefs of the Cherokee Nation are telling people, it looks like we are going to have to accept statehood. It looks like our government is never going to be the same. That is essentially the message tribal chiefs at the turn of the 20th century are telling their people. What a dark time in Cherokee Nation. Think about a people who went through so much, the folks that are dealing with this in the late 19th century, grandmas and grandpas and great grandmas and great grandpas who can tell about how they rebuild, how they were going to stand their ground and live there forever, and they are looking at these federal statutes that are going to result in the almost extinction of the Cherokee Nation. Almost. We will get to that. So land gets allotted, a small thing happens next in 1907, the state of oklahoma is created, imposed over so many tribal lands. The allotment issue is interesting, because the land that was allotted was still held, and i think professor robertson touched on it, was still held in this restrictive status. As you get to the 20th century, that becomes a problem for the new state of oklahoma and the companies that want the land and the landowners that want the land, the Oil Industries and others, because if it is held in restrictive status, you cannot lease that unless the government of the United States says so, but if you can get its restrictions out of there, well, it is fair game. It loses its special status. Here is the next thing that happens that i think is a great significance. In 1947, a law called the stigler act was passed. If you fall below a half blood quantum, then it loses its restricted land status forever. That law and other pressures meant that from 1907 to now, we have lost more than 90 of our restricted land. So the destruction of the Cherokee Nations land base really continues into the 20th century, and to add insult to injury, i told you the government of the United States suppressed and dismantled so much of the cherokee government, but they had to have a chief to deal with. So for much of the 20th century, chiefs of the Cherokee Nation were not elected by their people, they were appointed by the president of the United States. My grandfather, most of his lifetime, born in 1906, died in 1996, fullblooded cherokee, as proud a cherokee as i had ever known. Most of his life he never got to even think about voting for a chief, let alone imagine that his grandson might be chief someday. So during that time period, the great cherokee democracy is effectively dormant. Why does the president of the United States appoint a cherokee chief . Usually, it is to sign a document. Jack, if we look at these documents, we might not have got the best end of the bargain on that with these appointed chiefs. But i think it was significant that the government of the United States continues to recognize the Cherokee Nation in some form or fashion, even the socalled chiefs for a day. That i think is important even for today. Look, that is what john ross was trying to preserve, when he was facing the civil wars. We have this governmenttogovernment relationship with the United States. That is what john ross was talking about in his decision. The relationship between the government of the United States and the Indian Nations, and Cherokee Nation. That come i think, is still important, as offensive as it is, to think about our great democracy dismantled and our chief appointed, this continual relationship with the chiefs and the government of the United States is absolutely critical to the Cherokee Nation, and that is why, throughout history, it has ebbed and flowed, but we kept it, and if we had not kept it, i would not be here as chief today. So what are we doing today . Well, that is a picture of our 200 Million Health center, the Largest Health center in the United States for native americans, but that was just opened last year, so how did we get here . So how would we have really gotten here, from appointed chief to elected chiefs in the 20th century, and i have the pleasure of working with an elected council, a judiciary, Supreme Court and District Courts how did we get here . , in the 1960s, there is more of a push for a lot of folks in this country that ought to have had rights and had their rights oppressed, but rights, indigenous rights, in 1971, i think, the principal chiefs act is passed. It recognizes the rights of the five tribes. They were mentioned earlier, including the Cherokee Nation, to elect their own chiefs. Elect their own chiefs for the first time in decades and decades, the cherokee people could once again elect their own chiefs. I was looking at some Cherokee HistoricalSociety Archives the other day, it in the Cherokee National historical society, there was a book, the very day that the appointed counsel of the Cherokee Nation, we started to appoint our own counsel, left their seat, this was in the minutes, and who took their seats . The elected members of the council, the elected chief, the great cherokee democracy is back in the 1970s. And i will tell you, what has happened since then as we have been on a trajectory of progress and prosperity. The lesson also for me is this, and the lesson for the country is this, is that when the government of the United States takes its thumb off the Cherokee Nation, when it lets us exercise our sovereignty, when it lets us exercise our godgiven right to selfidentify and govern ourselves, we do an incredible thing. It is not just the cherokee people who benefit, all of our friends and neighbors benefit. There is the health care facility, the crown jewel of the largest Tribal Health system in the country, but it also generates thousands of jobs in northeast oklahoma. And if you take that out further, you can look at all of our Government Programs and businesses, and you can see that we employ about 111,000 people, making us one of the largest employers in northeast oklahoma. We support about 20,000 other jobs. Now, a lot of our jobs directly are in casino gaming. It was mentioned in 1988, the National Indian gaming regulatory act was passed. A lot of tribes were involved in casino gambling, and congress, we have to do something about this, and they did. They basically said some gaming is ok. You are doing las vegas style gaming, you had better have an agreement in the state with which you are operating. That is the federal statutory scheme right now but it has been , very good to the cherokee state and all of our neighbors. This building, and so many of these programs. The ability in 2019 with the council to boost the minimum wage up to 11 an hour. In oklahoma, it is 7. 50 an hour. The fact that we can take 60 16 million to save the turkey language, keep it from going extinct, that is in large measure because we have been allowed to engage in Business Activities most notably, casino gaming. How we can invest in elders homes it was mentioned we pass a law that fixup elders homes, we are putting 30 millio million into that. It is those revenues we generate. Those revenues we generate. This isnt to begrudge any tribe that has the ability to give out checks to their citizens. Some tribes do. Cherokee nation, we have 380,000 citizens. If we cut a check, it would be . 75 a piece. We dont do per capita payments. What we do is we invest in our people in the communities in which they live. I mention several of those investments. Right now, 5000 cherokees are going to college on a scholarship, funded by those Business Activities. We are putting people through career training. There was a map earlier that showed all the towns that cherokees created. Some of them are still small. Some of them are struggling. Some of the towns you saw on that map are towns that the rest of the world forgot about. And you have them here too, they are little towns, and they have not grown but the Cherokee Nation never forgot about them, because we founded them. We are going into those towns and helping with infrastructure, helping with attracting companies to come in and do business there. We are doing this not just to send money to our people, or to have programs that help our people directly, even though that is important. We are doing it because we have the same philosophy today that we had after removal. Which is that oklahoma, what is now oklahoma, is our home forever. It is our home forever. And we are going to make the most of it. And we are going to invest in our communities. And we are doing that in such a remarkable way. That is why i think the cherokee story is such a story of grit and determination, and it is something that i think kids in this country ought to know, not just because they ought to know the history of Indian Tribes in this country, they ought to know stories of people who overcame things, that understand the dark parts of American History, and they ought to celebrate those great things. If you see this building and you see what is going on and you see people learning their language again and you see people, elders getting their homes were homes repaired, and you see young people who are going to be doctors in the building tomorrow because we have the first med school in the history of Indian Country right next to that building, you say, that is something to celebrate. The Cherokee Nation is something to celebrate. I think we ought to celebrate it all over this country and you are helping celebrate it here. Lets go back to that treaty that was imposed on the cherokee people and removed us. Notwithstanding what John Marshall said. Well, that treaty is a dark spot in American History. It is a source of pain for the cherokee people, when i think about it. When i hear jack baker talk about what happened to cherokees and the death and suffering. That is, i think, both a symbol of injustice, and it was an injustice but it is the law of the land. If you go to the next treaty, the treaty of 1866, the last treaty we have, it was inconsistent with the treaty of 1866, it is still the law of the land. By the way, i need to get to my final point, the treaty of 1866 said that those slaves and their descendents were free and they should have the same rights as native cherokees. It took about 150 years for the friedman descendents to achieve their equality and their citizenship in the Cherokee Nation. Im proud that in 2017, the cherokee freedom descendents are friedman descendents are part of the Cherokee Nation. Equal with all cherokees. We are a stronger Indian Nation because of it. And im proud to be chief while it is happening. [applause] but back to the treaty of know treaty. A source of pain for the cherokee people. Down deep in the treaty is something that we are seizing upon today. I will read you the relevant language. It was mentioned a moment ago. It says it is stipulated that the cherokees shall be entitled to a delegate in the house of representatives of the United States, whenever Congress Shall make provision for the same. Now, i didnt know anything about that until i was a delegate to our Constitution Convention in 1999. And it was brought up during then, and we enshrined it and our constitution. But it has been over 180 years since that language was put in a treaty in the Cherokee Nation is not has not acted upon it, the government of the United States has never knocked on our door saying, send your delegate up here. In 2019, i appointed someone to be the first delegate to the house of representatives. And our Council Unanimously approved it. Here is what else i did. Back home, if you want to get something done, if you need a real wisdom, if you need real hard work, then you ask a cherokee woman to do it. And then you get out of her way, unless she asks you for help. I appointed not only the first cherokee, but i appointed a cherokee woman to be the delegate. And they will not know what hit them when she gets there. [applause] but her name is kim t. She is completely suited for this position. She has worked in the congress, she worked for the president of the United States. This is what i think about that. I think we have got to fulfill that. We have to get the congress to see him dashcam. If we do not do that, we will not have been successful. I feel a little successful so far. Think back to john ross going to washington, d. C. After the treaty, the same treaty im talking about, is imposed on the cherokee people. I picture him setting across from these federal officials, pleading his case, this treaty is unjust, you cant do this to the great Cherokee Nation. And i imagine them looking across, notwithstanding John Marshalls decision, looking at him and saying chief ross, the treaty is the law of the land and you will abide by it. I got to go to washington, d. C. Last fall and sat across from federal officials and say, the treaty is the law of the land and you will abide by it. [laughter] [applause] i said it nicer than that. So there is some measure of justice in asserting these treaty rights and asserting this particular treaty right out of a treaty that was unjust. It is a measure of justice for us. I cant impress upon you enough that me being up here, me being able to speak for the Cherokee Nation, me being able to represent a nation that has a government to government relationship with the United States, is owed in such a large measure through the choice that John Marshall made. It could have gone down a different path. He could have gone down the path of the dissenters, and those that said manifest destiny and european discovery, that ought to override everything, in the indian people were not worthy of recognition. But he didnt do that. There is a lot of reasons he didnt do it. But im glad he didnt. Because im glad im here. Im glad i was invited. It has been such a pleasure. Thank you all very much. [applause] any questions . This is not an earth shattering issue, but what is the current thinking among the cherokees and other tribes concerning the issue of indian the use of Indian Heritage and history in our sports teams . Chief hoskin i think it is an it is inappropriate and shouldnt happen. I think depictions of native americans as mascots are abhorrent, i think we ought to be on a path where we are not doing it. This country will not fall apart if the Washington Redskins are no longer called the Washington Redskins, but we will be a better country for it. [applause] thank you so much. I appreciate all that you are doing in leading your Cherokee Nation. I wanted to know if you had any thoughts on reparations for africanamericans whose ancestors were enslaved here in america . Chief hoskin i think that is a great question. It is the question of the day. And i dont have an answer to the question as the chief of the Cherokee Nation, but i will tell you this. As chief, i feel a particular obligation that the descendents of slaves who are equal cherokee citizens today, not only are equal on paper, but that we embrace their story and that we embrace them to make sure they have opportunities to share in all the prosperity that we have today. And that includes opportunities for education and health care and housing, jobs, all of that sort of thing. That is where we are at Cherokee Nation, equality of opportunity and also legally equality which we have achieved. We want to make sure we have legal equality. It is a good question. I dont know the answer to the question in terms of how Cherokee Nation should focus on it. I think the right way for us to do it is to make sure today, we are only 40 some odd years into the prosperity we have today, we ought to make sure we are sharing it equally with citizens. I just wanted to know how you see Law Enforcement changing . Especially with the epidemic of missing and murdered womenedness indigenous and how complicated it is for what indians can do on reservations versus off reservations. Do you see that changing for the better . Chief hoskin it may change in a major way in oklahoma. There is a case that some know about, and maybe all ive heard of, called the murphy case. The issue there deals with a creek citizen who committed a crime and was tried in state court, put in the state prison, and his lawyer said wait a minute, the reservation, when the state of oklahoma was created, and if he is right, then that probably means the Cherokee Nation reservation never went anywhere. There is another case working its way up too. That will be decided soon. The lay of the land is possibly going to shift in a huge way. In other words, the Cherokee Nation, i dont know if i can get back to the map, but is just part of the Cherokee Nation. If you looked at it today, uc you see tulsa over on the left, and then you see creek territory there. If you look at that today and you look at what is actually trust land or restricted land where the current law would say who has jurisdiction, it is a patchwork. I told you 90 some out of the land has been gone since then. If the murphy case and the other case says the reservations never went away, suddenly the whole thing is back conceivably as a reservation. Insofar as todays concerned and this modern era, one way we handle it back home is through Cross Deputization agreements, and a great relationship with local Law Enforcement. That is not the case all over the country. There are some areas of the country where tribes and local Law Enforcement, not only is it not a good relationship, sometimes it is hostile. The issue of missing and murdered Indigenous Women is still an issue back in oklahoma. I think we are in the top 10 states where we have cold cases of Indigenous Women going missing and other people. We pushed legislation in the state legislature to have some better coordination with the state bureau of investigation. Oftentimes, what happens is there are these questions over jurisdiction. And a lot of folks who are big rooms of these crimes are living in the shadows. When they go missing, there is not necessarily there are some barriers perhaps to quick action, where they may live in a remote area where local Law Enforcement says look, this is trust land over here. It is a matter for the Cherokee NationLaw Enforcement or the fbi. So we are making some efforts. It is a complicated issue. I would say compared to other parts of the country, in oklahoma, we have a good working relationship and a way to handle that. And when the Supreme Court cases come, all of that may be completely changed. Ok. Thank you all. [applause] i just want to end by thanking all of our speakers. Ive lost the microphone. I want to thank all of our speakers today. This has been a tremendously inspiring day, i think. I also want to thank our sponsors once again, and all of you for taking your time out on a saturday to come and be part of this experience. I think we all have a lot more to learn, many more perspectives to look at. And im reminded that John Marshall in his richmond home was famous for hosting lawyer dinners at his house. He would gather not people that always agreed with him, or that he necessarily knew the subject matter that they might bring up, but he would surround himself with people that made him think. I think that is exactly what we have done today. And John Marshall would be proud. Thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]. This is American History tv, covering history, cspan style with lectures, interviews and discussions, with authors, historians and teachers. 48 hours all weekend every weekend only on cspan 3. Cheers and applause] happy earth day this song was written 20 years ago. He was born in the summer of his 27th year coming home to a place ed never been before yesterday you might say he was born again might say he found the keys for the door when it first came to the mountains his life was far away on the road hanging by a song the strings already broken nd he doesnt really care it dont last so long but the colorado Rocky Mountain high ive seen it rain fire in the sky the shadow rom the star light is another high Rocky Mountain high colorado Rocky Mountain high colorado he climbed to see the mountain saw silver clouds below saw everything as far as you can see and to say he got crazy once and tried to touch the sun and he lost a friend but kept his memory now he walks in quiet solitude the forest and the stream thinking grace in every step he takes he is turned inside himself to try and understand isenity ther isenity the serenity of a Blue Mountain lake Colorado MountainRocky Mountain high you can talk to god sten to the casual reply Rocky Mountain high colorado Rocky Mountain high colorado now his life is full of wonder his heart feels no fear of the simple thing e cannot comprehend bringing the mountains down to bring in a couple more scars upon the land colorado Rocky Mountain high ive seen it rain fire in the sky i know hed be a poor man if he never saw an eagle fly Rocky Mountain high its a colorado Rocky Mountain high ive seen it rain fire in the sky friends around a campfire erybodys high Rocky Mountain high colorado Rocky Mountain high colorado Rocky Mountain high colorado Rocky Mountain high cspan covered over seven hours of this rally on the 20th anniversary of the first earth day. You can watch more on our website, including appearances by richard gere, tom cruise, the indigo girls, and ll cool j dot span and span type earth rally in the search bar. Next on lectures in history, Licia Gutierrez teaches laws on policy regarding abortion starting in the 19th century she tracks changes in medical practice and Public Opinion through court cases and newspaper coverage. She also describes abortion restrictions and access to illegal abortions, cost and health risk in different time periods and space. All right, everyone. Welcome about a. This week were looking at the topic of abortion. And in class on tuesday we watched the film abortion stories, womens health. And that was looking at some more of the current debates about abortion now. It was looking at abortion in states that had begun to legislate abortion restriction. Today were actually going to go back in time a little bit. Were going to give s