Committee and the and i can say they with spent a lot of time. His lip and persistence their culture and their dove naj before the ships arrived there is a lack on the grounds as well as other tribal leaders, resulting in the formation of the indian congressmentive commission and the dedication of the mantle in 2018. Chief amounts says to have numerous causes across the commonweal commonwealth. Thank you, elizabeth, for those kind words. Good afternoon. It is an honor to be here to to be part of this event. We started this about 15 or 18 months ago when we briefed each other on what moblts were for us to have such an event as this. And were fortunate to be able to have it in this special row indication today. Im going to give you a brief history. As the indians know, and know very well, the doctrine of discovery still very well alive in the United States. And in some case its is very well alive here in virginia. People continue to suffer, it came about from the kat welcome churn much to claim that all people across the planet were available to be taken, were available to be b killed. Available to be annihilated and so it happened, and when the first ships came, they knew they were claiming this land for the united kingdom. And today, we still some of us, still suffer from the effects from 1607 in jamestown. When the british first came they were hungry. They didnt go out. They located the small indian towns and taling the stealing t the corn they didnt steal, they destroyed so that the indian people there, that were living there, they became hungry themselves. And as steve mentioned shortly after the british came, on one of those trips they went to the town on the james river. Just below jamestown, looking for food. The goal was to take the corn from those people. Which is what they did, and they burned what was left, and as they were going back to jamestown, the kids that they captured, the children they captured, were thrown into the water and as the articles read, their heads were blown out. Their brains were blown out from the men on the ship. They were taking the wife of the king, as they referred, back to jamestown. According to the article, ran it through with the sword. That process of annihilation, that process of stealing from the indians, that started at jamestown in 1610, 1607 through 1610, that process continued from virginia all of the way to the west coast. In other words, 100 years after landing 90 of the population of people in virginia was gone. A population was destroyed and annihilat annihilated. When the british came they ended up in a place that was for leaders and chiefs. On the york river. Not far from jamestown. That was the place where pocahauntis, you know the fable, the fable being that pocahontas saved john smiths life. Is that true . Not very many people believe it. She was only 10, 11, or 12 years old at that time. It is doubtful that she had the authority as a young indian woman to save the life of the him. For my tribe, were up the river from where they were at that time. If you follow the york river north and west it divides to two rivers, the same rivers, the same names today. They still reside on a reservation in the 1600s. It was affirmed by the general assembly. One of the oldest in the country. In 1670 the largest concentration of indians in the entire commonwealth of virginia. In 1640s after the second indian uprising in virginia, all of the local three was another reservation there around 1670 or 1690. They eventually moved back to their original place in charles city county. But that reservation that the on the August Herman map of 1673. They were able to get a High School Education. Right there next to cherokee land. I served on the board for years. My family members had to actually lead the commonwealth of virginia to get a High School Education back in the 40s and the 1950s. Several of my family things are forced to go to mississippi to live with families in michigan. Another peace of that puzzle, the racial integrity act. The grand Jury Assembly approved to law. They were either colors or right. What did it do . It just ripped the hearts out of people and said basically you cannot even document on your records, not even your records, you cannot document that youre a native american in this state. That started in 1923. My uncles, grandparents, and great uncles, they documented on their on their draft certificate. The service said no you cant do that. They left the state to register as indians when they were drafted. That is a brief piece of the history, this history was the same for the other indians in virginia. But my time is up. And its my pleasure, chief adkins, you need to step this way, please. [ applause ]. He was elected to serve as the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. More than 380,000 triable citizens in 2019. Prior to being elected, he serves the Cherokee Nation secretary of state. As principal chief he increased minimum wage at Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation businesses and secured the largest language investment in the tribes history to expand the cherokee language education and preservation. Chief haskin also appointed the tribes first delegate to the u. S. Congress, double the funding, and accomplish the housing, jobs, and sustainable communities act to prepare hundreds of homes for cherokee elders and buildingings across a 13 county jurisdiction. Haskin worked to secure funding to fund a billion dollar joint venture. He is also the strongest advocate on sovereignty protection. I like that very much. Formally serving as a member of the council of the Cherokee Nation representing district 11 for six years and serving his two final years as deputy speaker. On the council he worked with fellow Council Members to Start Building homes for Cherokee Nations, increase Education Funding and sponsored legislation to expand health care service. He 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 secretaries travel advisory committee. He is from vanida, i hope i said that correctly, he and his first lady, in january, are parents of two children. Tristan and jasmine. He graduated from the university of oklahoma. And as a member of the Cherokee Nation, and oklahoma bar associations. Chief haskin, we welcome you to this stage and this community. 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 south western virginia that it appeared, im not going to disagree with anyone, that it appeared there was cherokee people that lived in that one little small area of virginia. Very small, but chief haskin, since the cherokee did live in virginia according to my little recognition, welcome home. P plz. Thank you, what a wonderful opportunity it is to be before you. Im so honored that the Cherokee Nation has asked to be part of this. I think it speaks liely of the History Association and the virgin virginia. I do want to recognize in the audience, a lady that and it is quite something to be talking about. Cherokee history and law in front of scholars and noted historians. My former law professor, lindsey robertson, so next months similar moez yum will be on everything that chief haskin got wrong about the history and law and it should take most of the day, and im here, being in the audience and being in front of professor robertson it feels like old times but there will be no test. He is saying there will be a test. So well get through it. So im going to pick up where jackback baker left off. There is our great seal. Of course the Cherokee Nation, we say we have existed from time in memorial. That is when we got back together. We talked about removal there is an earlier migration of cherokees and when we got to what was our new home there was quite a bit of fighting and controversy here. You heard about people being at each others throat, and they were literally at each others throat, and jack baker mentioned that, and the reason we did is part of the reason that im here today. John marshall and his decision might be the reason that i exist. Who would have known what happened to the people and my ancestors, i would not be here, i believe 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 with you here for that reason. So it is leading up including the trail of tears, is something that the country ought to remember. I think jack baker did a great job talking about it in very personal terms. We have to remember that in this country. There was a time in this 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 or today. But we ought to always take those lessons. We lost a quarter of our population, 4,000 men, women, children, grandmas, grandpas, grandbabies wiped off of the face of the earth. It 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 the government of the United States in a fairly rapid period of time getting a written constitution. Sequoia was mentioned. He gave the cherokees something more powerful than any shield and sword, it was the ability to communicate with each other and translating that to english, communicating with the world. There was a great resistance by the cherokee people before removal. We were not removed because the president of the United States said so or the majority faction signed a treaty. John ross went to washington to plead his case, and if not to ultimately defeat it, to make it as good as it could be for his people. That took a great deal of effort. I think that that period of time and the period that follows which i will get to, did something, shaped something, built something in our National Character that stays with us today. People of tremendous grit and determination to have resisted, to have overcome, and as we got to our new home in what was, what is today northeast oklahoma, we had a lot of work to do. We had to rebuild. Keep in mind what we were rebuilding. We were rebuilding the great cherokee democracy that existed before removal. We had a system of laws and we had a system of justice based on the rural of law and the constitution. I think it says something about the cherokee people that when we were removed and we rebuilt, that is when we got back together, the act of yun yoonun. The parties all at odds with each other, we found it in 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. We invested in that in addition to a system of law and justice. And look at what else we did. This is the cherokee female seminary. That building, that institution, is the First Institution of Higher Learning for any woman of any race west of the mississippi in the history of the country. And it happened because they believed in ocean. And it was not just that form of higher education, it was a free system of education. We also think that our believed that that would make the most of it. Invested in education is a way to do that. You would predict that a people who were forcibly removed across the country, rounded up in stockades at the hands of an unjust article, the treaty, at the hands of a federal government that ignored its own supreme course, and had its economy, the cherokee economy ripped apart. Lost so many people. You would think that it would take years and years, perhaps generations before we could rebuild if we ever did. And you might think that people might not sustain themselves. And i would suspect there are people in the country that figure that the problem would be solved not just by moving them but by moving them to their demise. I think some people probably thought that. And what is remarkable to me, and this is why i think that 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. We did all of this within about a decade. Within a decade were saying there should be a system of higher education. Were saying we ought to invest in a system of government that was a democracy and was based on the rural of law. And we ought to have a constitution. We did all of this within a short period of time. I think it is remarkable and i think it fuels leaders of the cheer key nation today. Thinking back to what our ancestors did. Even on my raoughest day, it is nothing compared to what john ross went through. I have to remind myself of that from time to time. I cant express enough the divisions in the Cherokee Nation. It was not just that we were removed and had to pick ourselves back up. We were removed and we were split apart. John ross, the elected leader, had been overrun, his government overrun because the United States believed that it ought to execute a treaty with a minority faction. Can you imagine if that happened today . The president of the United States doesnt like the way negotiations are going with france over some trade deal and he says forget the president of france. Well dell with other french and well strike a deal and everyone will think that is okay. That is what happened. And then you have the cherokees that moved out before and they say were governing ourselves out here. We have our own government. How they came together, honestly, i think is remarkable. Every time i read about it im still struck by the level of compromise. And i think it is another lesson for cherokees today. From time to time tribal elections can get pretty raukus. Quite honestly, main stream politics dont have any on triable politics in this guys opinion. I think there is aless ton to be learned. It is something i tried to take with me when i took office as chief. There are plenty of things that divide cherokees, but if we focus on what unifies us, and if we look to the horizon, we can put enough of that aside to do something that is bigger than our individual selfs and it is good for our future. We ought to do that in this country, i think. So we reunified. You saw it on our sale in 1839. Remarkable time for the Cherokee Nation. Who is two amazing individuals. You see john ross, a later photo, that is probably closer to the 1860s. And then you have stan whitey. These are two factions of cherokee political life that would continue on through the 19th century. Stan whitey i will mention this in a minute, one of the most stubborn cherokees that has ever been born. He kept fighting the war after it was over, he didnt surrender. There is a streak of stubbornness for some cherokees. These are two factions that would carry through. And you get to the civil war which has been mentioned. Now the cherokee people were split concerned the civil war. And some of those reasons probably had something to do with what split the United States, there was slavery in the Cherokee Nation before removal and after removal. I want to touch a little more on the institution of slavery in a bit. That was surely a difference. But there is other things that split cherokees apart on the civil war. John ross wanted to stay neutral and he urged his people and his council to stay neutral. Why did he do it . He believed in respect for the United States and that were a recognized sovereign. Who are we party to a treaty with . And multiple treaties with. 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 recording and they offered a better deal. It didnt help in addition that the United States was not keeping promises in this time period. I dont know if you can imagine that, but it happened. And so the government of the Cherokee Nation 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 these southerners may have an edge, and theyre offering us so much. Theyre offering treasure, land, and control. Maybe we have a better deal with that . And so the folks who largely sided with the confederacy lined up with stan whitey. Stan whitey lines up with the treaty party and ross with the ross party. That split continues. Ultimately john ross signs a treaty, an agreement, with the confederacy. It is a remarkable shift in what is happening in cherokee government in about 1861. Im also looking to jack to make sure i have this date right. But there was a great deal of resistance. The civil war is building up before 1861. He signs it and even then he is not fully bought in. He thinks it is the best way to keep the Cherokee Nation whole and in tact. 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 remember that. We lost more life in the civil war. We probably lost more in terms of property destruction in the civil war. Certainly the political divides reopened in the civil war. And so it was sort of repeating itself. So this nation that went through so much. That built up so much, and started to invest in a future so it could keep its hope forever, and keep in mind the treaty said we would have it forever. There is a land patty in the Cherokee Heritage center. If you read that language it says that land is ours forever. And so were starting to get ripped apart, again, the future is not looking so bright even though we invested in the things that a Great Society ought to invest in for a sustainable future. So the civil war, again, is ripping us apart. A lot of destruction, a lot of communities that we built. In those communities if youre from oklahoma or you go back there, youre seeing communities that still stand today. But much of it suffered a great deal of destruction. Getting ahead of myself. I jumped all of the way to the 2020 from the 1860s. So let me focus for a moment on aha, here we go. So we get through the civil war with all of its destruction. Somehow we get back together, and this has been mentioned. But the United States says if youre going to rejoin the family of governments in the United States, if youre going to get your recognition back with the United States, youre going to sign a new treaty and that is where we have the treaty of 1866. The last treaty that we have with the United States. Still in full force and effect. It has done some things and we had to give up some things. One of the things we had to give up that hastened our compromise was the ability to keep the railroads out. Im from a little town, nobody in here knows where it is, but if you go there someone knows where it is. By wait this is the washington dc Cherokee Organization right here, they have come all of the way here, what a great thing. So if you look, that map doesnt go all of the way up. If you look at vanita, there is two railroads there. They were founded in 1871 after the civil war. The railroads start coming in, settlers start going in. What happens to cherokees when settlers start going in. I remember Something Like that in the state of georgia. It is the same old story over again. Not just the cherokee story, but for the Indigenous People all over the continent and the world. More white settlers wanting what we had. The pressure of western migration. That philosophy not withstanding what John Marshall might say. Most of the continent belongs to the United States. So that pressure started to come to bear on the great Cherokee Nation. But we skill a great deal of rebuilding. If you go there now, you will see a Capital Building, our own Capital Building that became our Supreme Court building and our old Supreme Court building and a prison. Those buildings and others were built after the civil war. We start to rebuild again. Even after this treaty, even after the destruction of the civil war. We start to reinvest again in a Great Society. The seminaries burned and we rebuilt them. We start to develop commerce again. We start to improve infrastructure. Were more connected. We try to keep our foothold in an area that the United States said would always be ours. They said it will all be ours. All of that pressure came to a tipping point. Now there was a quote up there earlier, i think jack bakers presentation. They talked about the point of a bayonet. You could say we lost a great deal at the point of a bayonet. Before removal. It wasnt the point of the 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 than the removal ever could. So in 1887 you have the general allotment act. It was to allot triable lands. Didnt quite get to cleherokee lands yet. The Cherokee Nation, a lot of tribes, held their lands in common. This was antithetical to what we think about in the United States in terms of property ownership. And the allotment was to individualize the landholdings instead of communal. In 1898 the cur tus act thtis a abolishes is. The writing was on the wall at that point. By that tame ul of these are being brought to bear. Theyre saying it looks like we have to accept state hood. It looks like our government is never going to be the tame th. The folks dealing with this in the late 19th century have grandmas and grandpas that can tell them about how they rebuilt. How they would stand their ground and live there forever. And theyre looking at these federal statutes that are going to result in the element extinction of the Cherokee Nation. Almost. Well get to that. So a land gets allotted. A small thing happens next they are imposed over so many other lands. The land that was allotted was still head in a restricted status. That becomes a problem for the new state of oklahoma. Landowners that want the land, the industry and others. If it is held in status you cant lease that unless the government of the United States says so. But if you can get its restriction out of there, it is fair game. It loses its special status. So here is the next thing that happens that i think is a great significance. In 1947, the stigler act was passed saying if youre on indian land, it is restrictive land. So that law and other pressures meant that from 1907 to now we lost more than 90 of our restricted land. The destruction of the Cherokee Nations landbase really continues into the 20th century. And to add insult to injury, the government of the United States today have a chief to deal with. So through 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. Now my grandfather, that is most of his as most of his lifetime he was born in 1936, died in 1996 he never thought his son would be chief one day. Why does the president of the United States appoint a cherokee chief . Usually its to assign a document. I think if we look at these documents, we might not have gotten the best end of the bargain on that with these appointed chiefs. I do think its 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, thats what john ross was trying to preserve when he was facing the civil wars. We have this governmenttogovernment relationship with the United States. Thats what John Marshall was talking about in his decision, the relationship between the government of the United States and the Indian Nations and Cherokee Nation. So that, 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 government of the United States is absolutely critical critical to the Cherokee Nation, and thats why throughout history, its ebbed and flowed, but we kept it. If we hadnt kept it, i wouldnt be up here as chief today. So what are we doing today . Well, that is a picture of our 200 Million Health center. Its the Largest Health center in the United States for native americans. That was just open last year, so how did we really get here . From appointed chiefs during the 20th century to now, youre looking at an elected chief, and i have the pleasure of working with the council thats an elected council, and we have a functioning judiciary, a Supreme Court and district courts. How did we get there . In the 1960s, there is more of a push for rights for a lot of folks in this country that ought to have had rights and had their rights suppressed, but rights, indigenous rights in 1971, i think, the principal chief 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 chief. I was looking at some Cherokee Historical archives yesterday, and in there, there is the council book the very day that the appointed council of the Cherokee Nation, we started to appoint our own council, left their seats. This is in the minutes, and who took their seats . The elected members of the council, an elected chief. The great cherokee democracy is back in the 1970s. Ill tell you whats happened since then is weve been on a trajectory of progress and prosperi prosperity. And 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 incredible things. And its not just the cherokee people who benefit, all of our friends and neighbors benefit. So there is the health care facility. Its the crown jewel of the largest travel 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 all of our businesses and youll see that we employ about 11,000 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 that in 1988 the National Indian gaming regulatory act was passed. A lot of tribes were engaged in casino gambling and the tribe said, we have to do something about this. So they did. They basically said, some gaming okay. You get to do las vegas style gaming, you better have an agreement with the state on what youre operating. But its been very good to the Cherokee Nation and all of our friends and neighbors, because this building, so many of the programs that weve talked about, the ability of a chief of the Cherokee Nation in 2019 with the council, as i did last year, to boost our minimum wage up to 11 an hour. I dont know what it is here. Back in oklahoma its 15 a nati n hour, but if you work for the Cherokee Nation its 11 an hour. Weve been allowed to engage in business activities, most notably, casino gaming. How we can invest in elders homes, it was mentioned we passed a law to fix up elders homes, were putting about 30 million into that and community buildings. Its those revenues we generate, revenues we generate. This isnt to begrudge any tribe that is able to give on us checks to their citizens. We have 30,000 citizens. If we were able to cut a check, it might be 35 cents apiece. We invest in our people and the communities in which they live, and i mentioned several of those investments. Right now 5,000 cher keokees ar going to college on a scholarship funded, again, by those business activities. Were putting people in career training. There was a map earlier that showed all those little towns that cherokees created, and some of them are still small and some are struggling. Some of those towns you saw on that map are towns that the rest of the world forgot about, and you have them here, too, theyre all over the country. Theyre little towns and they havent grown. But the Cherokee Nation never forgot about them because we founded them. Were helping towns with infrastructure, helping to attract companies to come in and do business there. Were doing this not just to send money to our people or to have programs that help our people directly even though thats important, were 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. Its our home forever. And were going to make the most of it. And were going to invest in our communities. And were doing that in such a remarkable way. That is why i think the cherokee story is such a story of grit and determination. And its 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 i understand, the dark parts of American History, and then they opt to celebrate those great things. Folks, if you come to taloqua and you see the buildings and people learning things again and elders getting their homes repaired and you see young people who will be doctors in that 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 and i think we ought to celebrate it all across this country and you are helping to celebrate it here. Lets go to the treaty of new achota that removed us, notwithstanding what John Marshall said. That treaty is a dark spot in American History. Its a source of pain for the cherokee people when i think about it, when i think of what happened to the cherokees in death and suffering. That is, i think, both a symbol of injustice and it was an injustice. But its the law of the land. And if you go to the next treaty, the treaty of 1866, the last treaty we have, it incorporated all of that treaty except to the extent it was inconsistent with the treaty of 1866. Its still the law of the land. By the way, i need to get to my final point, but the treaty of 1866 said that those slaves and their descendants were free, and they should have the same rights of native cheers. Now, it took about 150 years for the freedman descendants to achieve their equality and their citizenship in the Cherokee Nation, but im proud that in 2017, the cherokee freedman descendants are now part of the Cherokee Nation, equal with all cherokees, and folks, we are a stronger Indian Nation because of it, and im proud to be chief while its happened. [ applause ] back to the treatment of new achota. A source of pain for the cherokee people. Down deep in that treaty is something were seizing upon today, and ill read you the relevant language. It was mentioned just a moment ago. It says, it is stipulated that the cherokee 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 in our constitution. But its been over 180 years since that language was put in a treaty and the Cherokee Nation has not acted upon it, and the government of the United States has never come knocking on our door saying, hey, send your delegate up here. So in 2019, i appointed someone to be the first delegate to the house of representatives, and our Council Unanimously approved it. Now, heres what else i did. Back home, if you want to get something done, if you need real wisdom, if you need real hard work, then you ask a cherokee woman to do it if shell do it, and then you get out of her way unless she asks you for help. So i appointed not only the first cherokee, but i appointed a cherokee woman to be the delegate. Theyre not going to know what hit them when she gets there. [ applause ] but her name is kim teehy and she is perfectly suited for this position. She worked in the congress. I think we have to fulfill that. We have to get the congress to seat kim teehy. If we dont do that, we will not have been successful, but i feel a little successful so far, and heres why. Think back to john ross going to washington, d. C. After this treaty, the same treaty im talking about, is imposed on the cherokee people. And i picture him sitting 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 across at him and saying, chief ross, the treaty of new achota is the law of the land, and you will abide by it. I got to go to washington, d. C. Last fall and sit across from federal officials and say the new treaty of new achota is the law of the land and you will abide by that. I said it nicer than that. So there is sommer of justice in asserting these treaty rights, and asserting this particular treaty right out of a treaty that was unjust is a measure of justice for us. Now, i cant impress upon you enough that me being up here, me being able to speak tore the Cherokee Nation, me being able to represent a nation that has a governmenttogovernment relationship with the United States is owed in such large measure to the choice that John Marshall made. He could have gone down a different path. He could have gone down the path of the descenters and those who said manifest discovery ought to override everything and the native people arent worth recognition. He didnt do it, and theres a lot of reasons he didnt do it, but im glad he didnt because im glad im here. Im glad i was invited. Its been such a pleasure. Thank you very much. [ applause ] any questions . This is an earthshattering issue, but what is the current thinking among the cherokees and other tribes concerning the use of Indian Heritage and history in our sports teams . I think its inappropriate and shouldnt happen, and i think depictions of native americans as mascots are abhorrent. They shouldnt happen. We should be on a path in this country where were not doing it. The redskins wont fall apart if theyre no longer called the washington redskins, but we will be a better country for it. Thank you so much. I appreciate all that youre doing in leading your Cherokee Nation. I wanted to know if you have any thoughts on reparations for africanamericans whose ancestors were enslaved here in america . Yeah, i think thats a great question. Its the question of the day, and i dont have an answer for the question to the question as chief of the Cherokee Nation. I will tell you this, as chief i do feel a particular obligation that the descendants of slooave who are equal cherokee citizens today not only are equal on paper, but that we embrace their story and we embrace them to make sure they have opportunities to share in all that prosperity that we have today, and that includes opportunities for education and health care and housing, jobs, all of that sort of thing. So thats where we are at Cherokee Nation, is equality of opportunity and also legal equality which weve achieved. We want to make sure we have legal equality. Its a good question. I dont know the answer to the question in terms of how Cherokee Nation should focus on it, but i think the right way for us to do it is to make sure that today keep in mind were only about 40some odd years into the prosperity we have today we have to make sure were sharing it all equally with citizens. Hi. I just wanted to know how you see Law Enforcement changing, especially with the epidemic of emerging women and how it is with women doing work on indian reservations . Do you see it changing for the better . In oklahoma there is a case called the murphy case, and the issue there actually deals with a creek citizen who committed a crime and was tried in state court and put in the state prison. His lawyer said, wait a minute, the creek rez crete reservat never went anywhere when he was seated, and if hes right, it probably means the crete reservation never went anywhere. That will be decided soon. The lay of the land is possibly going to shift in a huge way, in other words, Cherokee Nation i dont know if i can get back to the map here, thats just part of the Cherokee Nation, it goes up further. But if you look at it today, you see tulsa kind of over on the left and then you see crete territory. If you look at that today and you look at restricted land where the current law would say who has jurisdiction, its a patchwork. I told you 90 of the land has been gone since then. If the murphy case, and the mcgirt case is the other case, suddenly said the reservations never went away, theyre back today as a reservation. One way we handle it back home is through Cross Deputization movements. There are some areas of the country where tribes and Law Enforcement dont have a good relationship, sometimes its downright hostile. In oklahoma i think were in the top ten states where we have cold cases of Indigenous Women going missing and other people, so we push the legislature to have some coordination with the state bureau of investigation, because oftentimes what happens is there are all these questions over jurisdiction. A lot of folks who are victims of these crimes are living in the shadows, and when they go missing, there is not necessarily there is some barriers, perhaps, to quick action, or they may live in sort of a remote area where local Law Enforcement says, look, this is trust land over here. Its a matter for the Cherokee NationLaw Enforcement or the fbi. So were making some efforts. Its a complicated issue. I would say compared to other parts of the country in oklahoma, we have a pretty good working relationship in a way to handle that. Then when the Supreme Court cases come, all of that may be completely changed. Okay. Thank you all. [ applause ] i just want to end by thanking all of our speakers. Ive lost the microphone. There it comes back. 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. Im reminded that John Marshall and his richmond home was famous for hosting lawyer dinners as h his house. He would gather people that didnt always agree with him or necessarily knew the subject matter they might bring up. But he would surround himself with people that made him think, and i think thats exactly what weve done today, and John Marshall would be proud. Thank you. [ applause ] youre watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook at cspan history. On saturday, Eastern Connecticut State University professor Thomas Balcerski teaches a class on midcentury politicians, James Buchanan and William Rufus king. Heres a preview. The answer was simple. These two batchchelors were mor than friends. They were lovers. You all need to search James Buchanan to discover the inevitable. American history has declared him to be the first gay president. From there it doesnt take long to discover that this popular understanding derives from his relationship with one man in particular. Thats right, William Rufus king. Here let me give a special shoutout to the pages on instagram for the incredibly evocative art you see of buchanan and king on the screen. They can be both enlightening to discover popular opinion and enlightening. I recommend that everyone follow this account that has its mission to illustrate the life of all president s of the United States. On that point, let me stress here about the connection between researcher and subject. The truth is that we all study the things that interest us abous, about which we are passionate. My story of them, i remember being quite intrigued when i heard this categorization of them as lovers. We want to relate to our Research Subjects in some way, but i also knew i needed to be more critical in how i approached this topic and ask questions that might yield a fuller picture. So i began to ask then as i ask you now, what was the real nature of their relationship . Was each man gay as newsweek would have us believe or something else. And why was america fixated on making buchanan our first gay president . Spoiler alert ahead. As i have stressed this semester, historians must follow their research wherever it takes them. My research has led me to archives in 21 states, the district of columbia and even the British Library in london. My findings suggest that James Buchanan and William Rufus king had an intimate male relationship of that common in the 20th century. They were mostly pla ttonic friendships among men, however they could include an erotic level as well. The relationship between buchanan and king contained both erotic and friendly elements, but not in the way you think. Buchanan shrewdly cultivated kings affection when it was convenient and ignored him when it was not. King kept giving and buchanan kept taking, not in a sexual way, but in an emotional and especially political way. In the realm of politics more than anything else, their friendship made the greatest impact. In the years before the civil war, friendships among politicians like buchanan and king provided a crucial way to bridge the chasm between the north and the south. Simply put, friendships bind the nation on the precipice of this union. Watch this on saturday at 8 00 p. M. Pacific here on American History tv. American history tv on cspan3 tell the history and events of americans every weekend. Coming up this weekend, saturday, at 7 00 p. M. Eastern, an interview on leadership of james baker who served as secretary of state under george h. W. Bush and as Ronald Reagans chief of staff and treasury secretary. Then at 8 00 p. M. On lectures in history, u. S. Connecticut University ProfessorThomas Balcerski between two politicians. They nominated James Buchanan and his predecessor William Rufus king. We explore records from the National Archives including artifacts such as the magic bullet and the 800millimetre film of the assassination. At 8 00 p. M. , a virtual tour of the Ronald Reagan president ial library located in the simi valley, california. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Up next, Gregory Smithers talks about native americans in the south before the arrival of europeans. Hes the author of native southerners, indigenous indians in the community. So now