Transcripts For CSPAN3 Cherokee Nation After The Trail Of Tears 20240711

As mentioned earlier today, chief adams serves on preservation virginias board of trustees. It was at his urging that this symposium came to be. The chief served as a strong advocate for the federal recognition of the upper mattaponi. In the lead up to 2007, chief adams actively participated in the Jamestown Committee and activities associated. I can say we spent a lot of time together. At various events around the state. His leadership and persistence ensures that commemorative events reflected the 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 cabinet 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 causes and organizations across the commonwealth. It is an honor to introduce chief adams. Chief adams thank you for the kind words. It is an honor to be here today and 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 will give you a brief history of the upper mattaponi 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 in 1452, 1453, from the Catholic Church through the popes edict, to claim that all people 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 1607, they knew full well by planting 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 and jamestown. Well when the british first came, they were hungry. They did not have any food so they started going out and locating the 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. And as the articles read, their heads were blown out, their brains were blown out. They were taking the wife of the king back to jamestown with them. They took her for sure. Ran her through with a sword, 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 much shouting then except for what came from the indians. 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 this fable, that 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 but that is perpetuated from films and other stories. My tribe, were up the river from what was the north and west, divide into two rivers. The one in the left his monkey people. The monkey, the same rivers in the same names today. Possibly the oldest reservation 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 people live today. On the map in 1670. But in some ways we got there because of removal. 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 their original place they 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 his 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. In college right there. I served on the board for years. My family members had to leave the commonwealth of virginia to get a High School Education in the 40s 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 serious communities. General assembly approved a law indicating you are not 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. 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. So they actually left the state in order to register as indians when they were drafted. That is a brief piece of history. This is the same for others in virginia, but my time is up. It is my pleasure. Chief atkins, you need to step this way, please. [applause] chief adam i am just bringing him up on stage because i have other work to do. I will introduce chief hoskin as our really special speaker this afternoon. Chuck was elected to serve as the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation with more than 300,000 citizens in 2019. He served as the Cherokee Nation secretary of state. He has increased minimal wage at Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation businesses and secured the largest language investment in the tribes history to expand the cherokee preservation. That he will also test is also pointed as the first delegate to u. S. Congress. 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 county jurisdiction. Best cherokee of state, he worked to secure funding to work as a 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. And he served his two final years as Deputy Speaker and he worked with fellow Council Members to bill home for sheridan aikins nations, sponsored legislation to expand Health Care Service through casino dollars. The chief haschief hoskins has served on multiple boards, including the health and Human Services secretary tribal advisory committee. Chief hoskin is from a community where he lives with his family. He and his first lady, in january, are parents of two children, tristan and jazmine. He graduated from the university of oklahoma and university of 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 gift for chief hoskin from the virginia indians and the preservation of 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 here without her, and that is the first lady of the nation, Cherokee Nation, january. It is one thing to be talking about cherokee history and law and front of noted historians, including jack baker and lindsay robertson. So next month, a symposium will be on everything chief hoskin got wrong on history and law. [laughter] it should take the most of the day. And 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. 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 worth talking about one thing worth talking about, before the trail of tears, there was an earlier migration, and when we got our new home, there was a lotta fighting and controversy. You hear people talk about being at each others throats, well, 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 in 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 charities. We ought to remember that in this country. It 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. You think about what happened, the greatest great destruction that took place against the Cherokee Nation. We lost a quarter of our population, 4000 women, children, grandbabies, and necessarily 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 what was happening, in terms of the encroachment of settlers. Because you know what the government of the United States commanded a fairly rapid period of time, sequoia, the great genius, he gave the charities something that was more powerful than any shield or any sword we could have wielded, communication, and then translating and communicate with the world. 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 roth stood his ground, went to washington, d. C. To plead his case, and it was ultimately defeated, and i 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 come 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 at odds 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 for a society. We still believed in in democracy, and we invested in this, and look what else we did, this is the cherokee female seminary, the First Institution of Higher Learning for any woman of any race west of 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 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. People were 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 ripped apart our way of life ripped apart, 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 people would not sustain themselves. I suspect there were people in this country that figured the cherokee problem would be soft, 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, is we did all of this within about a decade. So in a decade, we are saying 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. As rough of a day that i might have as chief of the Cherokee Nation, it is not as bad as what john ross went through. I have to think about that from time to time. I mentioned reunification feud i cannot 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 had been over overrun because 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 french, we will deal 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 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 dan wade. These two represent the faction of cherokee political life that will carry on through the 19th century. John ross, quite an amazing person. Stan wade he kept fighting after 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 have 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 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. Who do we side with, a confederacy that split from the United States, what are the consequences . 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 seven nurse might 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 is 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 remember 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 package 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 venita. 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, to Railroad Tracks cross there. Venita 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 ushering 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 bare on the Cherokee Nation. 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 and 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 to 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, more than 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. This is completely antithetical to what they think about in the United States in terms of property ownership, and the general allotment was to individualize the landholdings to community landholdings. 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. Would 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 a 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 alloted 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 unites states says so, but if you can get its restrictions out of their, 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 stickler act is passed. If you fall below a half blood quantum, then it loses its restricted land status forever. That meant that from 1907 to now, we have lost more than 90 of our restricted land. So the destruction of the Cherokee Nation really continues into the 20th century, and to add insult to injury, i told you the government of the United States had surpressed and dismantled the cherokee government, but they had to have a chief to deal with, so for much of the 20 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 share, as proud of 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 unites 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 significance that the government continues to recognize the Cherokee Nation in some form or fashion, even the socalled chiefs for a day. Look, that is what john ross was trying to preserve, when he was facing the civil wars. We have this government to government 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 Nation, and Cherokee Nation. 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 chiefs and the government of the United States is absolutely critical to the Cherokee Nation, and that is why, throughout history, it has been 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 would had weve really gotten here, from appointed chief to elected chiefs in the 20 century, and i have the pleasure of working with an elected council, a judiciary, Supreme Court and judicial courts, how did we get here . 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 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 Historical Society 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 as 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 self identify 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. If you do las vegas style gaming, you better have an agreement with the state in which you are operating. That is the federal scheme right now. It has been very good to the Cherokee Nation and all of our friends and neighbors, because this building, so many of the programs we have talked about, the ability of the Cherokee Nation into 2019 with the council, as i did last year, to boost our minimum wage up to 11 an hour. In oklahoma, it is 7. 50 an hour. The fact that we can take 60 million to save the cherokee 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 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 come here and 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 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 in that 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 freeman descendents to achieve their equality and their citizenship in the Cherokee Nation. Im proud that in 2017, the cherokee freedom 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. 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 put that 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 Heritage and history in our sports teams . I think it is an appropriate 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 with leading your Cherokee Nation. I wanted to know if you had any thoughts on reparations for africanamericans whose ancestors were enslaved here in america . I think that is a great question. It is the question of the day. And i dont have an answer to the question, 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 women and how complicated it is for what indians can do on reservations versus off reservations. Do you see that changing for the better . 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, you would 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, 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. Some areas of the country where tribes and local Law Enforcement, not only is it not a good relationship, sometimes it is hostile. It is still an issue in oklahoma. Missing and murdered Indigenous Women. 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 victims 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 Nation Law 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 and his 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] as the images reveal, you dont need to search google for 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 this popular understanding derives from his relationship with one man in particular, that is right, William Rufus king. Let me hear give a special shout out to project potus pages account on instagram for the incredible evocative art of them on the screen. Here is another lesson for the historical researcher today, engagements but social media can be enlightening to understand popular opinion and rewarding as a way to validate the importance of research subjects. The sketches on this and subsequent slides wonderfully illustrate the points i made in my research. I recommend everybody follows the account that has as 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 we all studied the things and interests of which we are passionate. My interest in this story is no different in this regard. As a game in living in the 21st century, i admit to having been quite intrigued when i first heard his characterization. As we say, we study because we want to relate to our subjects in some way. I also knew i needed to be more critical and how i approach the topic. To ask questions of might yield a pillar picture. I begin to ask then as i ask you now, what was the real nature of the relationship . With each men gay as newsweek would have us believe . Or were they Something Else . Why do americans seem fixated on making buchanan the first gay president . All right, spoiler alert ahead. As i 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 the British Library in london. My finding suggests that James Buchanan and William Rufus king had an intimate male friendship of the kind common in the 19th century. A generation of scholarship has uncovered numerous such, but mostly platonic relationships among men. At the same time much of them could include an erotic element as well. The friendship of buchanan in king included both platonic and erotic elements, but not in the way you think. The evidence suggests that king longed more for buchanan who never reciprocated in return. In fact we can intrude louis cultivated his affection convenient, and ignored it when it was not. In the on equal terms of their relationship, king kept giving, botanic kept taking. Not in a sexual way, but emotional, in a political way. In the realm of politics more than anything else their friendship made its greatest impact in the years before the civil war friendships among politicians such as buchanan and king provided a crucial way to bridge the growing chasm between the north and south. Simply put, friendships provided a political glue that brown together a nation on the precipice of this union. Next, Gregory Smithers talks about native americans in the south before the arrival of europeans. He is the author of native southerners, indigenous history from origins to original, and is a history professor at virginia commonwealth university. The Virginia Museum of history and culture hosted this event. For todays program, dr. Gregory smothers, which specializes in native American History. He is the author of several books. Including the charity dias