As a child welfare specialist for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma more than a decade ago, Juli Skinner saw firsthand the impact of the opioid crisis on Cherokee families.
The Cherokee Nation is fighting to secure a delegate in the House that would honor a treaty agreement signed by President Andrew Jackson in 1835. The treaty promised federal representation for the tribe after thousands of Cherokees were relocated from their homeland to land west of the Mississippi River. Thousands died during this forced…
US Interior secretary approves Cherokee Nation Constitution
Associated Press
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U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland approved a new constitution for the Cherokee Nation on Wednesday, ensuring citizenship for descendants of its Freedmen, the Black people once enslaved by tribal citizens.
“The Cherokee Nation’s actions have brought this longstanding issue to a close and have importantly fulfilled their obligations to the Cherokee Freedmen,” Haaland said in a statement.
The issue of tribal citizenship for Freedmen has long been the subject of litigation for the Five Tribes, known historically as the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee and Seminole nations.