In a pre-recorded State of the Nation address released Saturday, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin reiterated that while his tribe remains strong, it will require continued conversations to keep it that way.
“The state of our nation remains strong because as Cherokees, we listen to each other, we learn from one another and we have each other’s backs,” he said.
The tribe announced Tuesday that Hoskin tested positive for COVID-19. On Friday, he was cleared to attend the event in person after multiple negative tests, but he recorded a version of his remarks that day as a backup measure.
Talking to Cherokee National Holiday attendees in Tahlequah via speakerphone Saturday prior to the broadcast of his remarks, Hoskin said he took an additional COVID-19 test that morning out of an abundance of caution — and it came back positive.
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“On behalf of the first lady and our daughter, we know that first and foremost, we need to do what our ancestors did, which is to watch each other’s backs and keep each other safe,” Hoskin said. “I’m feeling fine … but I tested positive this morning.”
Along with the continued growth of the tribe’s language department to include a second immersion school campus in Greasy and a new Speaker Services Program, Hoskin touted the recently completed expansion of the tribe’s Wilma Mankiller Clinic in Stilwell and the upcoming construction of a new 25-home housing addition in Tahlequah as recent examples of forward progress through listening to citizens’ requests.
Among the upcoming proposals highlighted in Hoskin’s remarks that will be sent to the tribe’s legislative branch for consideration soon are a $3 million recovery fund specifically targeting Cherokee artists, a Cherokee-specific version of the Violence Against Women Act to expand protections and services for victims and survivors of domestic violence and a larger criminal justice budget for the coming fiscal year.
“We must get this right,” he said. “The Cherokee people are counting on us. We must invest our dollars wisely to further expand our Marshal Service, our Attorney General’s Office and our victim services program.”
Hoskin also used the occasion to once again repeat his call for Congress to seat Kim Teehee as the tribe’s delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Teehee was announced as the Cherokee Nation’s delegate to Congress in September 2019 under the terms of the Treaty of New Echota. Signed in 1835 by a minority faction and ratified by Congress in 1836, the Treaty of New Echota led to the Cherokees’ forced removal to what is now Oklahoma. Among the terms of that treaty was the promise the tribe would have a non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives.
There are currently six non-voting members of the U.S. House of Representatives, but none are there on behalf of a tribal nation.
The treaty also requires Congress to make provisions in order for a Cherokee delegate to be seated. Despite the tribe’s positive pre-pandemic meetings with members of Congress from both political parties, that still has not happened.
“I am calling on the House of Representatives to hold a committee hearing before the end of this month to decide whether America is a country that keeps its word,” he said.
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