Oklahoma Could Soon Have A Tribal Representative In Congress

Based of the 2020 Census, Oklahoma’s representation in the United States House of Representatives is supposed to remain unchanged at five. However, there’s a chance the state could soon have an additional representative, based on an agreement more than 180 years old.

In the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, which removed the Cherokee Nation from its ancestral home in Georgia, the United States made several promises to the tribe, including representation in Congress.

"The treaty language is very plain," said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. in an interview, "it says the Cherokee Nation shall have the right to a delegate in the House of Representatives, when Congress shall make provision for the same. It didn’t say that Cherokee Nation might have a delegate, but it shall have a delegate."

Chief Hoskin said the time has come for Congress to make that provision.

"I’m a patient man," Hoskin said, "[but] there needs to be more progress, there needs to be more action taken by this Congress and we think we’re getting close."

Hoskin said he and the Nation have done their part, appointing Kim Teehee, the tribe's Director of Government Relations and a veteran of Indian affairs on Capitol Hill, as the Cherokee Nation's delegate to Congress.

He and Teehee were in Washington this week, trying to move the process along.

"I am encouraged," said Teehee on March 2, "I’m encouraged because we have gotten all of the questions that have been thrown our way answered."

Teehee and Hoskin acknowledge there are serious questions regarding the potential seat that had to be answered.

They say they have taken the time to research them and answer them thoroughly and thoughtfully.

Perhaps the biggest question is over the notion of dual representation -- they wondered if the tribe's delegate would be representing citizens who are already being represented by elected members of Congress; like Congressman Markwayne Mullin, a Cherokee himself.

"That's a legitimate argument," noted Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK2), a Cherokee citizen himself and a congressman whose district includes a large number of other Cherokees.

Mullin said he fully supports making good on the nation's long-ago promise to the tribe. He understands some might wonder how to reconcile it with current political realities.

"Once [Oklahoma] became a state in 1907," said Mullin in an interview this week, "it didn't void out that treaty, but the delegate was to represent a sovereign nation."

"It all comes down to, who does the delegate represent: the individuals or the government of the Cherokee Nation?" said Chief Hoskin, framing the issue. "[She] represents the government of the Cherokee Nation."

It’s not fully clear yet what privileges the delegate would have. Other current delegates have committee assignments and thus are at the table when it comes to creating legislation. However, they can’t vote on the House floor.

Hoskin and Teehee say, with support from the state delegation, getting a seat in the House is now essentially in the hands of House leadership. They say they've had productive meetings with Speaker Pelosi and that she supports their aim.

Do they think it could happen this year?

"I do, I do," said Hoskin, "based on the questions we’ve had and the responses we’ve given."

Teehee believes we will begin to see action on this soon.