Chad Hunter
Cherokee Phoenix
TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma – The Cherokee Nation’s chief promised his “unyielding loyalty and devotion” to the tribe after being sworn in for a second term on Monday
“My fellow Cherokees, I pledge to you that for this brief time that I serve as your chief, you will get my best effort each and every day,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. told the crowd packed into the tribe’s Chota Center, which is part of the Cherokee Casino Tahlequah.
First elected in 2019 with nearly 58 percent of the vote, Hoskin secured a second term in office on June 3 with nearly 63 percent of the vote against three opponents. He was sworn in along with other elected leaders, including his running mate, Deputy Chief Bryan Warner.
“He and I make a great team,” Hoskin said on election night. “I think the margin of victory for both of us shows that we both have some measure of a mandate to continue on what we’re doing.”
Hoskin, a former tribal councilor, resigned from his post as secretary of state to run for chief in 2019. He replaced outgoing Principal Chief Bill John Baker. Hoskin described his administration as focused on “strengthening our communities and families, creating job and homeownership opportunities, perpetuating Cherokee language and culture, and protecting Cherokee Nation’s tribal sovereignty.”
A running theme throughout his inauguration speech was that “a great Cherokee century” is within reach for the growing tribe.
“It feels like a Nation with so much potential, so much greatness within our people, so much ambition and so much to prove,” Hoskin said. “Thanks to our ancestors, and thanks to the efforts of Cherokee people, particularly within the last 50 years, we are poised to end the first quarter of the 21st century more secure in the blessings of liberty, more secure in our collective prosperity and more secure in our sovereignty than any time in the past 500 years. At this moment, it falls upon this generation of Cherokees to continue the progress of our ancestors. We have it within us to bend the 21st century into a great Cherokee century.”
In his inauguration speech, Hoskin also touched on outside attacks – some from the Oklahoma governor’s office – targeting the tribe’s independence.
“We must all do our part to protect and defend the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation,” Hoskin said. “Let’s say it loud enough and proud enough that it shakes the walls of the state capitol and the governor’s mansion. I proclaimed it from this stage four years ago and I say it again – the Cherokee Nation is the best friend the state of Oklahoma ever had. We just need to be treated with some respect. Let us send a message to those leaders who view tribal sovereignty as a threat, who view our reservation as something to be stopped, who believe that restoring Cherokee sovereignty comes at someone else’s expense. To those leaders I say this: Let this be the century in which your old, tired and backward ways are finally cast into the dustbin of history.”
Hoskin said this moment also marked cause to “celebrate the renewal of our great democracy.”
“The Cherokee Nation stands as one of the world’s oldest democracies,” he said. “Across three centuries of our democracy and our resolve as a free people, well, there’ve been tests. Through it all, I proudly say this as your principal chief – the Cherokee Nation has bent, but it has never broken. With each renewal of our democracy, with each election, with each inauguration, we do more than set the course for the next four years. We come together, we look far into the future, and we set the stage for coming generations.”
At the ceremony, Hoskin was introduced by his father, Chuck Hoskin, a former state representative, Cherokee Nation tribal councilor, CN chief of staff and Vinita mayor.
“Four years ago, I was in the same room to introduce you to my son … as our new principal chief,” the elder Hoskin said. “The last four years has tested our Nation, and our Nation’s chief. I am proud of how he has led us through a global health crisis, economic uncertainty and threats to our sovereignty. I couldn’t be prouder of him and his work as principal chief on behalf of our great Nation. He turned out to be the chief that I had hoped he would become four years ago.”
The chief is a graduate of Vinita High School, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Oklahoma College of Law. He represented District 11 on the Cherokee nation Tribal Council for six years before becoming secretary of state.
Hoskin and his wife, January, have two children, Triston and Jasmine, and five grandchildren.
This article was first published in the Cherokee Phoenix.