Cherokee Phoenix Staff
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – In what the Cherokee Nation leaders call a “shameful and cowardly ruling” the tribe will seek to overturn, an opinion handed down in the final moments of the Biden administration by the U.S. Department of the Interior claims CN and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians are equal successors to the CN’s 7,000-square-mile reservation in northeastern Oklahoma for the purposes of placing land in trust.
A 57-page document dated Jan. 17 from Robert T. Anderson, then-solicitor of the Department of the Interior, says his office reviewed “a complex and difficult question” following a July 2022 request from the UKB that a 2.63-acre parcel of land in Tahlequah be taken into trust for gaming purposes.
He concluded that the Cherokee Nation Reservation “is UKB’s reservation” for certain regulations, and that “the Bureau of Indian Affairs may acquire land in trust for UKB within the Cherokee Reservation.”
“This conclusion is based on my findings that UKB has an ownership interest in the Cherokee Reservation as a successor of interest to the tribal signatory of the Treaty of 1846,” the document states, “and Congress intended for UKB to possess governmental jurisdiction over the Cherokee Reservation when it enacted the Keetoowah Recognition Act.”
The opinion marked a “new page of history” for UKB leaders.
“This is a victory for righteousness and justice,” UKB Chief Jeff Wacoche said in a statement. “For too long the UKB has been sidelined by needlessly antagonistic tribal relations. I thank the Department of Interior for this determination, placing our tribe on a renewed path towards prosperity.”
The Cherokee Nation’s leaders offer a differing view of Anderson’s opinion and are fighting for its reversal.
“One lawyer made this decision on his way out the door,” Cherokee Nation Attorney General Chad Harsha said. “And I would say that having reviewed that opinion, it is deeply flawed, and it does not reflect the history of the Cherokee Nation. We’ve challenged this opinion and the flawed legal basis on which it rests. We’re pursuing all options, including potential litigation.”
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. is hopeful the opinion, which he characterized as a “shameful and cowardly ruling,” will be reversed.
“This isn’t the first time the Department of the Interior has issued a flawed decision and ultimately walked it back,” he said, also taking exception to Anderson’s opinion as either thoughtful or accurate. “You can see the haste with which this decision was issued. Yes, it’s a large document but in terms of the analysis and the facts, it was hasty. There’s a reason it came out literally in the waning hours of the last business day of the Biden-Harris administration.”
In an official statement, Hoskin declared that “Experts, history and the law agree, the Cherokee Nation that exists today has maintained a continuous government to government relationship with the United States since the union was founded. There is nothing – in the historical record, statutes, legislative history, court decisions or elsewhere – that would entitle the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians or any other tribe to the Cherokee Nation’s treaties or reservation.”
Cherokee Nation has a documented Treaty with the United States dating back to the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785.
No “Cherokee” treaty post dates the 1866 Treaty, which stipulates that “All provisions of treaties heretofore ratified and in force, and not inconsistent with the provisions of this treaty, are hereby re-affirmed and declared to be in full force.” Cherokee Nation was the only tribe to sign the 1866 treaty
The Treaty of 1846, cited by Anderson, was signed a full century before UKB recognition and makes no mentioned of the band. Cherokee Nation Principal Chief John Ross is among the singers of the treaty, along with a delegation that included “old settler” representatives.
UKB was formed by an Act of Congress in 1946, achieving recognition as “band of Indians” of Cherokees in 1950. The United States stopped signing treaties with tribes in the late 19th century, pre-dating recognition of UKB.
According to the UKB, Anderson’s opinion “should end any misinformation about the relationship between” the two Cherokee tribes.
Hoskin expressed frustration in facing what he calls a lack of understanding about “the very basics” of Cherokee history, treaties and tribal law by those in places of power like Washington, D.C.
“It’s a dense topic and so, understandably, getting into the details is challenging for everybody,” he said. “But the very essence of it that we repeat is that the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma was recognized by a single sentence in a single bill in Congress in 1946 when the legislation was passed and then they gained the recognition four years later. I didn’t say 1846; I didn’t say 1850. I said 1946 and 1950. That very basic fact gets lost a lot. It is impossible – if anyone understands how time works – that they were present or have any sort of legal interest in any agreement with the United States prior to that time.”
Of notable concern to the CN now is jurisdictional misconceptions based upon the Interior opinion, which “changes nothing with respect to criminal jurisdiction,” Harsha said.
“And it creates no new trust land for the UKB, which is still limited to the 76 acres that they have in Tahlequah,” he added. “This opinion, I think we need to keep it in the context of what it is, and what this opinion does is describes a process by which land into trust can be taken by the UKB.”
Even so, as chief “and just as someone who lives in this community,” Hoskin worries the UKB could use the Interior opinion “as some sort of a basis for expanding its police powers, which it’s ill-equipped to do in the first place and has no legal basis to do beyond its tribal complex acreage.”
The Cherokee Nation, which has developed relationships and agreements with more than 90 federal, state, county and local law enforcement agencies over decades, maintains that within its 14-county reservation, the UKB has no authority. Despite that assertion, the UKB Lighthorse police force operates within reservation boundaries.
“This is one of the problems we’ve been flagging for some time, which is the potential chaos that comes out of a misunderstood or misapplied opinion legal analysis,” Hoskin said. “The reason we’ve been concerned about the UKB’s policing efforts is because it’s a real danger. In the wake of this decision, there’s a lot of discussion in the public about what changes. That really just creates a more chaotic environment, and what we favor is an environment in which people are safe.”
In late 2024, Oklahoma law enforcement leaders representing more than 30 agencies from across the Cherokee Nation Reservation attached their signatures to a letter laying out what the CN called “an active and clear threat” to its ability to keep communities safe and hold criminals accountable.
“That threat is coming from the United Keetoowah Band, and it must be addressed,” the letter says. “Absent any legal rights or authority, the UKB is running their Lighthorse (police force) outside of their jurisdiction. Their rogue police force’s illegal actions put the public safety of all Oklahomans at risk.”
In the wake of Anderson’s opinion, the UKB has called upon Cherokee Nation leaders “to seek the very reconciliation that the UKB has sought over decades.”
“Surely, the spirit of division that has dwelled in Cherokee affairs for far too long finally should now be expelled from the Oklahoma Cherokee Reservation,” a Jan. 17 UKB news release states.
Hoskin says he has not spoken with Wacoche, who was elected as the UKB’s new chief in November 2024.
“The door is open certainly, but it’s not open to negotiate away the treaty rights and the sovereignty that our ancestors lost too much to get,” Hoskin said. “So, in terms of an expectation that people may have that we can sit down and compromise on who the Cherokee Nation is, that’s just not happening. We know who the Cherokee Nation is.”
For additional information on the Department of the Interior’s decision and what the Cherokee Nation calls “UKB’s threats to Cherokee Nation’s sovereignty,” visit cherokeefacts.com.
