'It’s time for Congress to seat the Cherokee Nation Delegate' as promised in 1835

Members of the Cherokee Nation tribe are leading a push to hold government officials accountable for their promises made more than 185 years ago.

“In 1835, the government of the United States and the Cherokee Nation signed the Treaty of New Echota, which forced our ancestors to give up their homelands and move west on the Trail of Tears,” Chuck Hoskin, Jr., principal chief of Cherokee Nation, said in a moving video posted on YouTube. “Today, people remember that dark chapter in our nation's history where one quarter of the Cherokee Nation population perished. But they may not know that the same treaty promise that was used to remove the Cherokee Nation also guaranteed the tribe a right to send a delegate to Congress.”

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