Congress must seat the Cherokee delegate
Nearly two centuries ago, the Cherokee Nation bargained for a treaty right to send a non-voting delegate to the United States Congress. Today, it remains unfulfilled. This week, the House Rules Committee held a hearing on seating the Cherokee Nation’s delegate in the U.S. House — an essential next step in fulfilling the treaty mandate.
In 1835, the Cherokees negotiated what became the Treaty of New Echota, which would inevitably lead to “removal” from their homeland in the southeast part of the U.S. to what is now Oklahoma. The treaty triggered the darkest period in Cherokee history during the Trail of Tears, when the Cherokee people were forcibly marched thousands of miles. A quarter of the Cherokee Nation perished.
Despite the devastation wrought by the treaty, it did, however, provide one critically important promise from the U.S. government. Cherokee negotiators insisted that they have a delegate seat in Congress. And so, in crystal clear terms, the United States “stipulated” that the Cherokee Nation “shall be entitled to a delegate in the House of Representatives … whenever Congress shall make provision for the same.”
What is striking about this provision is its use of classic mandatory language that creates a right for the Cherokee Nation and imposes a duty on the United States: The Nation is “entitled to a delegate” and the U.S. “stipulated” that it “shall” comply with this duty. The sole limit on this right and duty — that the Cherokee will receive its delegate “whenever Congress shall make provision for the same” — concerns only implementation timing. It does not allow Congress to decide whether to fulfill this obligation.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/congress-must-seat-the-cherokee-delegate/ar-AA14erTm
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