TULSA, Okla. – The Cherokee Nation will re-examine cultural and historical materials to determine if they appropriately address the role enslaved blacks played in building the nation. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said he will sign an Executive Order this week to order the review.
“We have to ask those questions and many more. Now, I think when we do that, what we’ll find is we’ll have opportunities to change some of our exhibits, add to our history book, perhaps a new edition of our history book, and update web content. We’ve already been doing that to some extent, but this will be a really a systematic, comprehensive approach,” said Hoskin.
Hoskin referenced findings of a task force assigned to determine the impact of enslavement on the tribe, which found specific examples of how Cherokees used forced labor in ways not fully addressed at Cherokee Historical sites.
Cherokee Deputy Principal Chief Bryan Warner speaks at Black History Month event. (Emory Bryan, News on 6)
The announcement came as Cherokees marked Black History Month by announcing the opening this week of a $2.2 million North Tulsa Community Center. The new building, near Peoria on 46th Street North, will offer space for elder nutrition, language classes and job fairs, intentionally placed in a traditionally underserved portion of the Cherokee Nation.
“We should remember that freedmen descendants for 150 years were denied their very basic rights to citizenship. And it also meant that Cherokee Nation did not really recognize or talk about the Freedmen experience or the history the way we should have. So we’re changing that,” said Hoskin, who helped steer the tribe following a 2017 Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the Treaty of 1866 afforded Freedmen full citizenship as Cherokees.
Hoskin said the steps taken to incorporate Freedmen into tribal affairs and culture had improved the Nation. “I think that’s one of the reasons we’re at one of our strongest points in history right now is, in part because we’re reconciling with our past.”
