Features

• The Cherokee Indian government is based on a constitution which lays out the essential tenets of independence, sovereignty, equal rights for citizens, and good relations with other tribes and the U.S. government. There are three branches: an executive branch, a legislative branch and a judicial branch, each of which serves to check the other two and preserve the balance of power. The government is guided by democratic ideals, such as free elections for all citizens and term limits for all elected offices.
  
  

Function

• In the Cherokee Nation, the executive branch is comprised of a Principal Chief and a Deputy Principal Chief, who are elected to four-year terms, along with their executive bureaucracies. The function of the executive is to see that all the laws of the tribe are executed, and to make certain policy decisions.
  
  The legislative branch is called the Tribal Council. It is comprised of 17 members, each elected to four-year terms. The Council represents the nine districts that lie within the geographical bounds of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, as well as those Cherokee Nation citizens living elsewhere. This branch, like that of the United States, passes most of the laws of the land.
  
  The judicial branch is comprised of the District Court, the Supreme Court and the Healing to Wellness Court. The district court hears criminal, juvenile and civil cases, while the Supreme Court (officially the Judicial Appeals Tribunal) handles constitutional cases, appeals, and cases involving Tribal Enactments. The Healing to Wellness court handles drug cases only.
  
  The other federally recognized Cherokee Indian governments follow a similar structure.
  
  

History

• The Cherokee Nation established a constitution in 1839, the same year thousands of Eastern Cherokee joined the Western Cherokee in Oklahoma via the Trail of Tears. The constitution essentially unified all Cherokee under one government and solidified northeastern Oklahoma as the adopted homeland of the Cherokee people. It looked much like the Constitution of the United States of America, creating the different branches of government and laying out who was to do what.
  
  The Cherokee Nation enjoyed relative prosperity and sovereignty until the 1860s. After the American Civil War, the U.S. government rescinded recognition of the Cherokee Nation government because the tribe fought alongside the Confederates, who lost the war. The tribe as a whole had no government during the ensuing decades.
  
  In 1893 the U.S. reinstated recognition of the tribe. A census of the Cherokee Nation was taken and recorded as the Dawes Rolls, which forever determined who was a Cherokee and who was not. It also dissolved the Cherokee reservations and instead allotted each registered Cherokee about a hundred acres of land.
  
  In 1975 the Cherokee Nation was reaffirmed as a sovereign entity, and the constitution was revamped.
  
  

Identification

• As you might recall from the Overview, there are three major Cherokee Indian governments. When speaking of the Cherokee Indian government, it is generally assumed that one is referring to the Cherokee Nation in northeastern Oklahoma, as this is by far the most populous band of Cherokee. Another group, called the United Keetowah Band of Cherokee Indians, also resides in Oklahoma but run a separate sovereign government. It is similar in structure to that of the Cherokee Nation. The same is true of the Eastern Band Cherokee Indians, who reside in the original Cherokee homeland in Georgia. The relationship among the three governments is one of brotherhood and cooperation.
  
  

Considerations

• The Cherokee Indian government has changed greatly in the last two centuries. A highly adaptive people, the Cherokee are quick to take on any necessary adjustments to ensure their survival as a culture. When they first encountered Europeans, they immediately took stock of their way of governing and happily transformed their own in an effort to stay in the good graces of those who would take their land. Their government strove to be as similar to the United States government as possible.
  
  In recent decades, however, a much greater acceptance of the Cherokee culture has allowed them the freedom to return to their roots. For example, in 1975, the Cherokee Indian government reclaimed some of the old titles, such as Chief and Tribal Council, rather than President and Legislature.
  
  Another evolution in the Cherokee government is the recent inclusion of a Healing to Wellness Court in their judicial system. The court handles drug cases only, as a way of dealing with growing alcoholism and drug addiction in Native American communities, especially methamphetamines.