By TROY LITTLEDEER
STILWELL, Okla. — For centuries, the Cherokee people were united not by a single central government but by kinship, clans, and shared values. Our ancestors built their lives on responsibility to one another, not bureaucracy. Towns governed themselves. What held us together was culture, language, and family bonds. Governments came later.
That balance broke when the United States forced our removal, imposed its laws, and betrayed the treaties it had sworn to honor. Federal policy split us into three governments: the Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma (UKB), and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). These divisions were drawn in Washington, not in Cherokee communities — though internal politics also played a role.
The children and grandchildren of three siblings — one from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, one from the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, and one from the Cherokee Nation. (Photo courtesy of Troy Littledeer)
My own family shows the weight of this divide. My late brother, Chris French, was a citizen of the EBCI. My younger brother, Travis Sawney, belongs to the Cherokee Nation. I am with the UKB. Our children are now growing up under three governments. Yet when we gather, there is no division. We share the same blood, the same stories, and the same kinship that has always defined the Cherokee people.
Today, however, the Cherokee Nation asserts that the treaties belong to its government alone, dismissing the broader promises they created for all Cherokees.
But history tells a different story. In 1828, the United States promised a “perpetual outlet west.” In 1835, it pledged that lands would be held “forever.” In 1846, it secured territory “to the whole Cherokee people … for their common use and benefit.” And in 1866, it guaranteed full rights to Freedmen and their descendants. These promises were made to the people — families like mine — not to any one government.
Courts and agencies have affirmed that truth. In 2017, a federal judge ruled that Freedmen descendants must be recognized as full citizens of the Cherokee Nation because of those treaty guarantees. And in January 2025, the Department of the Interior issued a solicitor’s opinion reaffirming the UKB’s federal status and clarifying consultation standards for its trust lands. The opinion remains under review, but its reasoning reflects what history already shows: the Keetoowah Cherokee people have carried cultural continuity long before Removal, holding an unbroken thread of identity across generations.
The UKB, chartered in 1950 under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, has long faced jurisdictional disputes with the Cherokee Nation. Those conflicts trace back to federal policies like the Curtis Act of 1898 and the Five Tribes Act of 1906, which dismantled Cherokee institutions and reshaped governance. These were decisions made in Washington — not by the people themselves. The deeper question remains: do treaty promises belong to governments, or to all Cherokee people?
What does it say about kinship when governments fight in court while families struggle to repair their homes? What does it mean when a child is told they belong to the “wrong” government to receive help, even though their ancestors share the same stories and land? That is not sovereignty. That is kinship denied.
Sovereignty is not a government building. It is the people in community, bound by kinship. Governments are meant to serve the people — not replace them. Our ancestors lived by kinship. If we are to honor their sacrifices, we must put kinship first again.
When my family gathers — Chris’s memory beside us, Chooge at my side, our children playing together — no government line divides us. That is the Cherokee truth: kinship endures. And if it can endure in my family, it can endure for our people.
