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4 unusual facts about Cherokee Nation


Cherokee Nation

Kimberly Teehee (b. 1969/70), senior policy advisor for Native American Affairs in the White House Domestic Policy Council

Diane Watson

She opposed the Cherokee Nation's March 2007 vote to amend its constitution to limit membership to only those descendants with at least one Indian ancestor on the Dawes Roll.

Hal Stratton

Hal Stratton was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on December 6, 1950 and is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation.

Mary G. Ross

"A gifted child, she was sent to live with her grandparents in the Cherokee Nation capital of Tahlequah to attend school."


Ben Tincup

Born in Adair, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), Tincup was a member of both the original Cherokee Nation and its modern counterpart.

Job Pierson

A passionate supporter of Andrew Jackson, Pierson filled his letters with accounts of the president and other major political figures, including Martin Van Buren, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun, and discussed the issues that dominated Jacksonian politics, including the Cherokee nation's legal status, the Second Bank of the United States, the Tariff of 1833, and the Nullification Crisis.

K.A. Gilliland

A. Gilliland is a Cherokee Nation citizen and the current executive director of the Cherokee Nation Foundation.

Marilou Awiakta

Awiakta's poetry is analysed at length in Our Fire Survives the Storm by Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee Nation).

Will Rogers Downs

The Will Rogers Downs is a gaming facility and race track located in Rogers County, east of Claremore, Oklahoma (and just east of Justice), that is owned and operated by the Cherokee Nation.

Wilma Mankiller

Wilma Pearl Mankiller (November 18, 1945 – April 6, 2010) was the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation.


see also

Bill John Baker

In 2011, Baker ran for Cherokee Nation principal chief against the 12-year incumbent Chad Smith.

Blood Law

The most noted were the friction between the Lower Creeks and the Upper Creeks and the killings between the John Ross and Ridge factions of the Cherokee Nation; both of which lasted from the 1820s to the American Civil War.

Cherokee freedmen controversy

The Cherokee Nation held general elections for Principal Chief between challenger Bill John Baker, a longtime Cherokee Nation councilman, and Chad Smith, the incumbent Principal Chief, on June 24, 2011.

Cherokee Nation Foundation

The Cherokee Nation Foundation is located in the capital of the Cherokee Nation at Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Dewey Luster

Luster was born in Tahlequah, capital of the Cherokee Nation, the son of Otis V. and Callie (Bates) Luster.

Hastings Shade

Shade served one term as deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation, from 1999 to 2003, with Chad Smith.

John McKee

He was appointed that year by territorial Governor William Blount to survey the boundary with the Cherokee nation established by the 1791 Treaty of Holston.

John Ridge

The Ridges and other families joined the "Old Settlers" of the Cherokee Nation West under Principal Chief John Jolly.

Stilwell, Oklahoma

Employers were such companies as Tyson Foods, Stilwell Canning Company and its successor, Mrs. Smith's Bakery/Stilwell Food, Cherokee Nation Industries and Facet Industries.

The Doe Boy

Set in 1984 in the heart of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, The Doe Boy tells the coming of age story of Hunter (James Duval), a young man of mixed heritage who is also a haemophiliac.