*In a robust Black Historical past Month message reported by Richard Prince’s Journal-isms, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. has dedicated the tribe to an unflinching examination of its personal historical past—together with the Cherokees’ position within the enslavement of Black individuals and the lengthy battle of the Cherokee Freedmen.
Writing Monday for indianz.com – as highlighted within the Feb. 26, 2026, version of Journal-isms—Chief Hoskin introduced the findings of a landmark process power report. It issued a direct name for honesty and accountability.
“Every February, we pause to honor the achievements and contributions of Black People,” Hoskin wrote. “On the Cherokee Nation, Black Historical past Month additionally calls us to look at our personal historical past truthfully and to commit ourselves to telling the complete fact about who we’re.”
A Reckoning with Arduous Truths
The report, compiled by the Activity Power to Study the Influence of Enslavement on the Cherokee Nation’s nineteenth Century Economic system and Infrastructure, presents what Hoskin describes as “clear and sobering historic info.”
Among the many findings highlighted by Journal-isms:
Previous to the Path of Tears, roughly 6.74% of Cherokee households comprised an enslaver class, largely mixed-blood households with ties to white ancestors.
Outstanding Cherokees have been amongst them, together with 11 of the 12 signers of the 1827 Cherokee Structure.
By 1835, Cherokees owned practically 1,600 enslaved individuals.
Enslaved labor was “pivotal” to the tribe’s economic system, working plantations, constructing roads and public buildings, and taking part in a central position in rebuilding the Cherokee Nation following the pressured removing of 1838–1839.
“These are tough truths,” Hoskin acknowledged. “However they’re truths, nonetheless.”
The Lengthy Battle of the Cherokee Freedmen
Central to the chief’s message was a recognition of the Cherokee Freedmen—the descendants of previously enslaved individuals held by Cherokee house owners. The Treaty of 1866 assured them citizenship rights “in perpetuity.” But for greater than 150 years, these rights have been contested.
“Freedmen shouldn’t have wanted to battle for greater than 150 years for his or her rights or be advised to go beg for his or her rights on the poll field,” Hoskin wrote.
The battle has been deeply private for descendants like Kenneth Cooper, a Boston journalist, and Sam Ford, a retired WJLA-TV reporter, each of whom have been energetic in combating for the rights of Cherokee Freedmen descendants.
Museums, Monuments, and a New Mandate
To make sure this historical past is now not hidden, Chief Hoskin introduced a brand new govt order requiring all Cherokee Nation museums and historic websites to “comprehensively mirror the historical past of Cherokee Freedmen.”
“We can not rejoice Cherokee self-determination whereas ignoring its complexity,” Hoskin mentioned. “We can not champion justice right this moment, with out acknowledging the place we fell quick up to now. Our sovereignty is just not diminished by the reality. It’s strengthened by it.”
A Shared Historical past, A Shared Future
Hoskin pointed to Black Historical past Month occasions throughout the Cherokee Nation Reservation—which incorporates the historic Greenwood District in Tulsa, website of the 1921 Tulsa Race Bloodbath—as reminders that “our historical past is deeply intertwined with many communities.”
As Journal-isms repeatedly paperwork, problems with historic recognition and media illustration are intertwined. The identical Feb. 26 version that reported on the Cherokee Nation additionally coated Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes in Africa and evolving Black media protection of the State of the Union—all underscoring the significance of telling full, unvarnished tales.
For Freedmen descendants and their allies, the chief’s phrases sign a possible shift in how one of many largest Native American nations understands itself—and whom it consists of in that understanding.
As Cooper and Ford have lengthy argued, recognition is just not charity. It’s justice.
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