Committee and the and i can say they with spent a lot of time. His lip and persistence their culture and their dove naj before the ships arrived there is a lack on the grounds as well as other tribal leaders, resulting in the formation of the indian congressmentive commission and the dedication of the mantle in 2018. Chief amounts says to have numerous causes across the commonweal commonwealth. Thank you, elizabeth, for those kind words. Good afternoon. It is an honor to be here to to be part of this event. We started this about 15 or 18 months ago when we briefed each other on what moblts were for us to have such an event as this. And were fortunate to be able to have it in this special row indication today. Im going to give you a brief history. As the indians know, and know very well, the doctrine of discovery still very well alive in the United States. And in some case its is very well alive here in virginia. People continue to suffer, it came about from the kat welcome churn much to claim that all people across the planet were available to be taken, were available to be b killed. Available to be annihilated and so it happened, and when the first ships came, they knew they were claiming this land for the united kingdom. And today, we still some of us, still suffer from the effects from 1607 in jamestown. When the british first came they were hungry. They didnt go out. They located the small indian towns and taling the stealing t the corn they didnt steal, they destroyed so that the indian people there, that were living there, they became hungry themselves. And as steve mentioned shortly after the british came, on one of those trips they went to the town on the james river. Just below jamestown, looking for food. The goal was to take the corn from those people. Which is what they did, and they burned what was left, and as they were going back to jamestown, the kids that they captured, the children they captured, were thrown into the water and as the articles read, their heads were blown out. Their brains were blown out from the men on the ship. They were taking the wife of the king, as they referred, back to jamestown. According to the article, ran it through with the sword. That process of annihilation, that process of stealing from the indians, that started at jamestown in 1610, 1607 through 1610, that process continued from virginia all of the way to the west coast. In other words, 100 years after landing 90 of the population of people in virginia was gone. A population was destroyed and annihilat annihilated. When the british came they ended up in a place that was for leaders and chiefs. On the york river. Not far from jamestown. That was the place where pocahauntis, you know the fable, the fable being that pocahontas saved john smiths life. Is that true . Not very many people believe it. She was only 10, 11, or 12 years old at that time. It is doubtful that she had the authority as a young indian woman to save the life of the him. For my tribe, were up the river from where they were at that time. If you follow the york river north and west it divides to two rivers, the same rivers, the same names today. They still reside on a reservation in the 1600s. It was affirmed by the general assembly. One of the oldest in the country. In 1670 the largest concentration of indians in the entire commonwealth of virginia. In 1640s after the second indian uprising in virginia, all of the local three was another reservation there around 1670 or 1690. They eventually moved back to their original place in charles city county. But that reservation that the on the August Herman map of 1673. They were able to get a High School Education. Right there next to cherokee land. I served on the board for years. My family members had to actually lead the commonwealth of virginia to get a High School Education back in the 40s and the 1950s. Several of my family things are forced to go to mississippi to live with families in michigan. Another peace of that puzzle, the racial integrity act. The grand Jury Assembly approved to law. They were either colors or right. What did it do . It just ripped the hearts out of people and said basically you cannot even document on your records, not even your records, you cannot document that youre a native american in this state. That started in 1923. My uncles, grandparents, and great uncles, they documented on their on their draft certificate. The service said no you cant do that. They left the state to register as indians when they were drafted. That is a brief piece of the history, this history was the same for the other indians in virginia. But my time is up. And its my pleasure, chief adkins, you need to step this way, please. [ applause ]. He was elected to serve as the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. More than 380,000 triable citizens in 2019. Prior to being elected, he serves the Cherokee Nation secretary of state. As principal chief he increased minimum wage at Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation businesses and secured the largest language investment in the tribes history to expand the cherokee language education and preservation. Chief haskin also appointed the tribes first delegate to the u. S. Congress, double the funding, and accomplish the housing, jobs, and sustainable communities act to prepare hundreds of homes for cherokee elders and buildingings across a 13 county jurisdiction. Haskin worked to secure funding to fund a billion dollar joint venture. He is also the strongest advocate on sovereignty protection. I like that very much. Formally serving as a member of the council of the Cherokee Nation representing district 11 for six years and serving his two final years as deputy speaker. On the council he worked with fellow Council Members to Start Building homes for Cherokee Nations, increase Education Funding and sponsored legislation to expand health care service. He testified at the United Nations on behalf of the Cherokee Nation and serves on multiple boards and commissions including the United States health and Human Services secretaries travel advisory committee. He is from vanida, i hope i said that correctly, he and his first lady, in january, are parents of two children. Tristan and jasmine. He graduated from the university of oklahoma. And as a member of the Cherokee Nation, and oklahoma bar associations. Chief haskin, we welcome you to this stage and this community. I have one little controversial word i have to say. As i was researching the history of virginia many, many years ago there was one brief Little Corner way down in south western virginia that it appeared, im not going to disagree with anyone, that it appeared there was cherokee people that lived in that one little small area of virginia. Very small, but chief haskin, since the cherokee did live in virginia according to my little recognition, welcome home. P plz. Thank you, what a wonderful opportunity it is to be before you. Im so honored that the Cherokee Nation has asked to be part of this. I think it speaks liely of the History Association and the virgin virginia. I do want to recognize in the audience, a lady that and it is quite something to be talking about. Cherokee history and law in front of scholars and noted historians. My former law professor, lindsey robertson, so next months similar moez yum will be on everything that chief haskin got wrong about the history and law and it should take most of the day, and im here, being in the audience and being in front of professor robertson it feels like old times but there will be no test. He is saying there will be a test. So well get through it. So im going to pick up where jackback baker left off. There is our great seal. Of course the Cherokee Nation, we say we have existed from time in memorial. That is when we got back together. We talked about removal there is an earlier migration of cherokees and when we got to what was our new home there was quite a bit of fighting and controversy here. You heard about people being at each others throat, and they were literally at each others throat, and jack baker mentioned that, and the reason we did is part of the reason that im here today. John marshall and his decision might be the reason that i exist. Who would have known what happened to the people and my ancestors, i would not be here, i believe had it not been for that decision which is a bedrock of federal indian law that stays with us today. So i am so honored to be with you here for that reason. So it is leading up including the trail of tears, is something that the country ought to remember. I think jack baker did a great job talking about it in very personal terms. We have to remember that in this country. There was a time in this country where the governor of the United States thought it was a good idea to round people up into cages. That was not a good idea then or today. But we ought to always take those lessons. We lost a quarter of our population, 4,000 men, women, children, grandmas, grandpas, grandbabies wiped off of the face of the earth. It ripped our economy apart. Before removal, remember what was happening. It was touched on before. We had adapted. And strengthened ourselves as a nation. To deal with the government of the United States in a fairly rapid period of time getting a written constitution. Sequoia was mentioned. He gave the cherokees something more powerful than any shield and sword, it was the ability to communicate with each other and translating that to english, communicating with the world. There was a great resistance by the cherokee people before removal. We were not removed because the president of the United States said so or the majority faction signed a treaty. John ross went to washington to plead his case, and if not to ultimately defeat it, to make it as good as it could be for his people. That took a great deal of effort. I think that that period of time and the period that follows which i will get to, did something, shaped something, built something in our National Character that stays with us today. People of tremendous grit and determination to have resisted, to have overcome, and as we got to our new home in what was, what is today northeast oklahoma, we had a lot of work to do. We had to rebuild. Keep in mind what we were rebuilding. We were rebuilding the great cherokee democracy that existed before removal. We had a system of laws and we had a system of justice based on the rural of law and the constitution. I think it says something about the cherokee people that when we were removed and we rebuilt, that is when we got back together, the act of yun yoonun. The parties all at odds with each other, we found it in ourselves to rise above that after some lives were lost, but we still rose above it and got our Government Back together. It strikes me that even though justice in this country let us down, we still believed in it. We still thought that is what we ought to do and that would be what would be best to rebuild a Great Society. We still believed in democracy. We invested in that in addition to a system of law and justice. And look at what else we did. This is the cherokee female seminary. That building, that institution, is the First Institution of Higher Learning for any woman of any race west of the mississippi in the history of the country. And it happened because they believed in ocean. And it was not just that form of higher education, it was a free system of education. We also think that our believed that that would make the most of it. Invested in education is a way to do that. You would predict that a people who were forcibly removed across the country, rounded up in stockades at the hands of an unjust article, the treaty, at the hands of a federal government that ignored its own supreme course, and had its economy, the cherokee economy ripped apart. Lost so many people. You would think that it would take years and years, perhaps generations before we could rebuild if we ever did. And you might think that people might not sustain themselves. And i would suspect there are people in the country that figure that the problem would be solved not just by moving them but by moving them to their demise. I think some people probably thought that. And what is remarkable to me, and this is why i think that the chapter that happens after removal is something that people in this country ought to know really as much as they ought to know about removal. This is why i think it is amazing. We did all of this within about a decade. Within a decade were saying there should be a system of higher education. Were saying we ought to invest in a system of government that was a democracy and was based on the rural of law. And we ought to have a constitution. We did all of this within a short period of time. I think it is remarkable and i think it fuels leaders of the cheer key nation today. Thinking back to what our ancestors did. Even on my raoughest day, it is nothing compared to what john ross went through. I have to remind myself of that from time to time. I cant express enough the divisions in the Cherokee Nation. It was not just that we were removed and had to pick ourselves back up. We were removed and we were split apart. John ross, the elected leader, had been overrun, his government overrun because the United States believed that it ought to execute a treaty with a minority faction. Can you imagine if that happened today . The president of the United States doesnt like the way negotiations are going with france over some trade deal and he says forget the president of france. Well dell with other french and well strike a deal and everyone will think that is okay. That is what happened. And then you have the cherokees that moved out before and they say were governing ourselves out here. We have our own government. How they came together, honestly, i think is remarkable. Every time i read about it im still struck by the level of compromise. And i think it is another lesson for cherokees today. From time to time tribal elections can get pretty raukus. Quite honestly, main stream politics dont have any on triable politics in this guys opinion. I think there is aless ton to be learned. It is something i tried to take with me when i took office as chief. There are plenty of things that divide cherokees, but if we focus on what unifies us, and if we look to the horizon, we can put enough of that aside to do something that is bigger than our individual selfs and it is good for our future. We ought to do that in this country, i think. So we reunified. You saw it on our sale in 1839. Remarkable time for the Cherokee Nation. Who is two amazing individuals. You see john ross, a later photo, that is probably closer to the 1860s. And then you have stan whitey. These are two factions of cherokee political life that would continue on through the 19th century. Stan whitey i will mention this in a minute, one of the most stubborn cherokees that has ever been born. He kept fighting the war after it was over, he didnt surrender. There is a streak of stubbornness for some cherokees. These are two factions that would carry through. And you get to the civil war which has been mentioned. Now the cherokee people were split concerned the civil war. And some of those reasons probably had something to do with what split the United States, there was slavery in the Cherokee Nation before removal and after removal. I want to touch a little more on the institution of slavery in a bit. That was surely a difference. But there is other things that split cherokees apart on the civil war. John ross wanted to stay neutral and he urged his people and his council to stay neutral. Why did he do it . He believed in respect for the United States and that were a recognized sovereign. Who are we party to a treaty with . And multiple treaties with. What happens to the Cherokee Nation if we side with the confederacy that has split from the United States . What are the consequences. The confederacy did a great deal recording and they offered a better deal. It didnt help in addition that the United States was not keeping promises in this time period. I dont know if you can imagine that, but it happened. And so the government of the Cherokee Nation was feeling a great deal of pressure from people who said look, the United States is not really living up to its word, and it looks like these southerners may have an edge, and theyre offering us so much. Theyre offering treasure, land, and control. Maybe we have a better deal with that . And so the folks who largely sided with the confederacy lined up with stan whitey. Stan whitey lines up with the treaty party and ross with the ross party. That split continues. Ultimately john ross signs a treaty, an agreement, with the confederacy. It is a remarkable shift in what is happening in cherokee government in about 1861. Im also looking to jack to make sure i have this date right. But there was a great deal of resistance. The civil war is building up before 1861. He signs it and even then he is not fully bought in. He thinks it is the best way to keep the Cherokee Nation whole and in tact. The tremendous amount of pressure, but ultimately that pressure is too much. It starts to rip us apart again. Now we lost a lot of blood and treasure and life in the removal, and we ought to always remember that. We lost more life in the civil war. We probably lost more in terms of prop