Chief Hoskin signs legislation setting aside $80M in settlement funds

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner officially signed legislation February 13 setting aside the tribe’s $80 million settlement from the U.S. federal government to build new judicial facilities.

The settlement resolves a 2016 lawsuit alleging that the United States mismanaged the tribe’s trust resources during the period of the 20th century when federal policy suppressed Cherokee Nation’s ability to self-govern.

“This $80 million settlement with the U.S. over its mismanagement of our resources is, of course, historic for so many reasons,” said Chief Hoskin. “During most of the past two centuries, the country’s failed federal Indian policy inflicted a great injustice on the Cherokee Nation. Here in the 21st century we fought back, prevailed, and are poised to fortify our own system of justice. This investment must be of enduring benefit to our Nation, and that’s why Deputy Chief Warner and I asked the Council – and ultimately received their support – to invest the settlement into our own system of justice. The timing of the settlement and the present challenges we face compels it.”

Using the settlement funds, Cherokee Nation plans to build a justice center in Tahlequah that will house the tribe’s Supreme Court, district court, and attorney general’s office, as well as a future district courthouse elsewhere within the tribe’s 7,000-square-mile reservation.

The Council unanimously approved the proposal on February 10.

“When you undertake a case like this against the United States, all eyes are on you, and the reputation of the Cherokee Nation is on the line. We knew we weren’t going to lose – justice needed to be served,” said Deputy Chief Warner. “Now we are confident that the results of this settlement will truly make even more generational impacts on our tribe thanks to the investment we’re making into our justice system.”

Cherokee Nation filed the trust case under former Principal Chief Bill John Baker and former Attorney General Todd Hembree with the support of the Council in 2016. The case continued under Chief Baker’s successor, Chief Hoskin, and Attorneys General Sara Hill and Chad Harsha.

The Cherokee Nation is set to receive the $80 million settlement from the United States – which is the largest single onetime settlement in the tribe’s history.

The Cherokee Nation maintains the government failed to provide a proper accounting of the Cherokee Trust Fund, which included land sale proceeds, coal leases, oil and gas development, property owned by the tribe, and many of its other assets.

Similar breach of trust cases have been settled between Native American tribes and the federal government in recent years. The tribe received $100 million total in various settlement funds in recent years from Opioid Retailers and Manufacturers, but the Trust settlement remains the largest single settlement in the tribe’s history.

Prior to the legislation signing, Chief Hoskin and Deputy Chief Warner honored four Cherokee Nation citizens who performed front-line archival research during the period of 2016-18 to help build the tribe’s trust accounting case.