{"id":674704,"date":"2026-07-06T00:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T05:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=674704"},"modified":"2026-07-06T10:26:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:26:57","slug":"chuck-hoskin-recommitting-to-an-america-that-keeps-promises-to-tribal-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2026\/07\/06\/chuck-hoskin-recommitting-to-an-america-that-keeps-promises-to-tribal-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Chuck Hoskin: Recommitting to an America that keeps promises to tribal nations"},"content":{"rendered":" <a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2026\/07\/06\/chuck-hoskin-recommitting-to-an-america-that-keeps-promises-to-tribal-nations\/cherokeenation-118\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-674707\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" data-attachment-id=\"674707\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2026\/07\/06\/chuck-hoskin-recommitting-to-an-america-that-keeps-promises-to-tribal-nations\/cherokeenation-118\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/06\/CherokeeNation-3.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2048,1365\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Cherokee Nation\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Cherokee Nation&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Leaders and citizens of the Cherokee Nation view a historic map created by Cherokee Freedmen High School students at the tribe&amp;#8217;s Juneteenth celebration in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, on June 19, 2026. Photo: &lt;a href=https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheCherokeeNation\/posts\/pfbid02FvdZsE8ADgpYAQmMfcZ36TXLt5mVtmLhCt539h5xp9mBVhr4hrcAqYRZ54TKrqBUl&gt;Cherokee Nation&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/06\/CherokeeNation-3.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/06\/CherokeeNation-3.jpg\" alt=\"Cherokee Nation\"  class=\"size-full wp-image-674707\" \/><\/a> <figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Leaders and citizens of the Cherokee Nation view a historic map created by Cherokee Freedmen High School students at the tribe&#8217;s Juneteenth celebration in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, on June 19, 2026. Photo: <a href=https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheCherokeeNation\/posts\/pfbid02FvdZsE8ADgpYAQmMfcZ36TXLt5mVtmLhCt539h5xp9mBVhr4hrcAqYRZ54TKrqBUl>Cherokee Nation<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">America at 250: A Reckoning, a Celebration and a Recommitment<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Monday, July 6, 2026<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"byline\">By Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. <A href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChuckHoskin_Jr\"><I aria-hidden=true class=\"fab fa-twitter\"><\/I><\/A><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"source\">Cherokee Nation<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"source-links\"><A \r\nhref=\"https:\/\/www.cherokee.org\/\">cherokee.org<\/A><\/div>\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nI join with Americans across the United States to celebrate the country&#8217;s 250th birthday.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nAs both an American, and a Native American, I can look back across 250 years of American history and find dark chapters, bright chapters and reason to be optimistic.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nThese two things can be true at the same time: America is at once the most powerful potential force for freedom and justice on the planet \u2014 and yet it has failed many times to live up to that potential, at times betraying its bedrock principles.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nAmerica is a country founded on the idea that all people are created equal.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nYet, we know that at the country&#8217;s founding, Native Americans were referred to in the Declaration of Independence as &#8220;merciless Indian savages&#8221; and that the Constitution embedded the enslavement of Black people as chattel. At the founding, women were second-class citizens.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nThe founders cherished freedom and democracy. But at the founding it was democracy for some, not all. War, constitutional amendments and struggles for civil rights were needed to bend the country towards a fuller experience of equality and freedom for all.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nAgainst this backdrop, people who have struggled \u2014 or who descend from people who struggled for civil rights on the basis of race, national origin, gender and political status \u2014 sometimes wrestle with our love of America with our clear-eyed understanding of where the country has erred.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nFor Native peoples, we often see America through a lens of a country imposed upon our tribal lands by settlers and a government that broke every treaty it ever made with tribal nations. For Cherokees, we recall, painfully, the failures of a federal Indian policy which often treated us as a problem to be solved, or even a people to be extinguished.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nNative peoples, along with many historically marginalized people across the country, struggle at times when confronted with America&#8217;s birthday.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nThere is nothing wrong with that struggle as we reflect on the meaning of America&#8217;s 250th birthday. In fact, the freedom to contemplate, to speak out, to criticize, to agonize with uncertainty and to push for progress is perhaps the most American of ways to celebrate the country.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nBut just as we recall the dark chapters of the country, we can also recall the strengths and triumphs of America. The American experience in democracy has made so much possible for expanding democracy, securing justice and extending freedom in America, and worldwide.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nWe can celebrate achievements in free government, human rights, economics, science and the arts. We can also acknowledge that America, at its founding, was an imperfect system.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nAmerica is an experiment in something rare in all of world history: participatory democracy based on the rule of law. World history records more dictators and despots than it records democracies.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nDemocracies have the potential to be as good as the people who participate in them.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nThis means an America built on the backs of slaves could choose to liberate itself from slavery.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nThis means a country which denied women and Black people the right to vote could guarantee that right.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nThis means a country which chose capitalism and free markets could also choose protections for workers, consumers and the environment.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nThis means a country of diverse views and spiritual beliefs could choose to protect, rather than suppress, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of worship.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nThis means a country founded on oppressing Native peoples can achieve a more enlightened relationship with tribal nations, respecting tribal sovereignty and keeping sacred treaty promises.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nSo, as we join together to acknowledge America&#8217;s 250th birthday, let&#8217;s find reason to celebrate \u2014 but let&#8217;s be honest about even the darkest chapters of our shared history. Above all, let&#8217;s recommit ourselves to beginning the next 250 years of America&#8217;s story on a trajectory for greater equality, freedom and justice for all.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<HR><div class=\"row\"><div class=\"col-md-3\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/23\/chuckhoskinavatar.jpg\" alt=\"Chuck Hoskin Jr\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\" class=\"rounded-circle\" \/><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col-md-9\"><EM><A href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChuckHoskin_Jr\">Chuck Hoskin Jr.<\/A> \r\nis the 18th elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, the largest Indian \r\ntribe in the United States. He is only the second elected Principal Chief of the \r\nCherokee Nation from Vinita, the first being Thomas Buffington, who served from \r\n1899-1903. Prior to being elected Principal Chief, Hoskin served as the tribe\u2019s \r\nSecretary of State. He also formerly served as a member of the Council of the \r\nCherokee Nation, representing District 11 for six years.<\/EM><\/div><\/div><HR>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Native peoples, along with many historically marginalized people across the country, struggle at times when confronted with America&#8217;s birthday.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":674707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,76,176,127,47,61,278,220,154,44],"class_list":["post-674704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cherokee","tag-chuck-hoskin","tag-genocide","tag-oklahoma","tag-race","tag-racism","tag-religion","tag-sovereignty","tag-treaties","tag-women","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/06\/CherokeeNation-3.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-2Pwk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674704"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":674748,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674704\/revisions\/674748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}