Get the Facts

UKB says that it is a “successor” to the “historic” Cherokee Nation and as such, it shares in the treaty rights of the Cherokee Nation. Is that true?

No. The Cherokee Nation is the only signatory to the 18th- and 19th-century treaties between the Cherokee Nation and the United States and, as such, the Cherokee Nation solely and exclusively possesses the tribal rights conferred by those treaties.  UKB did not even come into existence as a tribe until 1950, almost 100 years after the last treaty was signed, and thus UKB was not a signatory to any of the treaties and possesses no rights under those treaties.

UKB says that it is a “successor” to the Cherokee Nation because the “historic” Nation was “terminated” and ceased to exist in the late 19th or early 20th century. Is that right?

Does UKB have co-ownership of, or any jurisdiction over, the Cherokee Nation Reservation?

UKB says that the Cherokee Nation first came into existence as a tribe in 1976. Is that right?

UKB claims that its ancestors are the “Old Settlers” and the “Western Cherokee” who first settled in Arkansas and then in Oklahoma in the early 19th century and, for that reason, UKB (and not the Cherokee Nation) is the modern-day tribe that holds the Cherokee treaty rights. Is that true?

UKB claims that it was recognized by Congress under a 1946 statute by which Congress conferred on UKB the treaty rights of the Cherokee Nation. Is that right?