The Cherokee Constitution - the Road to a Sovereign State
The Cherokee Constitution - the Road to a Sovereign State

Summary/Abstract: The Cherokee People are one of the League of Five (Civilized) Nations of North America gathering, besides the Cherokees, the Creek, the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, and the Seminole. The colonists called this group of tribes civilized as they chose to follow the white man’s path. The first tribe to start relevant transformations was the Cherokee Nation who not only changed the tribal model but also saved their culture, language, tradition and the law of the ancestors. The Cherokee people decided to transform their tribal society into a modern state in the beginning of the 19th century. In no more than 28 years, the Cherokee National Council enacted numerous written laws, established state capital, organized financial structure of the state, and established a system of justice. The culmination of these changes was the passing of the state constitution. It was the first Native American written constitution in North America which brought together European and tribal law. It was, quite obviously, based on the American model, yet only in its structure and in the case of certain significant regulations unknown to the Cherokee, as e.g. the separation of powers and the taxation system. The Bill of Rights was also included in their constitution. This article reviews the 28 years of building the Cherokee state, crowned by the enacted constitution. The time when the great chiefs and elders gradually prepared their tribal followers to follow on the path of building a constitutional state, being the only way to survive in the world of white man so unreceptive for the Cherokee.

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