The number seven is significant to the Cherokee people. We have seven clans in our origin story and seven sacred directions, and centered in our government seal is the seven-pointed star. And when we make a decision affecting our people, its purpose is to advance our tribe seven generations from now.

The Cherokee Nation is strong today because we rest upon this solid foundation. It is a foundation laid by a people of grit whose great suffering has been eclipsed by greater determination. It is a foundation built by great leaders whose names are recorded in our history books and imprinted in our hearts, and by hundreds of thousands of Cherokees who struggled and forged ahead in anonymity.

In 1835, when the Treaty of New Echota moved us from our homelands in the Southeast to the Indian Territory, we were coerced into ceding vast amounts of land where we once prospered. But our leaders at the table negotiating with the federal government also had the foresight to insert into the treaty what they knew would be best for us roughly seven generations later.

It included a place to start over, in what is now Oklahoma, and a system of health care, which is now the largest tribal health care system in the country and successful despite funding challenges. And because our ancestors never intended for us to be behind the scenes asking the government to introduce laws or change broken funding formulas, our ancestors also bargained for another guarantee: the tribe’s right to a congressional delegate, to ensure we would always have a voice.