On Thursday, Cherokee Nation (CN) Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. held a press conference to officially announce his intention to exercise the tribe’s treaty right to appoint a delegate to the United States House of Representatives. Alongside Hoskin was his proposed candidate, Kimberly Teehee, a former adviser to President Barack Obama and, by all accounts, a natural fit for the position.

For Natives across the country, the scene was almost unbelievable—the prospect of a tribal nation being able to boast a sitting congressional representative is as historic as it is exciting.

But as Hoskin pointed out in a phone call with The New Republic shortly after the press conference, an age-old inquiry remains unanswered, even as the Cherokee Nation steps forward to stake their rightful claim to the seat.

“The basic question members of Congress will have to ask is whether the United States will live up to its word,” Hoskin said. “There are certainly times in history when posing that question, you wouldn’t be certain of the answer.”

The Cherokee Nation has technically maintained the right to a delegate since it signed the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785 and the Treaty of New Echota in 1835. But due to a centuries of destructive and genocidal actions by the United States government—forced removal, the allotment era, the ongoing incursions by non-Natives seeking to steal from and profit off their sovereign status—it is only now that the nation has obtained the necessary political capital to move forward with the plan.

