Kimberly Teehee Is Ready to Be the First Cherokee Nation Delegate to Congress

The Cherokee Nation is looking to bring about the fulfillment of an over-200-year-old promise from the United States government. In the 18th and 19th centuries, treaties signed between the two parties promised the Cherokee Nation a seat at the table—with its own delegate in the House of Representatives. Earlier this month Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. made clear the time is now for his people to have that representation.

Chief Hoskin nominated Kimberly Teehee, 50, the tribe’s vice president of government relations and former senior policy adviser for Native American affairs in the Obama administration to be the nonvoting delegate. The Cherokee Nation has voted to confirm Teehee, and she has received support from Native Americans in office like Congresswoman Deb Haaland (D-N.M.).

“The government must always uphold its treaty obligations, and the United States government promised the Cherokee Nation’s right to a delegate when it entered into the Treaty of New Echota. Rights granted through treaties do not expire. Chief Hoskin has taken an important first step in this process by naming a delegate—Kimberly Teehee is well-known in Indian Country and I look forward to learning more about the process as we move forward,” Rep. Haaland tells Glamour.

While there are already several nonvoting delegates in the House of Representatives—from Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—this appointment would be especially historic as Teehee would be the first delegate from a sovereign Native American government.

As she prepares to stake her claim to a seat in Congress, Glamour spoke to Teehee about her work with President Obama, what she learned from Gloria Steinem, and how she hopes to be a role model.

Glamour: You were just confirmed by Cherokee Nation to hopefully be their first delegate to Congress. Congratulations! What was the nomination, and subsequent confirmation process, like?

Kimberly Teehee: When Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. was sworn in this August, one of the very first things he wanted to do was exercise our treaty rights that provide for a Cherokee delegate in the House of Representatives. And he nominated me to be that delegate. When I went before the council to be confirmed, it was truly historic. I just feel very blessed, humbled, and honored that our elected leaders of the tribe have unanimously approved my role as delegate to the House of Representatives. But we also know we have our work cut out for us. That’s just our part of the treaty rights. We still need to work with our delegation and leadership in the House of Representatives on the framework of how this is going to work within the Congress.

Why do you and Chief Hoskin feel that now—with this administration and this president in the White House—is the right time to renew your push to have a Cherokee Nation delegate to Congress? And how are you gearing up to fight to get this through Congress?

I don’t look at it as “Why now?” as much as I look at it as “Why not now?” We are a sovereign nation that is capable of exercising a sovereign right to move forward with appointing a delegate to honor our treaties. We’ve had great success as Cherokee Nation working with Congress and working with this administration. Whether it was trying to get legislation supported or trying get in the president’s budget—we were successful at doing those things. So again it’s not “Why now?” but “Why not now that Indian Country has stronger footing, more champions in Congress than ever before, and that we’ve had success working on both sides of the aisle?’ It just seems the right time to do it.

Your experience speaks for itself. You’ve been working in politics your entire career, but can you tell more about why you first got started in the field?

I began at Cherokee Nation as an intern for former chief Wilma Mankiller, the first and only female chief of the nation. Wilma had a mission to mentor young Cherokees, and she was one of my mentors early on. She was such a strong woman leader and had strong female friends. One of best friends was Gloria Steinem, and I remember going to Gloria’s home when Wilma received an honorary doctorate from Smith College. Gloria had arranged for that ceremony to take place at her home in New York. It was wonderful to see how they interacted. And when Gloria would come to Cherokee holidays, I would get invited to join her with Wilma because she always wanted to show young women what their possibilities and potential were. I’ve had this early training from a woman and had great opportunities presented to me. It was Wilma who told me to go to Washington, D.C. To go get greater experience and that I could always bring that back to the Cherokee Nation. She planted seeds firmly in me that I pay forward today to teenagers in rural communities.

You then went to work as senior policy adviser for Native American affairs during the Obama administration. What is the initiative from that time that you feel is most emblematic of the work you’ve done and would like to continue doing as a delegate?

When I joined the Obama administration, my number one goal was to get the administration to support the Tribal Law and Order Act. [Editor's note: This act helps address crime in tribal communities and works to decrease violence against tribal women.] It was the first Indian bill that Obama signed into office, and we had a signing ceremony that was wonderful and emotional. A woman spoke who was also a rape victim and whose perpetrator went unprosecuted. She started her remarks by saying that if the Tribal Law and Order Act had been in place when she was raped, it might not have happened to begin with because this was a repeat offender. This story is also important to me because of what happened next.

The very next day I got a call from the Department of Justice, asking, “How do we take advantage of a really educated Congress that knows more about the tribal justice system than ever before?” We knew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was coming up for reauthorization, so I worked closely with the DOJ to propose getting tribal jurisdiction over non-Indian perpetrators that commit domestic violence crimes under certain circumstances against native women. I’m proud to say that jurisdictional language made it into the reauthorization of the VAWA of 2013. President Obama took a chance on an issue that people never did, because there was no appetite to get involved in something so thorny as giving tribes jurisdiction over non-Indians. But now that’s the law today.

What do you envision this role to look like, and how would you plan to wield your power to get your voice heard as a nonvoting delegate?

I am very seasoned in crafting legislation and getting it through the House of Representatives and the Senate, so I imagine that a lot of what I’d do as a delegate would overlap with what I presently do. But I would enjoy the opportunity to be an extra voice at the table that doesn’t presently exist. Even though I’d be representing the governmental interests of the Cherokee Nation, I imagine—just as Indian Country leans on politicians like Deb Haaland to advocate for them more broadly—I wouldn’t see myself as any different than being an extra voice to not only represent the governmental interests of my tribe but also to aid in advancing Indian Country generally.

We’re still working on what the exact framework would be for this role, but we can look to the nonvoting delegates of the U.S. territories and how they’ve been seated. Nonvoting delegates don’t have the ability to vote on the House floor. But what they do have is the ability to introduce legislation and participate in debates and vote in committee.

There have been major gains for Native American representation in politics—like the election of Congresswoman Haaland or Congresswoman Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) as the first Native American women in Congress. How has that inspired you and galvanized Cherokee Nation?

It’s been wonderful. I was a Hill staffer for over 11 years on the House side. There were times when I was the only Native American staffer on the House side. So to see Sharice and Deb rise to be the people who have broken that glass ceiling and be in Congress is historic. Our youth lack for role models. We don’t have the J. Los or Lebron Jameses of the world. We don’t have the rock stars and actors at the levels that other minority groups have. But we have our leaders. We have our Deb Haalands, we have the Sharice Davidses, the Wilma Mankillers and maybe one day Kim Teehee can be someone our youth look up to as a role model too.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Samantha Leach is the assistant culture editor at Glamour. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @_sleach.

Originally Appeared on Glamour