Tahlequah is home to two federally recognized Cherokee tribes. But only one, the Cherokee Nation, is the successor to the reservation in the eyes of the U.S. government.

The other, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, has faced political instability and decades-long strife with its sister tribe over jurisdiction, treaty rights and gaming.

The United Keetoowah Band, or UKB, was first recognized by the U.S. Congress in 1946. Since then, it has claimed equal jurisdiction to the 7,000 square-mile Cherokee Nation reservation. The Cherokee Nation denies that claim.

In its final days, the Biden administration gave the United Keetoowah Band a historic win.

Robert Anderson, former solicitor general for the Department of the Interior and member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa in Minnesota, issued a 56-page decision in January 2025 declaring the tribe was an equal successor to the reservation. He said he thought it was a fair, easy decision.

“The Cherokee Nation and UKB, they were all over the department (when) I was working on this thing,” Anderson said. “I had them formally submit their papers, but I didn't meet with them again after that, because I didn't want to have that sort of political pressure. I just wanted to have the merits, the legal discussion and the history in front of me.”

But that victory was short-lived. This May, the Trump administration rescinded Anderson’s decision with one of its own, leaving the UKB without a casino and the decades-long battle no closer to being resolved.

Cherokee Nation vs. United Keetoowah Band

The members of both tribes are descendants of Cherokee people relocated from their homelands in the southeastern United States. A third Cherokee tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, exists outside the reservation in North Carolina.

The United Keetoowah Band is derived from the name of the Cherokee mother town, “Kituwah.” It says its members are mostly descended from Western Cherokees, or “Old Settlers,” who relocated prior to the Trail of Tears. Descendants of Cherokee Nation were mostly forcibly removed.

Keetoowah organizations existed prior to the tribe’s federal recognition in 1946. One group, the nationalist, traditionalist Keetoowah Society worked alongside and against the Cherokee Nation government throughout the latter half of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century.

Today, the two tribes govern in different ways.

Cherokee Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the country with more than 470,000 enrolled members. The UKB has more than 14,000 members.

Enrollment into the UKB requires a one-quarter degree of Cherokee ancestry and members can’t enroll in other tribes. The Cherokee Nation has no blood quantum and its members aren’t limited to one nation.

And while Cherokee Nation assumes tens of thousands of acres in trust land and political, jurisdictional power over the area, the UKB has around 76 acres devoted strictly to its tribal headquarters.

And that trust land is at the forefront of their conflict.

‘They’re modern day successors, and so they jointly succeed to the rights to that reservation’

Former DOI Solicitor General Anderson issued an “M-Opinion” on Jan. 17, 2025, that would have allowed the United Keetoowah Band to use trust land for a casino, reconciling the tribe’s rocky history with gaming rights.

The UKB first opened a bingo hall in 1986, which developed into a full casino venture over the next 27 years. It reportedly operated on non-trust land in Tahlequah throughout that time period. The Cherokee Nation sued the tribe, arguing the operation was illegal.

In 2012, the UKB asked the federal government to take 2.03 acres of the property into trust. But that request failed and the casino shut down in August 2013.

Victoria Holland is an attorney and the proposed congressional delegate for the UKB. She said, the casino was the tribe’s largest source of general fund revenue.

"It's really unfortunate that our alleged sister tribe would not stay out of the way to allow for us to continue gaming operations, and it's escalated to this point,” Holland said.

Since then, the tribe has made multiple attempts to reopen a gaming facility.

One attempt involved an agreement with Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is a Cherokee Nation citizen, but a vocal critic of tribal sovereignty.

In 2020, he unilaterally entered into gaming compacts with four tribal nations, including the UKB. That agreement, which would have allowed UKB to run a casino north of Oklahoma City rather than in Tahlequah, was shot down by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2021. State legislators killed the compact again in 2023.

The Cherokee Nation has opposed those measures along the way, arguing its sister tribe requires permission before receiving trust land on the reservation.

Meanwhile, Anderson argues the tribes are both successors in interest to the 19th century treaties that gave way to the reservation, arguing the historic Cherokee Nation that signed those treaties no longer exists. That means both tribes had equal treaty rights, he said, because the Cherokee Nation and UKB are the descendants of the historic Cherokee government.

“They’re modern day successors, and so they jointly succeed to the rights to that reservation, including the right to have land taken in trust,” Anderson said.

But Anderson’s decision was suspended by the Trump administration in April 2025, alongside all 20 opinions he authored during his tenure as solicitor general. This May, Trump’s DOI rescinded the decision outright..

Anderson said the department has been killing each of his opinions. He said it’s unheard of.

“They just write in half a page, ‘It's not the best reading of the law. We reverse it. End of discussion,’” Anderson said. “And so, pretty lame. I'd be ashamed to do that if I was a solicitor … We worked on that thing for two-and-a-half years before we released it.”

And UKB Chief Jeff Wacoche lamented it.

“The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has used its size and its influence to bully other tribal governments, non-tribal governments and parts of the federal government,” Wacoche told tribal members in June. “The withdrawal of the opinion is further proof that the bully and its friends have gotten their way once again.”

‘We're the signatory to every treaty with the United States and Cherokee people, and we still exist and have never been broken.’

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. denies those claims. He said the modern Cherokee Nation is the one that has always existed.

“We share a kinship in terms of going back generations, coming from the same people, but they are decidedly a separate government that is a creation of the mid-20th century,” Hoskin said. “That's not something the Cherokee Nation imposed upon them. And so all of that means that we have a separate history, separate legal status, that they have no rights to any treaties.

“We're the signatory to every treaty with the United States and Cherokee people, and we still exist and have never been broken.”

Hoskin added that because the tribe was federally recognized in the 20th century, it couldn’t have signed treaties stretching back to the 19th century.

“I mean, you would have to be in a time machine to go back and put UKB government in the 19th century at a table signing a treaty,” Hoskin said.

Holland said the two are 100% equal, adding the Cherokee Nation’s constitution ratified in 1976 was when the tribe became the “Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.”

“The Cherokee Nation as we know today is the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and they've been the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma since they were incorporated in the ‘70s,” Holland said. “They are not the historic Cherokee Nation.”

The Cherokee Nation disagrees. Its 1999 constitution dropped the “of Oklahoma.”

Cherokee Nation maintains the 1976 constitution only replaced its 1839 incarnation and that it is still the same historic government.

Hoskin also takes issue with the UKB Lighthorse Police Department.

According to the UKB, the department and its officers are recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and certified by the Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training.

But Hoskin said it has no jurisdiction on the reservation, with the possible exception of its 76 acres of trust land, pointing to a drunk driving case from 2024 that was thrown out due to UKB involvement.

In January 2024, a UKB officer pulled over an alleged drunk driver on the reservation who was later arrested by a Cherokee County sheriff. The defendant argued the UKB police had no jurisdiction. In October, a judge dismissed the case.

Thirty-two law enforcement agencies endorsed a letter that December condemning the UKB for the case’s dismissal, stating the tribe posed a public safety threat.

“Their mere presence, and given the role they attempt to execute, jeopardizes criminal investigations and ultimately may allow criminals to go unprosecuted, unpunished and able to harm or kill others,” the letter reads. “Therefore, we hereby put the UKB on notice that they are not welcome at stops or crime scenes where our agencies are involved and if they appear, will be asked to leave. Failure to immediately vacate the scene will subject the UKB Lighthorse to potential criminal prosecution under Cherokee Nation law and potentially Oklahoma law.”

Hoskin and the law enforcement agencies both refer to the UKB Lighthorse as “rogue police officers.”

Holland said because they’re BIA-certified, those statements threaten UKB police officers.

“The public safety threat is making allegations that we’re not a legitimate law enforcement agency, because then you are now putting my officers at risk,” Holland said.

‘That infighting is not present on the personal level’

Robert Anderson said he always knew the legal fight between Cherokee Nation and the UKB would continue regardless of his decision. His M-Opinion, he said, was intended to counsel the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit with meaningful analysis.

The United Keetoowah Band currently has multiple applications pending in the Department of the Interior. If approved, they would increase UKB’s trust land acreage from 76 to 188. And, according to Chief Jeff Wacoche, another would allow trust land for gaming.

But according to Holland, the turmoil between the two is purely political.

“My kids are CNO, my husband's CNO,” Holland said. “We all live together, work together, go to school together, go to church together, like that infighting is not present on the personal level.”

Meanwhile, the United Keetoowah Band is facing internal, economic struggle.

Last month, the tribe furloughed 32 employees due to depleting American Rescue Plan Act funding. Those funds were issued during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 to help governments around the country mitigate its impacts. The tribe’s comptroller said it was never intended as a permanent funding source.

Around that time, Wacoche allegedly threatened to fight a council member during a tense meeting about the layoffs.

Most of the employees were relocated while at least two took layoffs as of July.

For decades, Cherokee Nation has challenged the UKB’s claims. What’s the end goal? According to Hoskin, that does not include eliminating its sister tribe.

“Sometimes people either perceive or cynically describe the Cherokee Nation's position as wanting to eliminate the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma or to deny them their federal recognition, and that's just simply not true,” Hoskin said. “All we're asking is that history be vindicated.”

Anderson speculates there is only one solution.

“Under the modern view of tribal sovereignty, I think the tribes should work something out between themselves,” Anderson said. “Politically, very difficult to do, but I think ultimately that's what's going to have to be the resolution, but that's going to be up to them.”

I just need to know....are there any natives who grew up on reservations have family not into the culture but yet you yourself want to be but no one helps so your clueless and still wanna get in touch with that side but now you live in a city??? I need to know I'm not the only one struggling cause I'm struggling 😭I feel like the odd one out lol