TAHLEQUAH, Okla., Sept. 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On the 70th^th annual Cherokee National Day, the Cherokee nation stood firm in its commitment to the reconciliation of Cherokee freedmen and their descendants.

Immediately following the tribe’s State of the Union address, a special reception was held to commemorate the new exhibit at the Cherokee National History Museum.

“Cherokee history is filled with rich moments, with great triumphs, with Cherokee people acting together to overcome tragedy, heal trauma, and build a great nation. But we have to tell the whole story,” said Chuck Hoskin Jr., chief chief of the Cherokee Nation. “We need to recognize that there have been times when we have imposed trauma on others; We must acknowledge that we have enslaved African Americans under our own law. If we ignore or suppress this, we are doing to the freedmen and their descendants the same things that were done to the Cherokee people. Our story has been suppressed; our history has been denied. Any nation is a stronger nation when it tells its full story: the tragedy, the triumph, and the dark and difficult chapters.”

We Are Cherokee: Cherokee Freedmen and the Right to Citizenship features Cherokee Freedmen stories, stories, images and documents, as well as nine original artworks by Cherokee Nation artists.

The exhibit, presented as part of the Cherokee Freedmen Art and History Project established in November 2020, is intended to advance the Cherokee Nation’s understanding of the Cherokee Freedmen experience from a Freedmen’s perspective.

This perspective is shared from the earliest known participation in slavery in the 18th century to various historical milestones in the decades that followed, including the introduction of plantation-style slavery among the Cherokees, the expulsion of Native Americans to the West, and the American Civil War. It also shares how the 1866 treaty of freed slaves in the Cherokee Nation granted all Native rights…