NATIONAL Cherokee Nation Names First Delegate To Congress September 3, 20199:43 AM ET Heard on All Things Considered GRAHAM LEE BREWER Kimberly Teehee is being nominated by Cherokee National Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. as a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Sue Ogrocki/AP The Cherokee Nation has named its first delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Former Obama appointee Kimberly Teehee's nomination was approved by the tribe's council on Thursday. Although the treaty that created this nonvoting position is almost 200 years old, it had never been filled. The article outlining the right to a delegate is in the Treaty of New Echota. The 1835 treaty is also the document that led to the Trail of Tears, something that has been top of mind for Teehee. She points out the treaty gave up the Cherokee's homelands and cost the tribe thousands of lives. "Literally blood, sweat and tears," Teehee said. "We can't ignore that history and what it meant for us to have a provision like that put in place given the devastation that occurred and the deaths that occurred." POLITICS Cherokee Nation Takes Up 1835 Promise To Send Delegate To Congress Teehee grew up in Oklahoma and cut her teeth in politics in the 1980s interning for Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to become chief of the Cherokee Nation. Mankiller led the tribe at a time when it was reasserting its sovereignty on both a state and national level. Teehee says watching Mankiller become one of the most effective Cherokee chiefs in modern history was inspiring. "She let me go to meetings with her, I got to travel with her, got to research for her," she said. "She was so hands-on with me; I loved it." Mankiller advised Teehee that when she returned to college from her internship, the young woman should consider getting a law degree. "Because there's a lot of Indian issues being litigated in the federal courts, and those decisions are having an impact on tribes, and it's going to become more complicated to lead," Teehee said. "One thing that I have learned is that you never know what the next issue will be, and so we need somebody that is nimble, has studied up on the issues and is a quick study when those things come up," Hoskin said. For her part, Teehee says she understands her appointment will help bring visibility to a nearly invisible part of American society. And that could have a lasting impact on areas like Indian Health Services funding, education expansion on tribal lands and treaty rights, like the one that led to her appointment. "The education piece of it also means, what do treaty rights actually mean? Why do these old documents still live today?" In this case, the Treaty of New Echota, a document that led to the horrors of genocide nearly 200 years ago, could today lead to a new chapter in relations between the U.S. and the Cherokee Nation. .