Compiled Laws of the Cherokee Nation

1998. ISBN-10: 1886363420; ISBN-13: 9781886363427. [Cherokee Laws]. Compiled Laws of the Cherokee Nation. Originally published: Tahlequah, I.T.: National Advocate Print, 1881. vi (i-vi new introduction), 370, vi pp. Reprinted 1998 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. With a new introduction by Michael Weber. ISBN-13: 9781886363427. ISBN-10: 1886363420. Smythe sewn hardcover with gilt stamped front cover and spine. New. $34.95 * This volume provides a unique legal and historical record. It is an exact reprint of an 1881 compilation, originally published by the Cherokee National Council, of "the laws of the Cherokee Nation now in force." These laws -- the 1839 constitution of the Cherokee Nation and the basic laws passed under it -- provided the framework for the government of the Cherokee Nation from 1839 until the early 1900s, when the Cherokees' independence was ended by the United States Congress. Within scarcely more than a generation, the Cherokees consciously transformed themselves from being a society that lived under an age-old, unwritten set of norms and traditional cultural practices to one governed by a written constitution and code of statutes. The Cherokees made this transformation in the vain hope that it would make it easier for them to live peacefully surrounded by the United States. They closely modeled their constitution in most respects on the United States Constitution. Yet there are some fascinating differences concerning the judiciary and land ownership. Contained in this volume are the Cherokees' 1839 constitution along with amendments to it necessitated by the 1866 treaty between the Cherokee Nation and the United States; the 1838 Act of Union between the Eastern and Western Cherokees; numerous basic laws and miscellaneous acts covering a huge variety of subjects from the duties of the principal chief to the killing of game; agreements between the Cherokees and the Creeks and Osages, Delawares, and Shawnees; and an appendix containing documents relating to the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation as defined by agreements with the United States.