By Scott McKie
Cherokee One Feather
Section 19 of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Charter & Governing Document states that a tribal census must be completed every 10 years, but the last one was conducted in 2001. To fix this dilemma Tribal Council passed Res. No. 470 (2022), submitted by Principal Chief Richie Sneed, during its regular session last month. The resolution approves an electronic census for the tribe.
“The bottom line is we want to get the census completed,” Sneed said. “We think the most efficient way to do this is going to be electronically, and we are looking for some guidance and support from Council for us to carry it out in this manner.”
Big Cove Rep. Teresa McCoy, who made the motion to pass the legislation, agreed on the importance of a tribal census.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is important for your tribe,” she said. “It is important for your children, for your grandchildren and their children ... this is 2022, and is time for us to know exactly how many members of this tribe are alive and well. We need to know certain things about those tribal members – their age groups, the type of housing they live in, who is in those houses. We have to have very simplistic financial information. We’re not asking for anything specific or your bank account.
“It’s imperative for this tribe from a counting standpoint and helping us get a hold of available funding that may be out there for Indian tribes,” she said. “We have to have as close to exact as we can get. I think we can get exact.”
The legislation also approves a $100 incentive for tribal members completing the census, with the money coming out of the Tribe’s General Fund. Along with basic information, the census will survey tribal members to garner demographic data on the EBCI.
