Editing Cherokee (section)

===Government===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| 1794 || Establishment of the Cherokee National Council and officers over the whole nation
|-
| 1808 || Establishment of the Cherokee Lighthorse Guard, a national police force
|-
| 1809 || Establishment of the National Committee
|-
| 1810 || End of separate regional councils and abolition of blood vengeance
|-
| 1820 || Establishment of courts in eight districts to handle civil disputes
|-
| 1822 || Cherokee Supreme Court established
|-
| 1823 || National Committee given power to review acts of the National Council
|-
| 1827 || Constitution of the Cherokee Nation East
|-
| 1828 || Constitution of the Cherokee Nation West
|-
| 1832 || Suspension of elections in the Cherokee Nation East
|-
| 1839 || Constitution of the reunited Cherokee Nation
|-
| 1868 || Constitution of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
|-
| 1888 || Charter of Incorporation issued by the State of North Carolina to the Eastern Band
|-
| 1950 || Constitution and federal charter of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
|-
| 1975 || Constitution of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
|-
| 1999 || Constitution of the Cherokee Nation drafted<ref>This constitution was approved by Cherokee Nation voters in 2003 but was not approved by the BIA. The Cherokee Nation then amended their 1975 constitution to not require BIA approval. The 1999 constitution has been ratified but the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court is currently deciding what year the 1999 constitution officially went into effect. [http://www.cherokee.org/Docs/TribalGovernment/Executive/CCC/2003_CN_CONSTITUTION.pdf Constitution of the Cherokee Nation.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325120017/http://www.cherokee.org/Docs/TribalGovernment/Executive/CCC/2003_CN_CONSTITUTION.pdf |date=March 25, 2009 }} (pdf file). ''Cherokee Nation.'' Retrieved March 5, 2009.</ref>
|}

After being ravaged by smallpox, and feeling pressure from European settlers, the Cherokee adopted a European-American [[Representative democracy]] form of government in an effort to retain their lands. They established a governmental system modeled on that of the United States, with an elected principal chief, senate, and house of representatives. On April 10, 1810 the seven Cherokee clans met and began the abolition of blood vengeance by giving the sacred duty to the new Cherokee National government. Clans formally relinquished judicial responsibilities by the 1820s when the Cherokee Supreme Court was established. In 1825, the National Council extended citizenship to the children of Cherokee men married to white women. These ideas were largely incorporated into the 1827 Cherokee constitution.<ref>Perdue, p. 564.</ref> The constitution stated that "No person who is of negro or [[mulatto]] {{sic}} parentage, either by the father or mother side, shall be eligible to hold any office of profit, honor or trust under this Government," with an exception for, "negroes and descendants of white and Indian men by negro women who may have been set free."<ref>Perdue, pp. 564–565.</ref> This definition to limit rights of multiracial descendants may have been more widely held among the elite than the general population.<ref>Perdue, p. 566.</ref>