Richard G. Sneed life’s work has been one of public service advocating for youth, community building, and cultural preservation.

The son of a businessman and former councilmember, he knows that hard work and a community-centered focus enable collective opportunity. In this vein, he has worked throughout his career to ensure that Cherokee people have equitable access to quality education and can put these skills to work in a community they can be proud of.

Having grown up in Wolftown, on the Qualla Boundary, he values being rooted in a community that honors family, culture, and progressive thinking. After graduating from Cherokee High School in 1986, Richard Sneed served in the United States Marine Corp for four years. His beloved wife Colene is a citizen of the United Keetowah Band of Cherokee Indians. He is the father of five children, Breanna, Richie, Mattilynn, Katrina and Samuel. Sneed earned his degree from Universal Technical College in Phoenix, AZ, and holds a North Carolina Teaching License in Industrial Arts.

While pastoring the Christ Fellowship Church of Cherokee for fourteen years, Sneed also taught vocational education at Cherokee Central Schools for twelve of those years. Whether teaching students to rebuild an engine, or counseling them through fiscally responsible financial planning, his excellence in the classroom earned him recognition as the National Classroom Teacher of the Year by the National Indian Education Association in 2013. He continues to be a highly sought-after motivational speaker, focusing on youth leadership and empowerment.

In 2015, Sneed was called to formalize his commitment to public service and was elected Vice Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). On May 25, 2017, he was officially sworn in as Principal Chief of the Eastern Band and subsequently re-elected as Principal Chief on September 5th, 2019.

Since taking office, Chief Sneed’s administration has been dedicated to exercising the EBCI’s sovereignty, including growing relationships and partnerships, in part, through his service to the WCU Cherokee Center Advisory Board, United South and Eastern Tribes (USET), and the Cherokee Preservation Foundation Board of Directors. Chief Sneed has also recently been elected as the Vice-Chairman of the Center for Disease Control’s Tribal Advisory Committee.

During his time in office, Chief Sneed has successfully passed legislation that enhanced transparency, accountability, and economic opportunities for the EBCI. He believes in the unrestricted potential of the Eastern Band and its ability to sustainably meet the needs of its people. By investing in a long-range vision that responsibly balances resources with the needs of the Cherokee people, Principal Chief Richard Sneed is committed to ensuring that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians continues to thrive for generations to come.

My dearest friends at the Trail of Tears Association,

I would like to first apologize for being unable to be with you in person. Given my own personal connection to the association through my participation in the 2014 Remember the Removal Ride, I was extremely disappointed when my executive responsibilities required me to be in Washington State during your visit to the Cherokee homelands. I count it a joy and a privilege to be able to spend time with the board of directors and the Trail of Tears Association members. My purpose in being absent relates closely to the mission and work that the association is engaged in year in and year out.

As you are aware, the mission of the Trail of Tears Association is rooted in four important directives or principles: identification, preservation, protection, and awareness. These four principles are pillars in the organization’s mission. They take precedence over any activity that might present itself to the association, for if any of these guiding principles should fall by the wayside, the value and purpose of the association would become diluted.

Further, it cannot be overstated how valuable and important the work of the association is to the accurate record of history. I say this because we now find ourselves in an age where truth seems to have become subjective, a time when even recorded history may be called into question or even denied. An extreme example would be those people who deny mass genocides such as the Holocaust or Stalin’s gulags. Such denials would be deemed foolishness or madness not so long ago. However, as recently as 2014, U.S. News and World Report conducted a survey regarding anti-Semitism in nearly 100 countries. Amongst those surveyed, half of the respondents had no knowledge of the Holocaust. More troubling, of the half that had prior knowledge that the Holocaust occurred, a third of this group simply did not believe the Holocaust happened. To this group, the Holocaust is a lie, a myth, a hoax, a conspiracy by those with a political or ideological agenda.

It is imperative that the Trail of Tears Association ensure that the record of what was done to the First Nations of the southeastern United States remains as relevant a story today as it was 180 years ago. Equally as important is that the story being told about those events is accurate and supported with evidence in the form of historic documentation. The mission of the association is a high calling; it is a public trust. I do not believe it is hyperbolic to make these statements, for I am convinced that if things in the United States continue down the path that they are on, then the day will come when the oppression and persecution of our ancestors will also be called into question. Whether or not the truth will prevail in that hour will depend largely upon the work that the association has done and continues to do.

You may be asking how does the Trail of Tears Association mission relate to what I’m doing in Washington State. Well, I’ve spent a great deal of time and energy defending the tribal identity and sovereignty of the Eastern Band and tribal sovereignty in general. Throughout the history of the Eastern Band, as well as many other tribes who were removed from the southeast, there have been groups of individuals who have claimed to be historic tribes. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has a long history of defending our sovereignty and protecting our identity from being misappropriated by those groups claiming to be a historic tribe. We have literally spent millions of dollars over the past few decades fighting these groups who seek to rewrite history and insert themselves into the historic narrative as a persecuted tribe in order to bolster their ability to seek federal recognition.

Historically, these groups would be disqualified from federal recognition by the Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA), created by Congress in 1978 to review claims of these groups seeking federal recognition. Previously, only an act of Congress could do so. Historic federally recognized tribes, through organizations such as the National Congress of American Indians, petitioned the Congress to create a formal review process so that recognition would not become politicized. Further, historic tribes recognized that individual members of Congress did not have the requisite skills necessary to properly review a group’s claim. Therefore, the OFA was created.

Creating the OFA did not, however, nullify Congress’s plenary authority over Indian country, nor did it take away its authority to recognize a group through an act of Congress. One would imagine that in 2022, with all the technology at our disposal and an established process for groups to petition for recognition, the elected officials of the United States Congress would defer to the OFA process that their predecessors created, a process that removes the burden of proof from Congress while simultaneously protecting the tribal identity and culture of established tribal nations. Nothing could be further from the truth. Year in and year out, members of Congress, along with the groups they may have become champions for, seek to rewrite history and add to the historic record groups of individuals who, in some cases, cannot demonstrate any Native ancestry at all. This occurs every time a member of Congress sponsors a bill to federally recognize a group while bypassing the all-important vetting process that the OFA provides.

For the last two years, the Eastern Band has been sounding the alarm across Indian Country, utilizing the same four pillars as the Trail of Tears Association: identification, preservation, protection, and awareness. We are identifying groups who falsely claim to be a tribe. We are preserving the integrity of the federal recognition process by demanding that Congress stop selling our identity for votes and instead defer to the OFA process. We are protecting our culture from misappropriation by these groups claiming to be tribes, and we are raising awareness amongst tribal nations that our collective identity is being stolen and our sovereignty slowly eroded away.

While these words are being shared with you, I, along with one member of our Tribal Council, am currently in Tulalip, Washington, attending the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Washington annual conference. We are here to continue the work of this shared mission of identifying, preserving, protecting, and raising awareness. In response to our work, over 80 federally recognized tribes have joined the fight, and we hope to add many more. Now is the time for action. Historical evidence is being ignored, and the memories and sacrifices of our ancestors defamed and disrespected. Let us not grow weary in our mission; let us not forsake the high calling. May we never betray the public trust. Our ancestors, our posterity, and truth each deserve our unwavering commitment.

For all that you do, I thank you and I salute you.

Kindest regards,