By ROB MARTINDALE
Tulsa World
6/28/2003
TAHLEQUAH -- Looking to preserve its history back to the "golden age," the Cherokee Nation has placed three of the oldest buildings in Oklahoma into a trust.
The structures are the Cherokee Nation supreme court building and Capitol and the Cherokee Nation Indian Territorial Prison, all located in downtown Tahlequah.
Some Cherokee historians say the golden age of the tribe in Oklahoma lasted from 1839, when the tribe adopted a constitution, until the Civil War in the 1860s.
The supreme court building, which was constructed in 1844, is the oldest public building in Oklahoma and a Cherokee Nation tourist attraction.
The original Capitol building was also built in the 1840s.
However, it was burned to the ground in the Civil War and later replaced.
The Cherokee Nation Territorial Prison was constructed in 1874.
"These buildings represent the great history of the Cherokee Nation and the great future that lies ahead," Principal Chief Chad Smith said.
"Cherokees have a reverence for these buildings."
The buildings were placed in trust through the U.S. Department of the Interior.
There has been some disagreement through the years over whether the Cherokee Nation's Capitol building is in Indian Country or under the jurisdiction of Cherokee County.
The placing in trust of the structure puts that issue to rest, a tribal official said.
"The trust status clearly defines for the Cherokee Nation and Cherokee County that the land is Indian Country and jurisdiction is clear," said Radena Rutherford, the tribe's supervisor for real estate service.