Oral history interview with Kimberly K. Teehee, 2021
Abstract
Kimberly Teehee discusses her contribution to the Native American policy of the Obama administration, in which she served as the senior policy advisor for Native American affairs in the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC) from 2009 to 2012. Teehee, who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, outlines the major issues facing Indian country during the years of the Obama presidency, and provides de tails about key legislative and policy initiatives with which she was closely involved, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's financing of infrastructure projects on tribal lands, the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 that empowered tribal courts in criminal proceedings, the White House Tribal Nations Conferences, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which was made permanent in the Affordable Care Act, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Also discussed are the Cobell v. Salazar litigation, the native provisions in the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, interagency coordination between the White House and the Departments of State, Education, and the Interior on native issues, and Teehee's personal upbringing and path to national politics
Presidents--United States; Tribal government--United States; Cherokee Nation; Teehee, Kimberly; Obama, Barack; Domestic Policy Council (U.S.); United States; United Nations. General Assembly; White House Tribal Nations Conference; American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010; Indian Health Care Improvement Act; Violence Against Women Act of 1994
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2021
Physical Description
56 pages
Note (Biographical)
Kimberly Teehee is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She is director of government relations for Cherokee Nation and senior vice president of government relations for Cherokee Nation businesses. In 2019, Cherokee Nation principal chief Chuck Hoskin Jr . named her the tribe's first delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, as guaranteed in Cherokee Nation's 1835 treaty, the Treaty of New Echota, and as outlined in the Cherokee Nation constitution. Prior to returning home to the Cherokee Nation, she served as partner for Mapetsi Policy Group, a Washington D.C.-based federal advocacy group representing Indian tribes and tribal organizations. She previously served President Barack Obama as the first-ever senior policy advisor for Native American affairs in the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC). Teehee also served as senior advisor to the U.S. House of Representatives Native American caucus co-chair, Representative Dale Kildee, serving the bipartisan caucus for nearly twelve years. Teehee received her B.A. in political science from Northeastern State University and her J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law
Note
Interviewed by Sara Sinclair on June 7, 2021. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Kimberly K. Teehee, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2022