Candessa Tehee is a

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...

artist, professor, and politician who has served on the Cherokee Nation tribal council since 2021. She was named a

Cherokee National Treasure Cherokee National Treasure is a distinction created in 1988 by the Cherokee Nation to recognize people who have made significant contributions to the preservation of the tribe's art, language Language is a structured system of communicati ...

in 2019.

Family and education

Candessa Tehee is from Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Her grandfather was

Roger McLemore and her grandmother was Elizabeth Pumpkin McLemore. Tehee speaks Cherokee and is "full blood" Cherokee. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Oklahoma, before earning her doctorate in linguistic anthropology from the same university.

Career

In December 2013 she was appointed as the executive director of the Cherokee Heritage Center and she was the first woman, "full blood," and Cherokee language speaker to hold that position. Prior to her appointment she had worked for the

for five years. She resigned in August 2016 to accept a position as an assistant professor of American Indian studies at

Northeastern State University Northeastern State University (NSU) is a public university with its main campus in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The university also has two other campuses in Muskogee and Broken Arrow as well as online. Northeastern is the oldest institution of high ...

. While at NSU, she served as the coordinator for the

Cherokee language 200px, Number of speakers Cherokee or Tsalagi ( chr, ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ, ) is an endangered-to-moribund Iroquoian language and the native language of the Cherokee people. ''Ethnologue'' states that there were 1,520 Cherokee speaker ...

and Cherokee cultural studies programs. In December 2016, she worked with Southeastern Indian Artist Association to raise funds for the

Standing Rock Indian Reservation The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate and the Ihunktuwona and Pabaksa ...

during the

Dakota Access Pipeline protests The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, also called by the hashtag #NoDAPL, began in April 2016 as a grassroots opposition to the construction of Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline in the northern United States and ended on Febru ...

. She was named a

in 2019.

Cherokee Nation tribal council

Tehee ran to succeed Joe Byrd in 2021 when he was term-limited from his

tribal council seat for the 2nd district in a seven candidate race against Vicki Creel, Dusty Fore, Jami Murphy, Bobby Slover, Tonya Teaney and Claude Stover. After the June primary, she advanced to a runoff with Bobby Slover which she won by seven votes. After the election Slover was retroactively struck from the ballot for violating Cherokee Nation election laws. She was sworn into office on August 14, 2021. In May 2022, Tehee criticized fellow tribal councillor

Wes Nofire John Wesley "Wes" Nofire (born April 30, 1986) is a Cherokee-American politician and a former heavyweight professional boxer. During his boxing career Nofire fought under the name "The Cherokee Warrior". Nofire currently serves on the Cherokee Nat ...

's statements made during his 2022 congressional campaign that were critical of ''

McGirt v. Oklahoma ''McGirt v. Oklahoma'', 591 U.S. ___ (2020), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case which ruled that, as pertaining to the Major Crimes Act, much of the eastern portion of the state of Oklahoma remains as Native American lands of the pr ...

'' as "clearly treasonous, clearly traitorous" to the interests of the Cherokee Nation. She later voted in favor of a tribal council resolution opposing his appointment as Oklahoma's Native American Affairs Liaison in September 2023.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tehee, Candessa 21st-century American politicians 21st-century Native American politicians Cherokee Nation women artists Cherokee Nation artists Living people Members of the Council of the Cherokee Nation Northeastern State University faculty Place of birth missing (living people) University of Oklahoma alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Native American women in politics