Cherokee voters will have the chance to give their nation a long-awaited constitution if Tribal Council approves a referendum question proposed for the September ballot. 

“Right now we don’t have a constitution. We have a charter, and a charter is for an organization, a corporation or something of that nature,” said Lloyd Arneach, leader of a working group that has spent the past two years developing a proposed constitution. “A constitution is for a government, and for the tribe to continue to operate in the future, we need to be on even footing as a government-to-government relationship with state government, with county government, with federal government.”