The Cherokee Nation Council was established as the lower house of the legislature by the 1839 constitution of the Cherokee Nation. Its membership was composed of three representatives from each of the eight districts of the nation. The last council meeting with the power to make laws for the tribe and held in Talequah, territorial government that was formed by the Organic Act of 1890 which established the jurisdiction of the United States over the Indian Territory. The collection consists of portraits of the members of the last Cherokee Nation Council meeting in 1889. The photographs were donated by Mrs. Moffett Bell Phillips, a niece of Frank Mayo Morgan, who was a member of the last Cherokee Nation Council.
