The 1867 Cherokee National Capitol building stands at the center of downtown Tahlequah — a two-storey brick structure in the middle of the Cherokee National Square that served as the seat of tribal government from its completion until Oklahoma statehood in 1907, when the U.S. government effectively dissolved tribal self-governance. The building is a National Historic Landmark and has been carefully restored.
The surrounding square includes the old Cherokee jail, the Supreme Court building, and the National Hotel, all from the same era. Walking the square gives a concrete sense of what Cherokee Nation sovereignty looked like in the late 19th century — a fully functioning government with its own legislature, court system, and executive, conducted in both Cherokee and English. The Cherokee Nation today governs approximately 380,000 citizens from its headquarters in Tahlequah and is one of the largest tribal nations in the United States.