A complex, provocative historical drama shining a light on the Cherokee Nation’s deeply intertwined past and present. Performed by an ensemble of Native and non-Native regional and local actors with direction, set, costume and lighting design by Native artists.

Sarah Ridge Polson, a young Cherokee lawyer, fights to restore her Nation’s tribal jurisdiction while confronting the ever-present ghosts of her grandfathers. Stretching from 1830s Cherokee Nation (now present-day Georgia) through Andrew Jackson’s Oval office, along the fateful Trail of Tears, to the Cherokee Nation in present-day Oklahoma – Sovereignty tells an epic tale of the powerful intersections of personal and political truths, bridging our country’s distant past and imminent future.

“Fundamental and revelatory” – Gloria Steinem

Playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and a partner at Pipestem Law, a firm specializing in tribal sovereignty of Native nations and peoples. The majority of her work in court involves fighting for the inherent right of Indian Nations to protect their women and children from domestic violence and sexual assault. She served as the first executive director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program from 2015  to 2019.

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