Theatre / Sovereignty

Our women are the foundation of our sovereignty. Without them, we have no nation.

— Major Ridge

Sovereignty is a 2018 play by Mary Kathryn Nagle, a Cherokee playwright and lawyer. In the modern day, a Cherokee woman named Sarah is returning to her home after a lengthy absence, but soon finds herself having to fight for the sovereignty of herself and her people. In the meantime, the play also shows the historical events that brought the modern characters to where they are, showing the struggles of John Ross, John Ridge, and Major Ridge as they attempted to fight for their sovereignty in the early 1800s.

The play is well-known for its usage of time, never quite entering either time period and flitting between them at a moment's notice to simultaneously showcase how far Native sovereignty has come yet how far it has to go. In this manner, it simultaneously serves as a piece of fiction and an educational source for Cherokee struggles in the past and present.

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Sovereignty contains examples of:

• Ambiguous Situation: Sarah believes that, as he publicly claimed, John Ross did not know that the assassinations of Major and John Ridge was going to occur until after it had already happened, but her parents are firm believers that he actually ordered it. Unlike other historical events examined by the play, this question is never answered one way or the other.
• Anachronism Stew: Invoked; the script says that the costumes and set should not be firmly based in either time period the play is set in, instead mixing between the two of them, to further demonstrate how the two time periods are incomplete without the other.
• Arc Words: The titular "sovereignty", as all of the Cherokee characters are seeking to regain their sovereignty over their people, their women, and their bodies. The play's central conflict comes from this struggle both in the modern day and two hundred years ago.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Samuel is arrested for entering Cherokee lands without Governor Forsyth's permission, John Ridge comes to visit him, and after an intense back and forth, John calls Samuel out for being willing to sell out the Cherokee Nation just so he can go home. It is the start of the events that makes Samuel decide to fight the conviction in the Supreme Court.
  Worcester: I want to go home.
  John Ridge: So you'll let them take mine?
• Author Avatar: Much like Sarah Ridge Polson, Mary Kathryn Nagle is a Cherokee lawyer, a descendent of the Ridge family, was present for the signing of the Violence Against Women Act, and condemns the disinheriting of the Cherokee freedmen.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Andrew Jackson, Governor Forsyth, and Ben are all the biggest threats towards Cherokee sovereignty in both the past and the present.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ben acts as though his racial slip-ups are from ignorance rather than malice, but when he's drunk he reveals himself to be an active racist. He also rapes Sarah and drags her through the courts over a custody battle to spite her.
• Completely Unnecessary Translator: Major Ridge refuses to speak English in front of any white people and stays with his native Cherokee as a form of sovereignty over his own body, forcing John to translate for him even though he understands Jackson and other English speakers perfectly.
• Condescending Compassion: Samuel Worcester does help the Cherokee out by giving them the printing press, but he clearly has little respect for them as people, including calling one of their signature activities, stickball, a sin in one of his sermons. He only changes his mind and genuinely joins their side once he sees just how sinful Governor Forsyth's militia is.
• Dare to Be Badass: Roger gives Sarah a speech when she tires to drop the charges against Ben, telling her that he spent years running away from his history yet she proved herself stronger by never giving up, and that if she truly is the same woman she used to be, she won't give up now either.
• Disproportionate Retribution: After getting fired from his job because of the completely accurate domestic violence charges, Ben drags Sarah to the Supreme Court and threatens the jurisdiction of the entire Cherokee nation just to spite her.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Elias has forsaken his birth name and doesn't react well when John calls him Buck.
  Elias: I want you to call me by my name.
  John Ridge: A name that truly isn't your name.
• Establishing Character Moment: Andrew Jackson walks onstage and talks all about how much he loves Major Ridge and his captivating way of speaking, including crediting him with winning the US the War of 1812. He then immediately encourages the Cherokee to move off of their land, dismisses them to talk with Governor Forsyth, and warns them that their inferiority will render them extinct if they don't move away, showing that all of his politeness is a facade to hide his racism.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted. In real life, Jackson was well known for being violently defensive of his wife and being devastated by her death. Here, he only mentions her off-hand while using a pie recipe she left him as part of a eugenicist metaphor to explain why he thinks the Tribal Nations are doomed to extinction.
• Everyone Has Standards: Mitch is legally required to represent Ben after he rapes Sarah, but he's clearly disgusted by Ben's actions and racist beliefs. As soon as Ben starts going for Baby Ridge, he outright drops Ben as a client.
• Faux Affably Evil: Andrew Jackson talks to his allies and enemies with respect and courtesy, including thanking Major Ridge for saving his life in the War of 1812. As soon as he's behind closed doors, he reveals himself as a eugenicist who seeks to wipe out Native Americans entirely and endorses the raping of their women.
• Feuding Families: The Ridge and Ross families began their rivalry in the 1800s over the Ridges deciding to sign President Jackson's truce; the Ross clan believed that doing so was selling out their sovereignty and causing the Trail of Tears, and some of their loyalists eventually assassinated Major and John Ridge. Even though John Ross wasn't informed of their plans until after they occurred, the Ridge family blamed him for their deaths and fled, and the feud between their families has been volatile ever since, with the Rosses believing the Ridges caused the Trail of Tears and the Ridges despising how the Rosses profited from it.
• Green-Eyed Monster: A combination of alcohol and raging jealousy makes Ben turn incredibly hostile towards his friend Mitch when he reveals that he and Sarah kissed once when they were in fifth grade. Going home from this and seeing Jim Ross inside the house turns it from jealousy to outright violence, which eventually escalates into raping her.
• Groin Attack: When Ben has to pee during a trip to the cemetery, he disregards Flora's advice to do it by a tree and pees on a fence. The fence turns out to be electric, and he walks back onstage with a noticeable limp in his gait.
• Hypocrite:
  • Jackson commends Major Ridge for winning the War of 1812 in public, then calls him part of an inferior race behind his back.
  • When it benefits his domestic violence charges, Ben claims that Sarah's baby isn't his, but once he decides to instigate a custody battle, he argues that he is Ben's son. It's such a disgusting piece of hypocrisy that Mitch outright quits representing him over it.
• Innocently Insensitive: Ben often acts insensitively towards Sarah's family and culture, but it's largely out of ignorance and he does his best to shift his behaviors when he's corrected. Then it turns out that Ben is actually just a racist.
• Internal Reveal: Near the end of the play, Jim Ross finally learns that Sarah is a Ridge. Luckily, by that point they have so many larger things to be worried about that he effectively ignores it, and her resulting victory in the Supreme Court has him change his mind about the Ridges in general.
• I Reject Your Reality: Ben refuses to accept that the Cherokee nation has any power over him and considers their courts "fake". He even tries to joke about how he thinks the tribal law system is some elder going up a mountain and smoking tobacco even though he was literally tried in a courtroom by a jury.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Deconstructed; to showcase how little sovereignty the Cherokee have over their own land, we see the jurisdictional problems caused by a drunk white man assaulting people on Cherokee land. Ben can't arrest him because, as a state trooper, he has no jurisdiction on Native land, but Watie can't arrest him either because he has no jurisdiction over a non-Native on Native land. The only option is to call in the feds, and since they never bother to show up, Watie has no choice but to just let him go.
  Ben: So you're telling me no one has jurisdiction?
  Watie: The Feds. They can arrest him.
  Ben: But they aren't here.
  Watie: They never are.
• Language Fluency Denial: Major Ridge refuses to speak English in front of any white people and stays with his native Cherokee as a form of sovereignty over his own body, forcing John to translate for him even though he understands Jackson and other English speakers perfectly.
• Mirror Character: Ben and Andrew Jackson. Both pretend to be courteous and respectful in front of others, but as soon as their true colors come out, they are revealed to be abhorrent racists. The only difference is that Ben acts like more of a buffoon than Jackson, which means he can hide it for longer. To further highlight all of this, the roles are played by the same actor.
• Rape as Drama: It's a recurring plot that Jackson and his government continually strip the sovereignty away from Native women by allowing (or even encouraging) their rape by white men. Governor Forsyth in particular outright orders his militia to rape any Cherokee woman who does not obey them immediately.
• Riddle for the Ages: It's ultimately left an open question whether or not John Ross ordered the assassination of the Ridges or if, as he claimed, he wasn't informed of the plans until after they had already happened.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!:
  • Jackson's response to any misstep in his plan to get rid of the Cherokee is to simply change the law so that they can't fight it. William Wirt notes that they have no laws to actually support their actions, but they have the sympathy of judges and politicians, and that's all they need. Even when the Indian Nation actually wins its case, Jackson refuses to actually enforce it and lets Governor Forsyth's crimes continue unimpeded.
    Jackson: John Marshall made his decision. Let him enforce it.
  • John Ross ends up falling into similarly fascist behavior once the Ridges begin advocating for removal, canceling the election for Chief to remain in power, minimizing the Treaty Party as a small minority of people, and threatening to fire Elias if he prints anything pro-removal in his paper.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Jackson points out that Major Ridge effectively won America the War and Jackson the Presidency, only for him to repay that by gradually forcing him and his people off of his own land once he had power.
  • Mitch effectively burns all of his bridges with Sarah and her family in order to legally defend his friend, but all Ben cares about is how much he's being inconvenienced by the charges he's facing due to the crimes he committed. It eventually makes him so miserable that he gives up and leaves Ben out to dry.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Mitch, Sarah's childhood friend, helps Ben ask her out, which eventually leads to him raping her, forcing her to fight for the rights of her own body in front of the Supreme Court, and Mitch burning his relationships with her and her family by defending him in court.
  • The Ridge family, having served with Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812, gave him their support in the presidential election. This, combined with signing a treaty that gave up control of their land, results in Jackson being put in a position to wipe out Native Americans entirely, the displacement and deaths of tens of thousands of Native Americans, and eventually, the Ridges' own assassinations by Ross loyalists.
• Villainous Legacy: As Sarah points out in her opening statement to the Supreme Court, even over 150 years after his death, Andrew Jackson's horrible policies have continued to lead to countless rapes and murders on Native land, with Native women eventually becoming, statistically, the most victimized demographic in America.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Both the Rosses and Ridges want to protect their nation, but their differing views on how to do so eventually drive them both to extremes; the Ridges sign the treaty without John Ross and accidentally cause the Trail of Tears, while Ross effectively goes dictatorial and threatens to kill them should they advocate their viewpoints.
• Wham Line:
  • When Jim Ross learns that Sarah was raped by Ben on Cherokee land and thus they have jurisdiction, Sarah reveals her intent:
    Sarah: I want the Cherokee Nation to prosecute.
  • In the final scene, when the barriers between histories break down and Jim Ross walks to the cemetery with Baby Ridge, he introduces the baby to John Ridge and indirectly reveals that Sarah won her court case against Ben:
    Jim: And he won his case. In the Supreme Court. Just like your mom.

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"You were born with sovereignty in your blood."