10 Facts About David Cornsilk

David Cornsilk is a professional genealogist and served as the managing editor of the Cherokee Observer, an online news website founded in 1992.

David Cornsilk founded of the grassroots Cherokee National Party in the 1990s, seeking to create a movement to promote the Nation as a political entity.

David Cornsilk ran in the 2023 Cherokee Nation principal chief election.

David Cornsilk lost the election to incumbent principal chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.

David Cornsilk believes the Nation needs to stand as a political entity, be large enough to include the people in its jurisdiction, and honor its obligation to the Freedmen descendants.

David Cornsilk was against the tribal court changing the language in the constitution to allow for Marilyn Vann, a Freedman citizen running for office on the tribal council, to be allowed to run, believing instead that it should have been put to a vote.

David Cornsilk was a delegate to the 1999 Cherokee Nation Constitutional Convention.

David Cornsilk was among Indigenous writers who commented in July 2015 on the controversy over fluctuating claims to Cherokee identity by Andrea Smith, associate professor at University of California, Riverside.

David Cornsilk rejected her claim of being able to determine independently that she was Cherokee, saying that citizenship by law and custom was based on recognition and acceptance by other Cherokee, and that the Cherokee are very well-documented people.

David Cornsilk noted that he could find no documentation to support her claim of Cherokee ancestry.