The Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky (SCNK) is an unrecognized tribe based in Kentucky.[1] The SCNK states it had an estimated one thousand members as of 2009, living in several US states, and that it is "not affiliated with any other group calling themselves Southern Cherokee" or any officially recognized Cherokee nations.[2] [3]
Amy Den Ouden and Jean O'Brien wrote in 2013 that "Kentucky’s recognition of the Southern Cherokee nation proved even more tenuous: while Governor John Young Brown sent a letter to the Southern Cherokee nation in 1893 welcoming the tribe to the Commonwealth’s state fair and noting that the Commonwealth “regonize the Southern Cherokee Nation as a Indian tribe” (recognition that would be underscored by a 2006 proclamation by Governor Ernie Fletcher). Kentucky currently claims to have no state-recognized tribes and disputes that any kind of government-to-government relationship was established. Thus, even those recognitions that did occur during this period were more ambiguous and uncertain than many that took place during earlier and later periods."[4]