[citation needed] Members live primarily in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
The NCNOLT has attempted multiple times, since around 1983, to clarify state recognition in Missouri (where it has a 200-year residency) and Arkansas but have not been successful.
[11] They have received three declarations from different state governors acknowledging "Northern Cherokee Recognition Day" and the presence of the Northern Cherokee since the late 18th century in the states of Missouri and Arkansas and one county, Boone County in Missouri.
Chief[2][4][3][5] Beverly Baker Northup self-published a book, We Are Not Yet Conquered (2001), and in the first chapter wrote her perspective on to the origins of the ancestry of the Cherokee people.
The claimed connection between Amerindians and the Ten Lost Tribes has spread on Indian and Israelite oriented websites alike and has sparked disdain as well as approval.
[21][22][23][24] Dr. Carol Morrow from the Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau suggested that eligibility for membership is determined by Beverly Baker Northup who has been voted out of office more than once and who has obtained $120,000 in federal grant money to be used for completing the tribe's federal recognition process, which has not yet been completed.