We took a few days off (because we have real lives, after all) and when we sat down tonight to decide what to write about, we found out that Smith and Baker have two different ideas about what the next step is with our election, which isn’t surprising.
Baker sent out an announcement today, setting the time and date for his inauguration. Just in case you don’t get an engraved personal invitation, the Cherokee Phoenix was kind enough to tell us that it is at the Sequoyah Gym in Tahlequah at 2 pm on November 6. According to the Phoenix “Former Oklahoma Governor David Walters will serve as master of ceremonies and the chiefs of all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes will be present.” So the UKB is trying to get along with Baker. They banished Smith for opposing “efforts by the UKB to have Keetoowah land put in trust by the Cherokee County Commissioners.”
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| Cherokee Truth's cat? |
Putting aside the fact the Cherokee County Commissioners can’t put land into trust any more than Cherokee Truth’s cat, Baker and the UKB are certainly more chummy than Smith and the UKB were.
And what Smith up to today while Baker was making party plans? Well, he was trying to get the whole election thrown out, or stopped, or at least keep Baker from getting sworn in. Smith filed an appeal with the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, which one of our readers forwarded on to us, and you can read for yourself.
Basically he asks that the Cherokee court stop Baker from being sworn in until the federal court decides whether freedmen should be citizens or not. Or, as he puts it: “If non-Indian Freedmen have citizenship rights based on the treaty, then Bill John Baker should be chief. If they don’t, then the court would have to order yet another election, because the acting chief disregarded the Cherokee Nation Constitution.”
Baker’s response? Poppycock! (Or the Cherokee version of that). He put out a statement tonight saying he is “not going to let this baseless lawsuit keep me from moving forward.” He didn’t address the freedmen issue at all.
The question for a few days was whether Smith would ask for a recount or not. It looks like he skipped that and went straight to court at the same time Baker was heading for an inauguration.
