CNB Head Gets the Scythe

The Tulsa World is reporting that Baker’s new CNB board chairman/mortician is already taking on grim reaper status: Sam Hart announced today, a mere seven days after being named Chairman, that he and the rest of the board told David Stewart, who runs all of Cherokee Nation’s business operations, to leave his office on Wednesday and turned the keys over to Shawn Slaton, who has been with CNB for “more than a decade.”

The World quotes Hart as saying:  “CNB has established the Cherokee Nation as a strong economic engine in the region, and we look forward to continuing that legacy.”

They also point out that CNB made “record profits -- $87.54 million with nearly $600 million in operating revenues…” in 2010.

So if Stewart was in charge of establishing “the Cherokee Nation as a strong economic engine…” and is making “record profits,” why is he gone, exactly?

We've talked about Baker’s habit of replacing Cherokee citizens with a track record of success with his own folks, because, well, they are his own folks.  Among the highlights: having Hart step away from the embalming table to run all of Cherokee Nation’s businesses because he didn’t want the Cherokee who runs a $5 billion bank giving his advice, and replacing the treasurer of the Nation who won awards for excellence with someone who MIGHT be the best CPA in Vian.

It will be interesting to see where he pulls Stewart’s replacement from.

Process of Elimination

In a story you can’t find in the Cherokee Phoenix or the Tahlequah Daily Press, Bill John Baker was sued more than two weeks ago for allegedly firing employees illegally when he came into office.  Channel 6 and Channel 8 are covering it, with Channel 6 even digging up and old interview from one of Baker’s first days in office talking about how he’d probably have to get rid of some folks.

We wrote about that one before, about how Baker cleaned house on day one, but the firees, and the lawsuit lays out some details of Baker’s first day, saying he called employees in, fired them in front of a crowd of campaign supporters and had reporters from the tribal newspaper there on hand to watch it all.  The employees say they were fired because they supported Smith for chief. You can read everything they say by reading the lawsuit on Channel 6’s web site, but it boils down to this:  the employees say their rights and the Cherokee Nation constitution were violated. 

The Cherokee Constitution says: “No employee, who having served in a position at least one (1) year, shall be removed from the employment of the Cherokee Nation except for cause, and only after being afforded pre-termination due process.”

Even the chief has to follow the law.  Especially the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation.  It’s up to the court to decide if he did or not, but it’s clear that he’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.  Baker’s got to prove that in the 12 or so hours between the 9pm when he got done getting sworn in at the courthouse and 9am when he started firing people, he not only found cause to fire them, but he also had time to afford them  “pre-termination due process.”  

If he can’t, it may end up costing the Cherokee Nation a lot of money. 

Baker's Guru Explains the Campaign

There’s been a lot going on, and we’ve been on a bit of a hiatus.  But something grabbed out attention today: an analysis of the election by Baker’s campaign guru posted online.  It a blow-by-blow version of Baker’s side of the story, told in the same cynical sort of way you might expect a DC consultant to tell his friends how he won the Cherokee Nation election.

There are a few telling quotes from the self-proclaimed mastermind of Baker’s victory, Dane Strother.  He said that Baker was very obedient to the strategy handed down from DC:  “…he proved to be one of the few clients I’ve had in my 25 years who completely placed the strategy in the hands of his consultants.  He did not second guess us once.”

Dane Strother and Baker confidant/consultant Kayln Free

Which makes us wonder which consultants are handling the strategy of the Cherokee Nation now?

Anyway, Strother walks us through his version of the Cherforce One issue, which he acknowledges was a side issue that they used to distract from Smith’s track record.

Basically the article is the winner’s version of events, and a way for Strother to gloat about how good a job he did making Baker our Chief.  And he’s entitled to brag, because the results speak for themselves.

But as Cherokees, we have to wonder if this is a direction we are comfortable choosing.  Strother uses lots of patronizing phrases to talk about how he brought Cherokee campaigns into the modern era.   Thanks for bringing Facebook to the 14 counties, Dane!   

Facebook founder thanks Strother for bringing FB to the Cherokees

To us, you are even bigger than Mark Zuckerberg!  

The article is interesting reading, keeping in mind that it is the Baker/Strother version of events, especially when he gets into the freedmen issue later on.  And it’s telling that Baker/Strother still can’t let go of the idea that the Supreme Court screwing Baker (Smith probably has more of a grudge to hold).

The story is written to glorify all the obstacles, real and imagined, that the great Dane Strother was able to overcome to guide his non-strategic candidate to victory.  Like any such story, it’s mostly illuminating for the perception Strother and Baker have of Cherokees (people who can be convinced with modern day smoke and mirrors) and how much of a hero Strother thinks he is for handing Baker a victory.

Larry E. Hawk is From The Federal Government and He's Here to Help

Larry E. Hawk's motto.

The Cherokee Phoenix is writing a story that quite a few people have been slow to pick up on:  Larry E. Hawk from the BIA (Bossing Indians Around) is not a friend of the Cherokee Nation. 

Will Chavez writes a good story and it seems pretty clear:  The BIA wants to have its cake and eat it too.  Larry E. Hawk sent the Nation a letter a few weeks ago, saying the BIA doesn’t recognize our 1999 Constitution or our 2010 election laws.  Only he sent it to then acting principal chief S. Joe Crittenden (APCSJC), who was elected under the 2010 election laws.  If they didn’t recognize those laws, then why would they recognize APCSJC and send him a letter?  Turns out, they only want to not recognize the Cherokee Nation’s Constitution on days when they feel like it.  In this case, Mr. E. Hawk wanted to make sure non-Indians (freedmen) got to vote, so on that day, he decided the Cherokee Nation’s 1999 Constitution wasn’t in effect.

However, as Chavez pointed out, since the Constitution was implemented, the BIA has recognized us (almost) every single day of every single year.  They recognize our council members and our courts.  They give us buckets of money, which is pretty bad policy if, according to Mr. Larry E. Hawk, we are not operating under a valid Constitution.  So the Cherokee Nation is faced with two options:  Either the BIA is incompetent and has been giving the Cherokee a bunch of money when it shouldn’t, or the BIA is just trying to boss us around, even though they don’t have the right to tell us what our Constitution is or says, because, what the heck, it worked with APCSJC.

So what does Baker think? He tells the Cherokee Phoenix he’ll stand up for our sovereignty, as long as it doesn’t cost us federal funding.  “What I won’t do is risk $500 million dollars in federal funding for our 300-plus thousand Cherokee citizens.”  Which is right in line with what S. John Crittenbaker have done already, for only $30 million in HUD funds.

Baker says he’s ‘weighing the pros and cons of the BIA’s stance,’ though we’re not sure what the pros are, unless having someone telling the Cherokee Nation what to do is a pro because then we wouldn’t have to make any pesky decisions ourselves, we can just rely on the smart and trustworthy folks at the BIA to do it for us.  After all, having the federal government make decisions for us seems to have worked out really well so far. Weren't they the ones who arranged for us to relocate here in the first place?

In the meantime, Larry E. Hawk was at Baker’s inauguration and told us all this:  “I pledge to hold the Cherokee Nation’s sovereignty in high regard.”  We at the Cherokee Truth would hate to see what would happen to us if he started holding Cherokee Nation’s sovereignty in low regard. 

Council Members Accuse Baker of Secrecy

The UKB is trying to put their casino land into trust, and at least one council member thinks new chief Bill John Baker knew about it and didn’t tell the council.  According to news reports, the BIA sent a letter to the Cherokee Nation saying the UKB wanted to put their casino in trust, and no one knew about it until Monday night.

That made Jodie Fishinghawk pretty mad, so mad she managed to insult both Smith and Baker in 15 seconds or less.  She said, according to the Tahlequah paper, “I expected this sort of secrecy from the Chad Smith administration…Bill John, I did not expect it from you.”

This came up during the debate about the bill that would make the Cherokee Nation fight against anyone, including Baker’s inauguration buddy, UKB Chief George Wickliffe. And that no one knew about it, even though the BIA supposedly sent Baker a letter about it on November 4, and we only have 30 days to say we don’t like it.  

Dick Lay, a new council member, told the Cherokee Phoenix that “It stuns me that nobody has come to us before now with this information.  I’m just stunned and upset.”

  

The measure passed, and Baker now has to object to the UKB putting land into trust.  We wonder if that means the Baker/Wickliffe honeymoon is over. They are chiefs of different tribes, and sometimes what's good for one might be bad for another one. And no matter how Wickliffe slices it, the UKB isn't the Cherokee Nation, and Baker's job is to stick up for the Cherokee Nation, even if it makes Wickliffe and the UKB mad.

The Price of Sovereignty: Part "Tali" (That's Cherokee for "2")

In the discussion about the HUD funding being restored, we neglected one more retroactive and inaccurate statement.

While Baker was busy taking credit for selling our sovereignty for roughly $40 million pieces of silver, he also took a shot at Smith, by saying he was getting the money restored that was “withheld from the Nation and the previous administration.”

Either Baker is taking a shot at APCSJC, or he forgot that Smith wasn’t Chief when the ruling came down on August 22.

August 22 is the day that the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court issued the ruling saying the freedmen weren’t citizens any more, and threw everything sideways.  Until that happened, HUD was giving us our money.

Remember--Smith left office on August 14th, and Joe Crittenden was sworn in as Acting Principal Chief, a week before all this hit the fan.

Baker was there; he ought to know that his buddy Joe Crittenden was in office when the Supreme Court issued their ruling and got the ball rolling on this.

Not that its Crittenden’s fault… the Chief doesn’t control the timing or the content of Supreme Court decisions. That goes for Chief Smith, Chief Crittenden and now, Chief Baker.

So, if Baker wants someone to blame for HUD withholding housing funding, he really should start with HUD.  They withheld the money even though there was no law that said they should.  Or he could start with the Cherokee people, for changing the Constitution.

Baker should learn that he doesn’t necessarily look better when he tries to make Smith look worse, especially when he does so by ignoring the Truth.

Wado & Donadagohvi

Photo courtesy: Tulsa World  (2011)

The fine folks at the Tulsa World did a nice thing today, something we should do here as well--- they looked back on the Chad Smith era at Cherokee Nation.   

We’re steaming into Baker’s term at full speed, but we think it probably is right and fair to do what the World did, which is to look back at the full 12 years and give credit where credit is due.

Photo Courtesy: Tulsa World (1999)

There is a certain respect that should be accorded former Chiefs.  There is a reason it is called public service, and its best illustrated in the comparison of the two photos of Smith at his inauguration and Smith today.  Smith certainly gave of himself.  

There is a time and a place for political disagreement, even anger if that’s your choice.  But as part of Baker’s idea of reconciliation, let’s try something here.  We challenge every reader to say something respectful and nice to or about our former Chief.  It’s a chance for Baker supporters to show they are good winners.  For Smith supporters, a chance to honor the candidate you rallied around.  We’ll have almost four more years (at least) to tout the accomplishments of Baker, so let’s let Smith have his day.   

If you want to say something rude or mean about our former Chief, feel free to scroll down to another blog post (or another page entirely) and do it there.  On this post, follow Mama's advice: if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 22: Opposite Directions

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.”

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.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 18: Supreme Court Flips the Bird

Lots happening in the last couple of days, so there is a lot to analyze.  Initially, we thought it would be 48 hours before the election commission certified the results, and we could talk about the CN’s Supreme Court ruling.  But the Election Commission finished up today instead, and the results look a lot like they did before.  The totals ended up being 10,703 to 9128.  No big surprise there.  

The Cherokee Nation also released information about timelines for appeals, and it looks like October 24 would bethe earliest date for an inauguration. That would be after the timelines for recount and appeal.  If there is an appeal, it would be after that.

Why would there be an appeal?  Well, as we alluded to yesterday, the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court gave a big middle finger to APCSJC by issuing an order saying Crittenden “entered into an agreement… that contained terms that were in direct violation of the Constitution and an order of this court….”.  The order also said that APCSJC “had no authority under the Constitution to bind the Cherokee People to an agreement without their consent when such agreement would violate a provision of the Cherokee Nation Constitution.” 

That agreement, FYI, was the agreement that made Freedmen citizens again, right before the federal judge was about to rule that they weren’t.

  

The Justices are basically telling everyone that the election, where hundreds of Freedmen voted and hundreds of late votes were counted in Baker’s home town, should have ended on September 24, because that is what Cherokee Nation’s laws said to do.  But it’s not what S. John Crittenbaker wanted, so it’s not the deal they made with the freedmen and BIA.  The deal they made broke tribal law, and the Supreme Court sat up, took notice, and made said metaphorical gesture.

 

So how will this all shake out? Baker will want the freedmen votes to count, because he won.  Smith would probably want the election thrown out, because it was done in violation of tribal law (and he lost).  The Cherokee people probably just want it all to be over.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 17: Unofficial Results are in!

Baker hugs his mom after the unofficial results
were announced tonight.
Photo Courtesy of Tulsa World.

Almost all the votes have been counted, and we have what APPEARS to be a winner in the chief's race:  Bill John Baker.  According to the Cherokee Nation web site, Baker has 10,633 votes and Smith has 9099 in the unofficial results.

The Associated Press story has quotes from both Smith and Baker.  Smith said he was "disappointed... not just for myself but also for the people who worked so hard on this campaign, and the thousands upon thousands of Cherokees who supported this campaign and what we stand for."

Baker told the reporters: "The Cherokee people have spoken and I am humbled and honored to be selected to lead our great nation the next four years ... this has been a difficult and tough campaign for everyone but the campaign is behind us."

The Tulsa World also had some good quotes from the candidates and information on the election and an otherwise blockbuster decision from the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, but that's probably fodder for tomorrow's Cherokee Truth.  Tonight it is enough to know that unless our Election Commission accidentally counted 1000 votes for Baker that should've been for Smith, or unless some unlikely appeal occurs, we know who our next chief will be.