Who Was That Masked Man? Lone Ranger Edition

There is a Facebook page out there that we hesitate to bring attention to because it is so pathetic-- and telling our thousands of readers about it is about the best favor we could ever do for it.  But sometimes telling the Truth means you have to shine the light on some ugly things.  That’s what we’re doing today.

First, a little about this Facebook page.  One of the first things this page did, after it was started in December, was mimic Cherokee Truth.  And that’s about the best thing it has ever done.  Since then, the page has been blocked from posting here because it refused to follow our rules.  But that shouldn’t surprise anyone once they read a little further.  In three months or so of existence, it has 102 likes.  We got that many in our first week.  So this really is a small fish, but it’s also a bitter, professional fish.

Who is that masked man/recall advocate?

The page is called Recall Cara Cowan Watts.  It mainly spouts hate against her as a council person and tries to convince everyone that she is terrible.  That’s free speech and that’s fine.  But there is something a little more sinister here.  So who is the man behind the mask?  Well, he’s nowhere near as honorable as the Lone Ranger, but he’s just as condescending to Indians.

Remember the DC guy who talked all about how he hoodwinked the Cherokees into voting for Baker after Baker did exactly what the guy told him to do during the Chief election?

That guy was Dane Strother, of Strother Strategies, Bill John Baker’s highly paid Washington DC campaign strategist.  And he is also the guy masquerading online as Recall Cara Cowan Watts.  

How do we know this?  He sent us an email and signed it.  

He wants us to try to spread dirt about Cara Cowan Watts and her husband, but he didn’t provide any documentation.  That fits Strother’s Baker strategy, which was about smokescreens, Cherforce One and other distractions because Smith had done a “good job.” He already bragged about that online, as you recall.

Does anyone else find it creepy that Bill John Baker’s campaign guy months after the election is harassing a council member when she’s not even eligible to run for re-election?  Who is paying this guy (remember, Baker gave him a ton of money)? Is Baker still paying his strategy guy to take down a council member he doesn’t like? Or does Baker’s guy have some kind of weird obsession with Cowan-Watts and he's stalking her as a hobby?  Or worst of all, is this guy on the Cherokee Nation payroll?  Right now, nobody knows-- but regardless, it’s pretty dirty pool and conduct not becoming of a Chief to have employees he pays out of his own pocket, or his campaign funds, to run a hate campaign against a sitting council member.  Especially since Baker is still raising money for the very activities he may be paying Strother to do.  Not cool, Kemo Sabe.  

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.

Accountability Watch, Part 2: When in Rome Edition

Thanks to the fine folks at the Native American Times, we can all read the text of Bill John Baker’s inauguration speech.  From reading it, we can see why some of the folks that went spoke highly of the event.  The speech was well written.  We’re sorry he didn’t take the opportunity to tell us what policy he was referring to that kept employees from talking to their council members, but instead told us that it existed and we should believe him.

He said he made five promises during the campaign that he planned on keeping, so we’ll take this as a challenge for all of us to keep him accountable.

#1: He’s selling Cherforce One and is currently taking bids.

#2: He’s going to have Cherokees build houses for other Cherokees by reactivating the Housing Authority to build hundreds of homes.

#3: He will ‘more fully audit the nation’s books to find more money to help our people,’ having Lacey Horn replace Callie Catcher.

#4: More money for contract health

#5:  A $200 elder stipend every six months for Cherokees ‘in need.’

We’re glad Baker is willing to be held accountable to these, and possibly other promises.  He, of course,  has to find money to pay for these new projects, and if Lacey Horn finds it all in her audits, she will definitely be earning her keep.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 7: Kennedy’s Curve Ball

Judge Henry Kennedy

For the second time in 10 days, Judge Henry Kennedy out of Washington, DC has weighed in.  Late on Friday, he dismissed the 8 year old case the freedmen brought against Cherokee Nation.  So the Freedmen lost.  Does that mean the Cherokee Nation won?  Well, according to the Cherokee Nation’s Attorney General, absolutely.

Diane Hammons said that the order from the judge was “exactly what the Cherokee Nation had asked for.” News reports also quoted Smith as saying “Today’s ruling proves that when the Cherokee Nation stands up and fights for its rights, it can win.”

According to media reports, freedmen retain citizenship rights as part of the deal Crittenden, the freedmen and the BIA cut in Washington DC-- and Smith has some choice words to say about that on his Facebook page.

“Because Crittenden and his running mate Bill John Baker counted on the votes of non-Indian freedmen descendants, they willingly gave them citizenship rights just moments before a federal judge was going to rule that the Cherokee Nation didn't have to.  Bill John Baker won't stand up to the BIA and the freedmen:  when they could've won the case, they compromised instead.”

Baker, of course, says the Cherokee Nation won in spite of Smith, not because of him, and takes a less than optimistic view:   "We should fully expect and prepare for the Federal Government to sue our Nation and Chad Smith has proven over seven years he's not up to the task of defending us. Indeed his actions have prolonged this process."

Then he starts talking about Cherforce One again and secret, unknown deals made by Smith.  Well, S. John Crittenbaker’s deal was done in open court, and just because you give up sovereignty in full public view doesn’t make it the right thing to do.

So, in some ways this doesn’t effect our election.  Even though the freedmen lost their case, they still get to vote. 

In other ways, it really does effect the election! Remember the last two things that happened in the case, right before it got dismissed? 1) Grant voting rights to Baker supporters (who aren't Indians) and 2) extend voting after the election at Baker’s request (but only in Tahlequah).

If there hadn’t been a compromise by S. John Crittenbaker to give the freedmen citizenship and the right to vote along with extended voting privileges, it looks like Judge Kennedy would never have interfered, because afterall-- he was about to throw the whole case out! Oh, and we wouldn't be writing this blog BECAUSE THE ELECTION WOULD ALREADY BE OVER.

All we know for sure now is that Judge Henry Kennedy finally did what he intended to do on September 20th-- so at least now he can't be used by Crittenbaker, the Freedmen and the BIA to throw any more curve balls into this election.  

Click here to read Judge Kennedy's opinion.

7 Days Until the New Election:Truth Check

In the latest edition of the Cherokee Phoenix, both candidates got a column in the paper, and the Phoenix did their truth report as well (scroll down to page 6 for the columns, page 7 for the Truth report).

Baker used his column as basically a campaign ad.  The Phoenix ran a truth report on Baker’s column and found some information that didn’t add up.  Baker wrote that “the chief relates a story calling anyone who asks for services an ATM Cherokee, and then turns around and takes a $2 million plane for a test ride before the nation buys it.”

The Phoenix reports that Smith was quoting someone else when he mentioned the phrase ATM Cherokees, and applied it to people who only want a blue card to get benefits.  That’s not ‘anyone who asks for services.’

Also, Cherokee Nation didn’t buy the plane, and doesn’t own the plane.  Cherokee Nation Businesses owns the plane, or, as we like to call it Cherforce One, and the Nation pays to use it.  And we already confirmed here a couple of months ago that Smith had flown on the plane before CNB bought it.

The Truth report in the Phoenix also talks about how Baker did indeed accuse Smith of calling an illegal meeting, when in fact it was not an illegal meeting, and no one thinks so, even the guy Baker was relying on asa source for the his claim, council attorney Todd Hembree.  

The Cherokee Phoenix didn’t put Smith’s column through the truth test, probably because Smith didn’t use his column to trash talk Baker.  Smith instead talked about the lessons he learned from his mother, who recently passed away.  He says she lived her life trying to make the lives of others better, and that he has tried to follow her example.

Thanks to the folks at the Cherokee Phoenix for checking into some of the statements the candidates are making.