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.