How the Freedmen Deal Went Down Part IV: Are You Okay With Being Lied To By Your Government?

Over the last week or so (in parts I-III), we’ve established that the Cherokee people are being lied to about how the Freedmen miraculously became citizens just days before last fall’s elections.  Joe Crittenden was asked to supply all the communications he had with the BIA and the Freedmen as he negotiated a deal to make them citizens, but all Crittenden turned over were a bunch of all-employee emails which appears someone else wrote and signed his name to, and receipts for this trip to DC so he could get paid some cash money for going to our Nation’s capital and selling HIS Nation’s constitution down the river.

So, what are you, the Cherokee citizens, going to do about it?  You’ve been lied to, and there is a cover-up going on!  Documents that exist have not been turned over as required by law, and no explanation has been given as to why.

On this blog, we only care about the TRUTH.  And nothing makes us madder than when people lie to the Cherokee people.  Crittenden will get away with the lie and his noncompliance with the law if the Cherokee people let them.

So here’s what you all need to do.  Get out a sharp pencil, a dull crayon, an old IBM Selectric or the writing utensil of your choice and send a Freedom of Information Act Request to Bill John Baker, Cherokee Nation, PO BOX 948, Tahlequah, OK 74464.

Write something like this:

Dear Chief Baker,

One of the pillars of your campaign and pledged hallmarks of your administration was transparency.  In the interest of the Cherokee people’s understanding of how people with no Cherokee blood became citizens of the Cherokee Nation just before September’s election, even though our Tribal Supreme Court had ruled they were not citizens.

Please provide ALL written emails, letters and phone call notes, travel, meeting dates and topics Acting Chief Joe Crittenden, and ANY of his staff, liaisons, contractors or other types of representatives have had with Larry Echo Hawk, Echo Hawk’s staff, BIA officials, DOI officials, Marilyn Vann, Jon Velie (attorney for Freedmen), any other Freedmen plaintiffs or representatives and DOJ concerning the Freedmen, citizenship for the Freedmen, pending Court cases, Judge Kennedy and anyone else associated with this important case for the past six months.  Please include the materials left out by Joe Crittenden in a previous FOIA request, including the letter(s) he sent to the BIA that the BIA acknowledges receiving but that Crittenden refused to disclose earlier.

Please respond to this request as required by LA 25-01, Cherokee Nation’s  Freedom of Information Act."

Or something like that.

Better yet, ask him to put the documents on the web.  Pester the folks at the Cherokee Phoenix about why they are ignoring the story and it’s coverup. 

Write your council members demanding to know what happened.

Write the Attorney General and point out Crittenden’s noncompliance.  It’s AG Todd Hembree's duty to make sure EVERYONE follows the law, including and ESPECIALLY elected leaders.  If our Constitution is ignored, supposedly for the greater good, we have a right to know how that happened.  We have a right not to be lied to and then have the TRUTH covered up.

Do it.  And if no one else will publicize what you find, rest assured we will always stand for the CHEROKEE TRUTH.

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.