Happy Birthday Chief Baker!

How did we know it was his birthday?  Linda Gray Murphy, Baker’s campaign spokesperson sent us an email inviting us to his 60^th birthday party tonight in Tulsa.

All we had to do is bring a gift, preferably that was something like $xx60. Seriously, she suggested donations to Baker’s campaign depending how awesome you think Baker is. If you want to be Visionary, you could give the Chief $4960. If you want to be a Dream Maker, you could give $2560. If you want to be a Guardian, you could give him $1060. If you want to be a partner, you could give $560.  If you want to be a friend you could give $60.  

At Cherokee Truth, we’re just normal folks trying to get by.   

And we really thought our elders would be getting their $200 checks before the Chief came asking us for $4960 checks.  But we were wrong about that. 

Regardless, it gives us a good idea.  Cherokee Truth will be celebrating its first birthday in May.  We’ll get a paypal account set up so you can pay us for being such ‘visionaries.’ 

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.

Second Chance

Joe Byrd hopped in the way-back machine and dialed up 1991 --- getting elected to the Tribal Council again 21 years after his last council election, and 16 years after winning his last election of any kind.  Byrd beat four other candidates, getting nearly two out of three votes.

We’ve chronicled Joe Byrd’s comeback before and it’s clear the people in Cherokee County (and part of Wagoner County) are ready to give Byrd another chance.

We’ve spent some time talking about Byrd’s pro-freedmen stance, his felonious former campaign manager/housing authority director, and all the turmoil know as the Constitutional Crisis that turned out so well that his Byrd’s buddy Bill John Baker joined him as a Deputy Chief candidate in the 1999 election, in which they were both skunked.

So Byrd is back. We assume that he learned from his mistakes.  The question is, did he learn not to make them, or did he just learn not to get caught? We’re sure we’ll all find out in the next few months and years.

Candy and Nuts

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts... 
and a big IF from a gaming commissioner.

Thanks to a tip from a reader, and some information that came up in the rules committee meeting, it looks like the guy who is singlehandedly responsible for keeping the UKB’s casino open (even though the state wants to shut it down), is now being appointed by Bill John Baker to be a gaming commissioner for the Cherokee Nation.  

A few years back, John Garrett was a judge in Adair County. The state of Oklahoma was threatening to shut down the UKB’s casino. And John Garrett signed a document, that to this day, is the only reason the casino is open.  He signed an order, since appealed in the federal court, that said the state couldn’t enforce the law, and that even though the UKB’s casino wasn’t on trust land, they couldn’t be shut down.

For that, John Garrett was awarded a seat on the UKB’s Supreme Court, which is a pretty good gig, we guess.  He kept that job up until the time that something better came along: a chance to be gaming commissioner for Cherokee Nation.

When he was being questioned in committee, Garrett was part of this exchange (about 45 minutes into the December Rules committee meeting)

Cara Cowan Watts: “How do you feel about the UKB’s claims to land in our jurisdiction?”

Garrett: “If I’m approved as a gaming commissioner, my loyalty is of course to the Cherokee Nation.”

CCW: “So it just depends on who you work for?”

Garrett: “Well….” (awkward pause….)”

Later on, Garrett reiterated his “If’ statement, making it clear that, like any good lawyer, he would be happy to take the Cherokee Nation’s side as long as the council approved him, hired him and paid him.

Garrett admitted to helping the UKB back in the day when he was a judge and at one point acted like he didn’t have a choice but to give the UKB what they wanted in court, even though it was obviously a federal issue and today, more than half a decade later, the federal court is still weighing its options on a case Garrett decided in the UKB's favor in a single day.

In the end, six council members thought the UKB Casino’s best friend (who says he would switch his loyalty “If” the council approved him) was not the right guy to oversee the Cherokee Nation’s casinos.  10 council members, and of course, Chief Baker, thought he would be a good choice.  Oh yeah, one more thing: in the confirmation process, Garrett admitted he gave Baker’s campaign $2,000. Merry Christmas.

Bakers Dozen

Just as 13 is a little more than 12,
Baker is trying to cram 10 board members into 9 seats.

Last week, the Tribal Council approved all of Baker’s nominees for everything, including five new board members for CNB in full council on Monday night, and then five more for four more seats in committee on Friday.  

We’ve already discussed the first five, and their varying range of qualifications.

You can read about the new group online as well, and once again their range of qualifications is broad, from a Harvard educated investment guru to a funeral home director.

But a key line in the news releases, are these little lines: “If confirmed, four of the nominees will fill seats that were previously vacant.  The fifth nominee will be on hold and not start his term until later on in 2012.”  The new person will remain ‘on hold until the new term starts.’

Sooooo…. That’s awkward.  Which of the five draws the short straw and has to sit out?  Obviously Baker knew he was nominating more people than the board could hold, but why?  Did he overpromise board appointments to folks?  What’s the rush?  Is someone on the CNB board on the way out and doesn’t know it yet?  

Regardless, Baker is trying to put 5 into 4 and we’ll see how that pans out.  And we have to ask the council members who voted for these guys (and they are all guys), who they want off the board, or who they want to put in limbo.

Baker Chooses Head

Not Pictured: Charles Head.

Bill John Baker has made his nominee for Secretary of State and it’s a guy named Charles Head.  Head, the current BIA boss in Muskogee, is taking the place of Melanie Knight, who resigned.

Knight, on her way out the door, sent an all employee email saying “The Nation has all of the tools for success and the opportunities with what we have built are endless.  The most valuable resource is each of you; as individual employees and teams your work determine our success as a Nation.”

Baker, nominating Head, said: “With his experience working with the federal government and tribes across this area, Charles Head is a natural fit to be secretary of state…. His talents have served the Cherokee Nation well in the past and they will once again be a tremendous asset.”

Baker points out that Head has a lot of good experience working with tribes in this area, but what might trouble some is his experience with one tribe in particular.  The last we heard from Mr. Head, he was busy telling the Cherokee Nation that the BIA was going to put the UKB’s casino land into trust unless the Cherokee Nation objected. 

We’re sure he was just doing his job. But the Secretary of State for the Cherokee Nation is supposed to stand up for the Cherokee Nation’s sovereignty, and it’s a little scary that the guy Baker is nominating to do that is the guy who was attacking our sovereignty last month.

Head’s nomination is on the Rules Committee agenda for Tuesday. 

Another interesting thing is that Baker’s nomination includes a time frame, a four-year term for Head to serve, from January 2012 to January 2016.  The constitution says each chief gets to appoint his/her own Secretary of State, and Baker’s current term expires August 14, 2015.  If Baker’s re-elected, Head should be golden, but if not, then by the constitution he’ll be out unless the new chief asks him to stay.  It’s silly to try to write a law that says otherwise, but that’s what is before the council.

There are several other important agenda items on the Rules committee agenda for Tuesday.  Be sure and check it out if you can.

Joe Byrd and the Terminator

We talked a lil’ bit about Joe Byrd filing to run for a tribal council seat.  The Tulsa World pointed out that Byrd’s years in office were marked by controversy and scandal and that he was acquitted of charges of wiretapping.

He beat the rap, because, according to the World, Byrd pinned the blame on his own handpicked Housing Authority Director, Joel Thompson, who at the time of Byrd’s trial in 1997 was “serving time in prison on a conviction of embezzling federal funds.”

So, there’s that.

Diane Watson, aka the Cherokee Terminator

Byrd also has taken a very public pro-freedmen stance.  In 2007, when people in Congress were trying to kill off the Cherokee Nation, take our funding away, shut down Hastings and the clinics, what did Byrd do?  He sat down with the folks who were trying to shut us down, and, as former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation he… agreed completely with the folks who were trying to kill the Cherokee Nation.  Yep.  He sat down with the Congressional Black Caucus, Diane Watson and a whole group of people who think Cherokees are racist, and… agreed with them again.  Completely: “In this time where I thought that type of treatment was gone, we’re resurfacing some racism here,” Byrd said.

Just to be clear, Byrd spelled it out for the Tulsa World, too, saying “We can go home and leave the freedmen as they are, part of the Cherokee nation.”

Whether freedmen should be citizens or not is one thing.  Whether a former chief should side with the Congressmen who are trying to shut down the Cherokee Nation is another thing.  And whether Cherokees think that kind of behavior by a former chief is what they are looking for in a Tribal Council candidate is another thing as well.

LL Cool J Edition

Ladies Love Cool Joe?

Don’t call it a comeback, he’s been here for years!  Joe Byrd is bringing his bad self out of political retirement and said he wants to be the guy who replaces Bill John Baker on the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council.  

Byrd is one of five folks that are running.  He’ll be facing: Raymond Vann, who turned in a couple of all-star performances in Deputy Chief debates before finishing with 7 per cent of the vote; Pam Iron, who finished third in the June election; Brandon Girty who finished with 4% of the vote in June, and Geneva Reeves, who we don’t know a lot about (maybe you can help us).

The Tulsa World had a story with some of the highlights/lowlights of Byrd’s era as a Principal Chief back in the 1990s.They earned the understatement of the year award by summing up the Byrd years by saying they “consisted of arguments on many levels of tribal government.”

This council seat will represent Cherokee County and the part of Wagoner County that is within the Cherokee Nation.

LL Cool J reminds us Joe Byrd has been here for years.

The election is set for January 14, with a runoff, if necessary, on February  18.  At that point, we would finally have a full tribal council but the winner shouldn’t get too comfortable.   

They’ll have about a year to decide if they want to run for re-election in 2013.    

Frankie Goes to Tahlequah

Cherokees just keep on voting, and they keep on electing folks from Adair County.  According to the Cherokee Nation’s web site, Stilwell’s Frankie Hargis (an internet enigma) won the runoff. 

According to the Native American Times, Hargis will be serving the rest of Crittenden’s term, which gives her until August 14, 2013. 

We don’t know a whole lot about Frankie besides she’s female and likes to hug Joe Crittenden in victory celebrations.  

We’ve heard from reliable sources that she’s a good friend of Jodi F. Hawk and worked for the Cherokee Nation until she decided to run for council.  Tell us more about what you know, as the Cherokee Nation welcomes its newest council person.