Nanai Delasi Gatlitela

Your humble blogger joined about ten Metroplex-Area Cherokee citizens to meet with Judge Stacy Leeds, candidate for Principal Chief (top photo), and her running mate, Raymond Vann, candidate for Deputy Principal Chief (bottom photo). Also present was Sean R. Nordwall, candidate for Tribal Council At-Large, Place 2. The discussion over coffee and donuts was very productive, and included several novel ideas for diversifying the Cherokee economy and ending the tribe's crippling dependence on Federal funds, such as forming a tribal bank and a tribal insurance company, as well as taking advantage of the currently unused International Port near Sallisaw. There was also talk about the current Administration's "culture of corruption," the unconscionable fact that only about a dime out of every dollar currently taken in by the tribe ever makes it to the people, and the danger to tribal sovereignty of the Administration's disastrous policy towards the Freedmen. I found it particularly outrageous that Chief Chad Smith has twice vetoed a minimum wage for Cherokee workers, when tribal employees of CNI are currently making so little they qualify for commodities. Come June 23rd, the Cherokee Nation needs a change of leadership, but more than that, a change in attitude, and a leadership that reflects traditional tribal values of self-sufficiency, honesty and compassion towards elders and the poor.