"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Putting Cherokees First, Not Politics

***"Chad Smith, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief"***

It's amazing and a bit embarrassing how far a minority faction of the Cherokee Nation's Tribal Council will go to milk the last bit of publicity out of their failed and ill-conceived lawsuit.

Councilors Bill John Baker, Joe Crittenden, David Thornton Sr., Charles "Chuck" Hoskin, John Keener, Melvina Shotpouch and Linda Hughes-O'Leary all said in a local newspaper that they are sad they lost a federal case they filed over Cherokee Nation Industries buying majority interest in a heat and air-conditioning company. The CNI board of directors (all of whom they voted to confirm) made the decision for the purchase.

Let's be honest here. Their case was thrown out of two courts: CN and federal. The tribal court ruling states explicitly: "There are no genuine issues of material fact in this case." The court further stated this small group of councilors does not have standing or authority to bring this suit. What they did was a violation of the separation of powers outlined in the CN Constitution, the constitution they claim to uphold. Simply put, these councilors broke the law. And not just any law, but the highest law in the land. This is the same law that they swore to uphold when they put their hands on the Bible and took their oaths of office.

These councilors say they don't believe the independent corporate structure (and boards of directors) of our tribal entities were contemplated by our constitution and our corporation statutes. But the council itself passed the corporation code in the mid-90s so CN's businesses could flourish without the interference of politics. They've passed several additional acts and re-enforced their part of the process by confirming board nominees and actually setting on these boards themselves as advisors. As a result, our businesses have grown from 2,000 employees five years ago to 6,500 now.

In fact, the Tribal Council has passed every statute, every act and confirmed every board member that the faction of seven is now crying foul over. They even overwhelmingly confirmed the tribal attorney general that this faction seems to feel so insecure about.

We would all do well to remember these facts in the coming months, because this minority faction of councilors has announced their intention to attempt legislation to gain direct financial control of our corporations and entities. That sounds like a definite step backwards.

Do we really want people who can't obey simple requirements of the constitution trying to run our businesses? The political decisions of this faction show why politicians do not run businesses successfully. We need to let business board of directors make business decisions.

This small group of councilors made an end-run around the constitution by filing this lawsuit and got sacked by the federal court. It failed, plain and simple. Now they are trying to both complain about the referee's call and change the rules of the game to suit themselves. That's not conduct we should expect from our Tribal Councilors. The majority of our council did act in accordance with our constitution and have the CN's best interests at heart by refusing to support the faction's failed lawsuit. Unfortunately, the minority group's media sound bites drown out the good work of the other councilors.

It was not on a "mere technicality" that the federal judge dismissed their case. Baker, Crittenden, Thornton, Hoskin, Keener, Shotpouch and Hughes-O'Leary had no case to make. In fact, even the federal judge commented that he felt the case was motivated by political infighting. They did not appeal because the lawsuit would be lost.

All that was accomplished by these seven, as one Cherokee woman put it, was a "political stink." They disrupted the lives of CNI employees, jeopardized several large contracts that added jobs to CNI, gave the tribe a black eye in the press, tried to spend Cherokee money to fund their political agenda and reduced our credit rating from the bad publicity costing us another $900,000 in interest in constructing new clinics.

In spite of negative comments by councilors who do not have faith in CN businesses and employees, the CN is a great Nation, with outstanding employees who will continue good work for the future of our people.