Native American Politics

NATIVE AMERICAN POLITICS

The Cherokee Troubles

These are newsgroup postings and newspaper stories ...there's a lot of text here so I've forgone adding graphics. These will change semi-regularly, to provide an update on political issues of interest in Indian Country. You may also want to check some of the links on the Native American Links page for more information.

Updated August 8, 1999

Cherokee Turmoil: Financial emergency declared
By Rob Martindale c. Tulsa World 4/1/99

A tribal judge lets Chief Joe Byrd control the tribe's money after the council fails to pass a spending measure.

TAHLEQUAH -- A Cherokee Nation judge on Wednesday declared a financial emergency in the tribe and gave Chief Joe Byrd temporary authority to handle the tribe's purse strings.

Otherwise, said District Judge John Cripps, millions of dollars in federal funding would be in jeopardy because the tribal council has failed to approve a continuing resolution authorizing spending.

Byrd said the tribe's continuing resolution for spending was set to expire at midnight Thursday because it had not received council approval.

The chief said the federal government could cut off federal dollars to the tribe because of the inaction.

In his order authorizing Byrd to continue the financial operations of the tribe under past continuing resolutions, the judge also scheduled an April 9 hearing on the matter. The tribe's last fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

Byrd said he asked the tribal court for the executive privilege because bickering on the Cherokee Nation council has put the tribe's federal funding in immediate danger.

The Cherokee Nation, which has about 200,000 members, has a budget of nearly $140 million, most of it coming from the federal government.

The chief said the tribal government is directly responsible for authorizing about $93 million in annual spending, of which $83 million impacts programs and services.

Additionally, he said, there is about $45 million in other programs that don't require appropriations but can't operate without program support services.

Byrd said the tribe's 2,000 employees also could be affected.

The judge, who is being asked to grant a stay of the continuing resolution, ordered that the tribe's current funding resolution stay in effect until the tribal council meets and approves a new budget.

The council has been unable to meet for the lack of a quorum of 10 created by a constitutional crisis in the tribe, which has left Cherokee Nation judges and the administration at odds and the council split.

In his order, the judge said Byrd had shown that a funding ``emergency'' did exist, upholding the chief's argument that ``irreparable damage'' could occur.

Byrd said the council hasn't been meeting its responsibility and ``left me no choice'' but to address the matter in court.

He said the tribe currently is running an $850,000 deficit but has reserves of $5 million that could be tapped with council approval.

Byrd, who is running for re- election, said he was not playing politics in his handling of the matter.

Council members opposed to his administration have said repeatedly that Byrd didn't need another continuing resolution to continue the tribe's operations.

Cherokee Nation Election
Tulsa World 4/3/99

TAHLEQUAH -- The chairman of the Cherokee Nation Election Commission has invited lawmakers and independent observers to monitor the tribe's May 22 elections.

Among those invited to attend or send representatives were U.S. Sens. Don Nickles and Jim Inhofe, and U.S. Reps. Tom Coburn and Steve Largent.

U.S. Department of Interior officials, U.S. Attorney Bruce Green, representatives of the president, the Carter Center in Atlanta and Oklahoma Election Board Secretary Lance Ward are also on the invitation list.

Among other things, the Carter Center, named after former President Jimmy Carter, monitors elections.

``My goal is an honest, fair 1999 Cherokee Nation election,'' said John Adair, the commission chairman.

Federal judge puts lawsuit in Cherokee Nation's lap
c. Tulsa World 4/6/99

MUSKOGEE -- A judge says a Washington, D.C., law firm's lawsuit against three Cherokee Nation council members should be heard by a tribal court.

U.S. District Judge Michael Burrage denied Swidler & Berlin's request for a preliminary injunction in a case stemming from two years of Cherokee feuding.

The firm alleged in its December 1997 filing that the council members had filed a frivolous lawsuit against Swidler & Berlin in a court with no jurisdiction.

"This court finds that the Cherokee Nation tribal courts should determine tribal jurisdiction in the first instance," Burrage wrote in his order, issued last week. "Review of the decision may later lie with this court."

Swidler & Berlin accused tribal council members Paula Holder, Troy Poteete and Barbara Starr Scott of attempting to harass Chief Joe Byrd by attacking his attorneys.

Chief keeps money reins
By ROB MARTINDALE c. Tulsa World 4/10/99

A judge's order leaves Chief Joe Byrd in charge of tribal funds, at least for now.

TAHLEQUAH -- Without opposition from the tribal council, a Cherokee Nation judge Friday left intact a continuing resolution that allows Chief Joe Byrd to handle the tribe's finances without legislative approval. District Judge John Cripps said his stay order would remain in effect until a scheduled court hearing May 28. If the tribal council approves a budget in advance of that date, the hearing will be canceled, he said.

Byrd took control of the tribe's purse strings at the end of March when he said $90 million of the tribe's $140 million budget was in jeopardy because the tribal council had failed to approve a budget in accordance with federal guidelines.

He filed suit against the 15 council members, and Cripps declared a financial emergency in the tribe, giving Byrd temporary control of spending.

The tribal council has been unable to meet on numerous occasions during the past year because of a split on the body, where six members have opposed Byrd administration initiatives and forced the council to fall short of its quorum of 10.

Several witnesses for Byrd testified Fri day that a cutoff of federal funding could shut down the tribe, which is the second-largest in America with 200,000 members.

Paula Holder, the lone council member to testify, told Cripps that she supports a continuing resolution, but she questioned whether the tribal court had a voice in Cherokee Nation funding.

Her attorney, Diane Blalock, said the matter should be before the Judicial Appeals Tribunal, the tribe's supreme court, and not in the district court system.

Byrd said he took over the spending functions because the lack of authorization from the tribal council was threatening health, housing, food distribution and other functions, including the tribe's $38 million annual payroll.

The chief, who attended Friday's hearing but didn't take the witness stand, said tribal legislation gives him the authority to enact a continuing resolution for tribal funding.

Holder said the six counselors didn't attend a March 30 council meeting to approve a budget because they hadn't been given adequate time to study the proposal.

Byrd said the council is responsible for funding $93 million in annual spending and that $83 million of that impacts tribal programs.

Another $45 million, he said, is in programs that don't require appropriations but would be hurt by a cutback in support services.

In a second tribal court matter Friday, a supreme court justice, Darrell Dowty, gave opposing attorneys in a Cherokee Nation redistricting dispute until Tuesday to file final briefs.

Council member Harley Terrell of Tahlequah is challenging a previous supreme court ruling that reduces the number of seats in his district from three to two.

Councilman Nick Lay, whose Tulsa County-Washington County district gained a second seat, filed the earlier lawsuit which brought about the redistricting order.

The redistricting also gave Mayes County a second seat and dropped one of the two seats in the Three Rivers district.

Terrell's attorney, Jo Nan Allen, said tribal law gives oversight on redistricting matters to the council and not the judicial branch.

Jim Wilcoxen, Lay's attorney, said Terrell's legal effort was ``a last-minute effort to second-guess the court.''

Byrd, counsel ordered to tribal court
By ROB MARTINDALE c. Tulsa World 4/13/99

The chief is charged with creating an illegal judicial system.

TAHLEQUAH -- Cherokee Chief Joe Byrd and his general counsel have been ordered to appear in the tribe's supreme court on charges that Byrd created an illegal court system at Cherokee Nation headquarters.

Philip Viles Jr., the chief justice of the tribe's Judicial Appeals Tribunal, has set a 3 p.m. Friday hearing on the matter, court records show.

Two tribal district judges established offices at the tribe's headquarters complex at a time when Byrd was charged in Cherokee Nation court with obstruction of justice for allegedly interfering with an investigation of tribal finances.

Viles said the district judges should conduct court at the Cherokee Nation courthouse downtown, the supreme court's headquarters.

Byrd made space available at the tribe's headquarters southwest of Tahlequah for District Judges Tina Jordan and DeWayne Littlejohn.

Jordan since has resigned as a tribal district judge. She is now an attorney for the Cherokee Nation Housing Authority and is a candidate for a vacancy on the three- member supreme court.

Viles said the supreme court had issued orders stating that Littlejohn and Jordan weren't authorized to be judges and should not be paid.

Obeying a February court order, the tribe's accounting director, Dan Howard, produced records showing that Jordan and Littlejohn had received a total of $36,000, despite the supreme court's contention that they had been suspended from their duties.

Rex Earl Starr, the tribe's general counsel, told Byrd in a written opinion in August 1998 that the two judges should be paid despite their suspensions by the supreme court, court records showed.

``The correct constitutional procedures were not followed, and due process was denied. Therefore, the order of suspension is a nullity. The district judges should be paid through monies appropriated by the tribal council,'' Starr said.

Byrd didn't challenge the suspension orders in tribal court but proceeded to authorize the payments to the judges in October.

Viles said in his hearing order, ``The advice of Mr. Starr to his client to disregard an order of this court, which amounts to the final word as to Cherokee law, flies in the face of his duty to this court and to Cherokee citizens.''

Byrd has been at odds with the supreme court since February 1998, when tribal marshals raided the headquarters in search of evidence of alleged misuse of funds.

Two of the three justices who were on the court then have left the bench. One of them, Dwight Birdwell, is running for chief.

Six members of the 15-member tribal council have boycotted council meetings in part as an attempt to keep Byrd from naming a second person to the supreme court before his term expires in August.

The Cherokee Nation primary election is scheduled for May 22, followed by runoff voting on July 24. Elected officials will take their oaths of office on Aug. 14.

Byrd plans defense for court hearing
c. Tulsa World 4/14/99

TAHLEQUAH -- Cherokee Chief Joe Byrd will defend his retention of two ``suspended'' district judges on the grounds that they were denied due process of law by the tribe's supreme court.

A Cherokee Nation representative confirmed Tuesday that Byrd will attend a 3 p.m. Friday hearing before the tribe's supreme court to answer charges that he paid the jurists despite the court's contention that they had been placed under suspension.

The court suspended the two judges after they refused to conduct legal proceedings at the downtown courthouse, where the high court, officially called the Judicial Affairs Tribunal, is based.

The judges established a district court at the Cherokee Nation's tribal headquarters.

The representative of the tribe's law and judicial department said the judges, DeWayne Littlejohn and Tina Jordan, were denied due process hearings under the federal Indian Civil Rights Act.

The representative also said that removal and suspension of judges is vested in the tribal council and not in the supreme court.

Byrd and his general counsel, Rex Earl Starr, were ordered by Chief Justice Philip Viles Jr. to make court appearances Friday.

Ex-Cherokee official gets 23 months
By Rod Walton c. Tulsa World 4/16/99

MUSKOGEE -- A federal judge sentenced Joel R. Thompson, former Cherokee Nation Housing Authority director, to 23 months in prison for filing false travel expense claims that may have netted him almost $100,000 in reimbursements.

U.S. District Judge Michael Burrage also ordered Thompson to pay $81,729 in restitution and $2,100 in fines. Thompson will be on three years of probation after his release from prison.

Thompson, housing director for 10 years, was convicted in October of 19 counts of mail fraud and two counts of embezzlement from an Indian tribal organization.

Evidence indicated that Thompson double- and triple-dipped in his filing of travel expenses for trips he made between 1994 and 1997.

Prosecutors said he used a scheme in which he would take out a cash advance for business trips, use a housing authority credit card for his expenses and then bill again afterward.

The government said Thompson may have bilked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and other organizations out of as much as $100,000.

On Thursday, Burrage ordered Thompson's retirement account liquidated and its remaining $65,000 turned over to the Cherokee Nation Housing Authority for restitution. Prosecutors maintain that Thompson deposited much of that ill-gotten money into his retirement account.

``You were using housing authority funds you shouldn't have been using, which allowed you to put rather significant amounts in your retirement fund,'' Burrage told Thompson in court.

``I believe since the housing authority played a part in the account, it should be paid restitution from these funds,'' Burrage added.

Once Thompson is released from prison, a payment installment plan will be set up for the remainder of the restitution, Burrage ordered. Thompson is due to report to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons by May 21.

Federal prosecutor Doug Horn said he was happy with Burrage's sentence, noting it was in the middle of the 21 to 27 months recommended by federal guidelines.

``It should send a signal not only to the Cherokee Nation but any other entity that is receiving federal funds if you steal . . . there are ramifications.''

Thompson declined to comment to reporters Thursday, saying he was acting on the advice of his attorneys. However, he did vow to pay all restitution ordered by the court.

``I will make all due effort to pay this,'' Thompson said.

Chief seeks judge's removal from case
By ROD WALTON c. Tulsa World 4/17/99

TAHLEQUAH -- The question of whether Cherokee Chief Joe Byrd and his general counsel should be held in contempt of court gave way Friday to a debate over whether a tribal supreme court justice who has been critical of Byrd should be allowed to hear the case.

Byrd and his attorney, Rex Earl Starr, were scheduled to appear Friday afternoon for a contempt-of-court hearing on whether they violated tribal law by continuing to favor payments to two district court judges even after the judges were suspended by the Judicial Appeals Tribunal, the tribe's high court.

Instead of that expected hearing, tribunal Chief Justice Philip Viles Jr. met with Tim Baker and Lloyd Cole, two attorneys representing Byrd and Starr, for more than an hour.

The three, as well as fellow Justice Darrell Dowty, were discussing a motion to have Viles disqualify himself from the hearing process.

Byrd and Starr contend that Viles cannot be unbiased in a case involving Byrd because he has been critical of the chief's job performance in newspaper interviews. Viles said Friday that he refused to step down, and he set an April 30 hearing date on the disqualification matter.

``I have been critical of the chief and his performance,'' Viles admitted, but said he could be fair in any judicial process involving Byrd.

Both Baker and Cole said Byrd and Starr were not com pelled to attend Friday's court session because they never were personally served the summons. Court papers detailing Friday's session were only left on a secretary's desk at tribal headquarters, Baker said.

Viles said he had no problem with Byrd's and Starr's absences Friday.

Viles and Dowty are the only two current members of the Judicial Appeals Tribunal. Dowty is a Byrd appointee.

Asked which way Dowty might rule on the motion for disqualification, Viles said, ``You'll have to ask him that.''

Dowty later said he had no comment on the matter.

``I don't give statements as a justice,'' said Dowty, who is also a Cherokee County prosecutor. ``Mr. Viles, he gives statements every once in a while.''

Friday's battle over the disqualification question obscured the original intention of the court session: to decide whether Byrd and Starr were in contempt of court for ignoring the tribunal's ruling that they not pay two district court justices who had been suspended.

Viles has said former judges DeWayne Littlejohn and Tina Jordan weren't authorized to be judges and shouldn't be paid.

Dan Howard, the Cherokees' accounting director, later produced records showing Jordan and Littlejohn received $36,000 in payments despite the high court's contention. Byrd never challenged the suspension orders in court but went ahead in authorizing the payments.

Cherokees set hearing to end council boycott
c. Tulsa World 4/23/99

TAHLEQUAH -- A hearing on a petition to force six boycotting members of the Cherokee Nation council to attend meetings will be heard Friday by a tribal district judge.

The boycotts have left the 15-member council without a quorum of 10 several times during the past year.

The petition was filed by Ed Crittenden, who said the councilors are being paid $1,400 a month while they refuse to attend meetings.

The tribe has been in turmoil for two years over allegations of misuse of funds against the administration of Chief Joe Byrd, who has denied the allegations and blamed politics for them.

The councilors said they have boycotted meetings to stop the Byrd majority on the council from implementing laws that the boycotting members consider to be against federal guidelines and the tribe's constitution.

Ruling on tribal meeting attendance petition delayed
c. Tulsa World 4/24/99

TAHLEQUAH -- A Cherokee Nation district judge on Friday delayed a hearing on tribal council attendance until May 28.

Ed Crittenden has filed a petition seeking to force six boycotting council members to attend meetings.

The councilors said the petition should have been filed in the tribe's supreme court.

Tribal stability tied to vote
By MICHAEL OVERALL c. Tulsa World 4/26/99

Cherokee election is considered key. Nothing less than the "survival of the Cherokee Nation as we know it" depends on the outcome of this tribal election, candidates for chief said Sunday. During a three-hour debate at Tulsa's Central Library, the candidates tried to talk about other issues -- like health care, housing, education and economic development.

But every time, every other issue eventually came back around to the issue facing the Cherokee Nation: How to restore stability to tribal government after years in a constitutional crisis.

The turmoil began in February 1997 when tribal marshals carried out a search warrant against Chief Joe Byrd's office, looking for evidence of alleged misuse of funds.

Byrd claimed the raid was an attempted coup d'etat, fired the entire marshals office and had the Tribal Council start impeachment proceedings against the tribal Supreme Court.

To stop the impeachment, anti- Byrd members of the Tribal Council have been boycotting council meetings, preventing a quorum and bringing tribal government to a virtual standstill.

Like one candidate for chief, Maxie Thompson, put it: "It's been a bitter, hate-filled struggle that threatens the survival of the Cherokee Nation as we know it."

And every other candidate present at the forum agreed -- the tribe's independence won't endure for long unless the next chief restores confidence in tribal government.

Six of the nine chief candidates attended Sunday's forum, sponsored by the Cherokee Community Organization.

Chief Byrd, running for re-election, skipped the debate, as did candidates Meredeth Frailey and Haskell Murphy. More than 100 tribal members sat in the audience.

"Stability will come to the Cherokee Nation," said candidate Dwight Birdwell, "when our elected officials obey the laws of the Cherokee Nation and the constitution of the Cherokee Nation."

As a justice of the Cherokee supreme court, Birdwell has been a central character in the tribal crisis.

So has candidate Pat Ragsdale, the former head of the tribal marshal service who was fired by Byrd.

Many of the tribe's other problems -- like a housing shortage, lack of health-care coverage and unemployment -- could be alleviated, Ragsdale said, by electing officials who won't let tribal funds "simply vanish."

He called for a tribal "Open Records Act," similar to the state of Oklahoma's, to allow the public to scrutinize how tribal funds are managed.

"This (Byrd) administration tries to work in secrecy," Ragsdale told the audience. "But where is the money? This is your money and you have a right to see how it is being spent."

Candidate Chad Smith also became a major player in the tribal crisis when he was arrested for protesting on the grounds of the tribal courthouse after Byrd locked the Supreme Court out of the building.

"This is the time for us to gain everything back or lose everything forever," Smith said.

"Everything," he said, means "our cultural identity, economic self-reliance and strong tribal government."

The tribe must a elect a chief "who will follow the law," Smith said, "so we still will be a tribe in 10, 50, 100 years."

Garland Eagle, currently the tribe's deputy chief and now running for the top post, offered himself as a sort of compromise candidate.

Like the other challengers, Eagle said he could restore confidence in tribal government.

But like an incumbent, Eagle could step into the chief's office with minimal disruption of current policies.

"I could lead without stopping and looking back," he said. "Things could just change hands and go right along."

Regardless of who wins the May 22 election, the tribe has a long struggle ahead of it, said candidate Virginia Stroud, a Tahlequah artist.

"We're going to have to work hard on healing our divisions," Stroud said. "It's not going to be easy."

Brief calls attorney instigator
By ROB MARTINDALE c. Tulsa World 5/13/99

A counterpart wants the lawyer disqualified from the Cherokee wiretapping lawsuit. A Tulsa attorney has been accused in federal court papers of being one of the driving forces and primary instigators of unrest and dissention in the Cherokee Nation. The assertions against Chuck Shipley were included in a brief filed by another Tulsa attorney, Paul Boudreaux, who asked a U.S. District Court judge to disqualify Shipley from a wiretapping lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, Shipley represents three people who allege that they know their telephones or those of others were illegally wiretapped with the knowledge of people associated with the Cherokee Nation.

Among the defendants represented by Boudreaux in the case are Chief Joe Byrd; Cherokee general counsel Rex Earl Starr; Byrd's former press secretary, Lisa Finley; and Jennie Battles, the tribe's former secretary-treasurer.

In court papers, Shipley labeled the effort as ``preposterous.''

A court hearing on the matter is scheduled for Thursday.

Boudreaux bases his disqualification request on grounds that Shipley has represented the Cherokee Nation in litigation and now is using information he learned to sue the chief and other present and former tribal officials.

Shipley should be removed under rules of professional conduct in part because ``he cannot avoid giving testimony in this proceeding,'' Boudreaux told the court.

Boudreaux said Shipley has a ``personal hatred'' for Byrd and has waged an unrelenting attack on the chief and others through the news media and the Internet.

Shipley filed the wiretapping lawsuit in May 1998. It centered originally on a cassette tape of a telephone conversation between Dwight Birdwell, then a tribal supreme court justice, and Marvin Summerfield, a Jay newspaperman.

The tape purportedly was delivered to Robert Powell, then the tribe's inspector general, played in part for Byrd and then turned over to the FBI.

Boudreaux said Shipley became personally involved in the investigation of the chief, whose administration was charged in tribal court with misuse of funds. This ``spirit of unrest,'' Boudreaux said, allegedly led to the wiretapping.

Shipley, he charged, has conducted investigations into records, telephone bills, hotel bills and other areas.

Shipley, he noted, has had professional connections with one current and two former justices of the tribal supreme court and with Paula Holder, who is among six tribal council members who have boycotted council meetings to force a lack of a quorum.

In a response, Shipley accused Boudreaux of using ``misleading innuendo and interpretation . . . to further mislead this court.''

The charge that he is ``a primary instigator of tribal unrest,'' Shipley said, is inconsistent because the allegation states that the unrest started before Byrd took office and then turned into ``full-scale political warfare'' after Byrd became the chief.

Shipley said he didn't become involved in the Cherokee Nation until June 1997, when he agreed to represent the three supreme court justices who were made targets for impeachment by the tribal council.

His involvement, he told the court, came after a February 1997 raid on Byrd's headquarters in search of evidence of misuse of funds.

Several witnesses, Shipley said, have testified that the alleged wiretapping started as early as 1995.

He called Boudreaux's effort to have him dismissed ``harassment.''

Cherokee elections to be monitored
By ROB MARTINDALE c. Tulsa World 5/18/99

TAHLEQUAH -- The Carter Center, which has monitored elections in several Third World nations, will oversee Cherokee Nation tribal voting on Saturday.

A spokeswoman for the Carter Center in Atlanta said Monday that it will mark the first time the center has observed voting by an American Indian tribe.

Center spokeswoman Ann Carney said a team of about 10 election observers would come to northeastern Oklahoma to work at tribal polling precincts.

The center is sending a team at the requests of the tribe's election commission, several candidates and members of the Cherokee Nation council, she said.

Former President Jimmy Carter, chairman of the center's board of trustees, will not come to Oklahoma.

He and teams from the center have observed elections in 15 countries.

Cherokee Chief Joe Byrd, whose administration has been scarred by two years of controversy, said he welcomed the visit from the center.

``I am looking forward to a fair and impartial election process,'' said Byrd, who is seeking a second four-year term.

The tribe has been in chaos since February 1997, when the tribe's Marshal Service raided Byrd's headquarters in search of evidence of alleged misuse of funds.

The raid was followed by an FBI probe into the tribe, the chief's subsequent firing of the marshals, the closing of the tribal courthouse by the Byrd administration and several federal audits.

An FBI investigation is officially still under way, and Bureau of Indian Affairs police officers have been assigned to the 14-county jurisdiction of the tribe, which has about 200,000 members and is second in size only to the Navajo Nation.

The tribe's high court had supported the raid on Byrd's offices, and the chief was named in charges of obstruction of justice in connection with the marshals' firing.

Chief candidates who were not involved in the crisis are Meredeth Frailey of Locust Grove, Haskell Murphy of Tahlequah and Maxie Thompson of Rose.

A complete list of candidates for deputy chief includes Bill John Baker of Tahlequah, Paula Holder of Warner, Bob Leach of Albuquerque, Hastings Shade of Hulbert and Gary Stopp of Tahlequah.

Baker and Holder are members of the 15-member tribal council, where the Byrd administration has the support of eight loyalists.

However, the council frequently has not been able to meet because six dissenting council members have boycotted meetings and forced the lack of a quorum of 10.

Among the six is Holder, who is running for deputy chief on a slate with Ragsdale. Baker is running for deputy chief on Byrd's ticket.

The tribe also will hold elections for council seats. The candidates are:

District 1, Cherokee

Jessup Bryant, Kyle Downing Bussey, Don Crittenden and John Ketcher, all of Tahlequah; and Sherman Nofire of Welling; Boyd Smith and Harley Terrell of Park Hill; and Raymond Vann of Tahlequah.

District 2, Trail of Tears

Sam Jack Chaphan, Betty Hale- Frogg, Jackie Bob Martin, Paul Pinkerton and Dora Mae Watie, all of Stilwell; and Harold ``Jiggs'' Phillips of Westville.

District 3, Sequoyah

Debbie Cato, James Locust, Donald Quinton and David Thornton, all of Vian; and Mary Flute-Cooksey of Marble City.

District 4, Three Rivers

Patsy Brickey of Fort Gibson; Teasie McCrary of Warner; and Don Garvin and Calvin Rock, both of Muskogee.

District 5, Delaware

Barbara Conness and Jesse Glass, both of Kansas, Okla.; Kale Parman of Ketchum; Patti Holland, Barbara Starr-Scott and Melvina Shotpouch, all of Jay; and George Wickliffe of Salina.

District 7, Will Rogers

Carol Ann Barkley, Harold DeMoss and Keith Hunter, all of Inola; and James Hammett and Bob Glass, both of Claremore.

District 8, Oologah

Buel Anglen of Sperry; Nick Lay and Dorothy Jean McIntosh, both of Ochelata; and Roger Peacock of Tulsa.

District 9, Craig

Charles Hoskin of Vinita; and Rodney Lay of Lenapah.

For more information on elections, call 1 (800) 353-2895.

Time for change: Cherokees should replace their chief
Tulsa World Editorial 5/20/99

Joe Byrd, chief of the Cherokee Nation, is a personable fellow. Sadly, his term as chief has been a disaster. Cherokees -- who will vote Saturday for chief, deputy chief and tribal council members -- can, and ought to, select a more suitable leader from among nine candidates for the top post.

In February 1997, officers of the Cherokee Marshal Service raided Byrd's headquarters in search of evidence of alleged misuse of funds. Since then, tribal members have been subjected to a circus of scandals, governmental missteps and public-relations blunders. Among them are an FBI probe into the tribe's activities, the chief's firing of the marshals and tribal prosecutor, closing of the tribal courthouse, a brawl between competing security forces, efforts by Byrd to impeach the high court justices and several federal audits of the tribe's finances.

Meanwhile, Byrd's critics accuse him of running off capable department and agency heads, and of nepotism in hiring their replacements.

Byrd is seeking a second four- year term as chief. There are much better choices among the eight candidates who oppose him.

For example, Meredith Swimmer Frailey of Locust Grove is a highly qualified businesswoman and attorney. She has a solid background in business and industry, including a successful stint as president and chief executive officer of Cherokee Nation Industries. And there are other qualified candidates, including Dwight Birdwell of Stilwell, a former member of the tribal supreme court, and Pat Ragsdale of Muskogee, director of the Marshal Service.

The number of candidates makes it likely that a runoff election will be necessary. It is important that at least one qualified candidate, such as Frailey, make the runoff to ensure a credible alternative to the current chief.

Saturday's election obviously is important to the 200,000 Cherokees, many of whom live in 14 counties in northeastern Oklahoma. But it also is of interest to the non-Indian public, given the fact that about $100 million of U.S. taxpayers' money goes to the tribe each year.

The Cherokees deserve something better than divisive, scandal- ridden, brother-in-law style government. Chief Byrd has proven incapable of providing that something better. It is time for a change.

Cherokees go to polls Saturday
By ROB MARTINDALE c. Tulsa World 5/21/99

Eight candidates are opposing Joe Byrd in the race for chief. TAHLEQUAH -- Cherokees, who have seen their tribe raked by controversy for two years, will go to the polls Saturday in an effort to determine if the Joe Byrd administration has passed or flunked the test. Saturday's voting, however, might not put the final score on the board, as eight candidates are opposing Byrd in the race for chief, opening up the possibility of a runoff election.

The tribe has 26,000 registered voters and, in recent elections, an average of 11,000 to 12,000 members have gone to the polls to vote in primaries, the Cherokee Nation election board reported.

Races for deputy chief and 15 council seats also are up for grabs in Saturday's election, which will be observed by a 10- member team from the Carter Center in Atlanta.

In addition to Byrd, candidates for chief are:

Pat Ragsdale:former director of the tribe's marshal service.

Meredith Frailey:a former tribal administration and cousin of former Chief Ross Swimmer.

Chad Smith:an attorney who has taught Indian law, worked for the tribe and who was a candidate four years ago.

Dwight Birdwell:an attorney and former chief justice of the tribe's supreme court.

James Garland Eagle:the tribe's deputy chief.

Maxie Thompson:a Cherokee County commissioner.

Haskell Murphy:who was employed by the tribe for 20 years, working with road programs and the Jobs Corps.

Virginia Stroud:an Indian artist, who said the tribe has steered away from its role to benefit its people.

The tribe has been in turmoil since February 1997, when Ragsdale's marshals raided Byrd's headquarters in search of evidence of misuse of funds.

Byrd fired the marshals, criticized the tribe's supreme court justices who supported the raid and drew the wrath of a minority of six on the 15-member tribal council.

While Byrd has been a point of contention in America's second largest Indian tribe, he is the incumbent chief, has the best name recognition and must be considered the front-runner.

The two chiefs who preceded Byrd -- Swimmer and Wilma Mankiller -- each won re-election but didn't face controversial pressures that have dominated the tribe for more than two years.

Byrd has been the only candidate with the finances to take his campaign to television, where his commercials have touted accomplishments and taken potshots at the six tribal council members who have opposed his administration.

``The Six'' are a council minority, but their number has given them the strength to cancel council meetings by staging boycotts and leaving the 15-member body without a quorum.

Byrd has accused the six councilors of holding back the tribe, but Ragsdale has charged that their boycott actions are necessary because Byrd has been bent on destroying the tribe's judicial branch and has sidestepped a peace agreement reached through the U.S. Department of Interior.

Paula Holder, one of the boycotting council members, is running for deputy chief on the Ragsdale ticket.

Cherokee law, Ragsdale said, should be followed to the last letter, even when the administration of the chief is in question. He has called for the tribe to have an open-records act, similar to Oklahoma law.

Ragsdale has been endorsed by Mankiller, who has called him ``the ultimate Boy Scout.''

Ironically, Birdwell, who has been criticized by Byrd, was among the tribal supreme court justices who made Byrd chief of the tribe by forfeit four years ago.

Byrd finished second in the primary, but the leading vote-getter, George Bearpaw, was disqualified from holding elective office by the supreme court.

Birdwell said stability will return to the tribe of 200,000 members when ``our elected officials obey the laws of the Cherokee Nation and the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation.''

Smith, who was arrested by Cherokee County authorities in June 1997 for protesting Byrd's takeover of the Cherokee Nation courthouse, said the conflict in the tribe occurred, in part, because it had become ``a self-serving institution.''

Byrd's security force took control of the courthouse after a tribal prosecutor accused the chief of interfering with an investigation of his headquarters.

Smith, a student of Cherokee Nation culture, is an attorney and has taught history at Dartmouth College, Northeastern State University and Rogers University, he said.

Frailey, an attorney and businesswoman, said the tribe needs to start ``rebuilding our enterprises, restoring confidence, repairing our reputation.''

The tribe, which has an annual budget estimated at $150 million, needs to have a full accounting of ``how much money is coming into the Cherokee Nation, from what sources and what is being done with the money,'' she said.

She said she would trace all sources of tribal revenues, from gasoline tax rebates from the state, bingo operations and Cherokee Nation Industries to the leasing of lands and facilities.

Murphy said the tribe must have a healing process and put itself into a position to enhance jobs, education, housing and health care for all Cherokee Nation citizens.

Citing his experience of working for the Swimmer, Mankiller and Byrd administrations, Murphy said he believes he can serve the Cherokee Nation in a ``diplomatic way.''

Thompson said he believes the tribe is being deprived of adequate leadership and that a change at the top is in order.

``The purpose of the Cherokee Nation,'' he said, ``is to help prepare the people for the future with a leader who is a visionary.''

The tribe, he said, needs to come together.

``It's been a bitter, hate-filled struggle that threatens the survival of the Cherokee Nation as we know it,'' Thompson said.

As deputy chief, Eagle has been loyal to the Byrd administration. He presided over a council session where the three-member supreme court was ``impeached'' after it agreed to consider obstruction of justice charges against Byrd.

Eagle said he could restore confidence in tribal government with minimal disruption.

Stroud has called for expanded health care in the tribe, the promotion of education and the creation of jobs.

She said the tribe should have a lumber construction company for housing projects, a tribally owned insurance firm, an alcohol-drug treatment center and therapy and stress management programs.

Cherokee vote ready
By ROB MARTINDALE c. Tulsa World 5/22/99

It should be ``the smoothest and most efficient" election ever held by the tribe, one official says.

TAHLEQUAH -- The Cherokee Nation will be using electronic voting machines for the first time in Saturday's elections, and hopes are high that everything will go smoothly.

``We have prepared for over a year. You never know if it is going to be absolutely perfect, but we are comfortable with the training and the election process as a whole,'' said John Adair, election commission chairman.

With races for chief, deputy chief and 15 council seats on the ballot, Adair said he expects to see ``the smoothest and most efficient, honest and accurate election ever held in the Cherokee Nation.''

Adair said he also is pleased that the Carter Center in Atlanta has sent a 10- member team to observe the election and make recommendations for future voting. ``They brought a very profession al team,'' he said.

Runoff elections will be held in late July, if necessary, with the new officeholders taking oaths of office in mid-August.

The tribe has a five-member election commission with two selected by the tribal council and two by the chief. The four of them name a fifth member as the chairman.

There are 33 precincts in the tribe's 14-county jurisdictional area. The precincts will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

With 26,000 registered voters, Adair said he is looking for a voter turnout of around 50 percent.

He said he hopes the Carter Center team returns for the runoff elections if they are required. ``We certainly want them to come back,'' he said.

Gordon Streebcq, associate executive director of peace programs for the Carter Center, said the observation team is in the Cherokee Nation as a neutral party.

Before the election, the team met with Cherokee Nation election officials, several candidates and people who expressed fears about the election process.

The Carter Center sent the team to Oklahoma at the request of tribal election officials, candidates and elected members of the council, Streeb said.

Streeb said his team has made a study of the electronic voting machine operation and believes the tribe has employed an expert firm to conduct the election.

The tribe is using a consulting company from New Mexico ``which has a group of experienced people here who have conducted elections for tribes all over the country,'' he said.

Absentee ballots, he said, also will be counted by the electronic machines.

In meeting with tribal members, including former Chief Wilma Mankiller, Streeb said his team is getting a sense of what to watch for in Saturday's elections.

After the election, he said, the Carter Center will make a report on how the Cherokee Nation might improve the process in the future.

The tribe has been in turmoil since an unannounced February 1987 raid on Chief Joe Byrd's headquarters by members of the tribe's marshal service in search of evidence of misuse of funds.

Among those accompanying the observer team to Oklahoma is Tulsan Katheryn Desiree Waidner, who is doing an internship with the Carter Center.

Waidner, a graduate of Tulsa's Washington High School, is taking literary journalism and international cultural studies at Hampshire College at Amhearst, Mass.

The Carter Center previously has monitored elections in 15 foreign countries and the state of Georgia.

Candidates for chief are:

Byrd, Virginia Stroud, James Garland Eagle and Haskell Murphy, all of Tahlequah; Meredith Frailey of Locust Grove; Pat Rags dale of Muskogee; Dwight Birdwell of Stilwell; Chad Smith of Sapulpa; and Maxie Thompson of Rose.

In a late development Friday, a special tribal prosecutor recommended that indirect contempt-of- court charges be brought against Byrd and others in his administration.

The special prosecutor, Darrell Moore of Pryor, recommended the charges in connection with the tribe setting up a district court system at tribal headquarters instead of the Cherokee Nation Courthouse.

The tribe's supreme court, the Judicial Appeals Tribunal, had issued orders saying that the judicial branch at the headquarters was illegal and that two district judges appointed by the Byrd administration had refused to move their offices to the courthouse.

The special prosecutor was named by Philip Viles Jr., chief justice of the supreme court.

Moore said indirect contempt-of- court charges also should be brought against Deputy Chief James Garland Eagle, former Chief of Staff Gary Stopp and the district court judges, DeWayne Littlejohn and Tina Jordan.

Byrd forced into runoff for chief
By ROB MARTINDALE c. Tulsa World 5/23/99

Slight lead over Chad Smith may put Cherokee leader in underdog role.

TAHLEQUAH -- Cherokee Chief Joe Byrd Saturday was pushed into a runoff, sparking speculation that he could be the underdog in the tribe's runoff election in July. With 18 of 32 precincts reporting, Byrd had 2,269 votes, or 30 percent. Running second was Chad Smith with 1,585, or 21 percent, followed by Pat Ragsdale, with 1,327, or 18 percent.

Smith and Ragsdale have been critics of the Byrd administration, and Cherokees watching the results here Saturday night at the tribe's election board speculated whoever made the runoff would receive the vote of the other.

In the race for deputy chief, with 18 precincts tabulated, Hastings Shade had 2,277 votes compared to 1,961 for Bill John Baker.

Shade is running as a team with Smith, and Baker is running on the ticket with Byrd. Paula Holder, Ragsdale's running mate, was in third place in the incomplete returns for deputy chief with 1,839 votes.

Gordon Streeb, head of the monitoring team from the Atlanta-based Carter Center, said the election went smoothly.

However, he said that several Cherokees raised questions about why they were not considered to be qualified to vote because they are not on the registration list.

Many of these Cherokees were al lowed to cast "challenged ballots." The tribe's election commission will decide whether the challenged ballots will be certified before the official vote is announced.

Electronic voting devices were used for the first time by the Cherokee Nation, which has 200,000 members.

The election for chief featured many of the figures who have been connected to feuding in the tribe.

Ragsdale was fired by Chief Byrd as the head of the Cherokee Nation Marshal's Service for raiding tribal headquarters. Smith was arrested when he tried to stop the Byrd administration from closing down the tribe's courthouse.

Other chief candidates were Dwight Birdwell, a former justice who issued directives critical of the Byrd administration; attorney-businesswoman Meredith Frailey; Deputy Chief James Garland Eagle; Cherokee County Commissioner Maxie Thompson; artist Virginia Stroud; and Haskell Murphy, a former tribal employee.

Baker and Horner, members of the split tribal council, ran for deputy chief along with Gary Stopp of Tahlequah, Shade of Hulbert and Bob Leach of Albuquerque.

Cherokees also cast votes for 15 members of the tribal council.

The election came after months of turmoil in the tribe which featured in- fighting between the judicial, administrative and legislative branches. The bickering triggered investigations by the FBI and several federal government agencies into how federal funds were being handled in the nation's second- largest Indian tribe.

Joel Thompson, who had headed the tribe's housing authority, was found guilty in a federal court jury trial of embezzling funds, and the U.S. District Attorney's Office in Muskogee said the then-treasurer, Jennie Battles, might have used federal funds for her own personal use.

Federal officials also questioned the use of more than $80,000 in taxpayer funds to pay legal fees, and the tribe made a reimbursement. It is also alleged in a federal court case in Tulsa that the telephones of people close to the in- fighting had been wiretapped.

The tribe has been under an FBI investigation for around two years, but Byrd has not been ac cused of any wrongdoing. He said there was a conspiracy among his detractors to discredit his administration.

In February 1997, tribal marshals armed with a search warrant made an unannounced raid on Byrd's headquarters while he was out of his office. Byrd said the raid, which was led by Ragsdale in his role as chief of the marshal service, was uncalled for and any information could have been obtained through a telephone call to his office.

Ragsdale said the marshals were seeking evidence of misuse of funds. In his role as a magistrate, Ralph Keen, then a supreme court justice, had authorized the search warrant.

Contending that the judicial branch was not following the tribe's constitution on all points, the Byrd administration fired the marshals and closed down the courthouse in downtown Tahlequah. A district court system then was established at the tribal headquarters.

The current chief justice of the supreme court, Philip Viles Jr., said it is illegal.

Six members of the 15-member council basically agreed with Byrd's critics that the chief allegedly was trying to destroy the judicial system. They boycotted at least a dozen meetings and forced the lack of a quorum to conduct business. Byrd, a former council member, criticized them for continuing to accept their monthly paychecks of around $1,500 while boycotting meetings.

Saying that the lack of a quorum was threatening federal programs, Byrd took over responsibility for the tribe's spending. The U.S. Department of Interior tried to negotiate a truce between the warring factions, and there were federal audits of tribal accounts.

The controversy brought about calls for the neutral observation team from the Carter Center to monitor the election.

The center sent a 10-member team to eastern Oklahoma. Streeb, who headed the team, said observers will evaluate the election and issue a report.

Cherokee runoff campaign kicks off
By ROB MARTINDALE c. Tulsa World 5/24/99

TAHLEQUAH -- Joe Byrd is predicting victory, but Chad Smith said Sunday that he has the momentum on his side as the two head toward a July 24 runoff election for chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Byrd led Saturday's primary election voting but Smith said he won the endorsements of Pat Ragsdale and Meredith Swimmer Frailey, who ran third and fifth in the race, respectively.

With those endorsements, some Tahlequah election watchers are saying that Smith, not Byrd, is the favorite in the upcoming winner-take-all match.

Byrd, however, doesn't buy into that.

``Although we've won this battle, our true victory will come on July 24,'' Byrd said.

Smith countered by saying, ``It is most obvious that the policies of the incumbent are not accepted by Cherokee voters.''

Before becoming chief four years ago, Byrd served on the Cherokee Nation tribal council. He is a former high school counselor.

A former Tulsa County public defender, Smith has worked as a business and Indian law attorney in private practice and as an attorney for the Cherokee Nation.

In a nine-candidate field, Byrd finished the primary with 4,140 votes, or about 31.6 percent, while Smith was the runner-up with 2,535 votes or 19.3 percent of the total cast.

Ragsdale received 16.5 percent of the vote while Frailey garnered 11 percent. Smith said he also has been contacted by key supporters of Dwight Birdwell, who finished fourth with 14.5 percent of the votes.

Byrd has had differences with Ragsdale, Birdwell and former Chief Ross Swimmer, Frailey's cousin, over the direction of the tribe.

Ragsdale was director of the tribe's marshal service in February 1997 when it raided Byrd's headquarters in search of evidence of misuse of funds. Byrd said the raid was uncalled for, and fired Ragsdale.

Byrd once said he had information that a member of the tribe's supreme court was involved in an attempt to overthrow his administration.

It was widely assumed that he was talking about Birdwell, whose term on the tribal bench has expired.

Controversies in the tribe have triggered FBI investigations and federal audits.

``We stood our ground even during adversity and together we (Cherokees) have proven our dedication to the future of this tribe,'' Byrd said.

He said the primary election results were ``an example of how the Cherokee people have always been able to distinguish the truth from negative political rhetoric.''

Smith said the primary results show that Byrd is in trouble with Cherokee voters.

``Traditionally,'' he said, ``incumbents have an easy time when they run for re-election.''

Smith, an attorney, credited his spot in the runoff to a ``combination of a good running mate and hard work, getting poison ivy hanging signs and sunburn from talking to people at traffic corners.''

Hastings Shade, Smith's running mate, is in a runoff for deputy chief with Bill John Baker, who ran on the Byrd ticket.

Both Byrd and Smith made a pitch for various elements in the tribe to work together.

``I would like to extend my hand to all former tribal leaders, including Chiefs Swimmer and Wilma Mankiller . . . and other candidates in this election and invite them to work with me toward getting on with the business of serving the Cherokee people,'' Byrd said.

Smith said the elections represent ``an excellent opportunity to start the consensus building within the tribe.''

The election results:

Chief: Joe Byrd, 4,140; Chad Smith, 2,535; Pat Ragsdale, 2,162; Dwight Birdwell, 1,909; Meredith Frailey, 1,444; James Garland Eagle, 453; Maxie Thompson, 223; Haskell Murphy, 137, and Virginia Stroud, 108.

Deputy chief: Hastings Shade, 3,579; Bill John Baker, 3,533; Paula Holder, 3033; Gary Stopp, 2003; and Bob G. Leach, 947.

Council District 1: John Ketcher and Don Crittenden, elected.

Council District 2: Harold ``Jiggs'' Phillips and Jackie Bob Martin, elected.

Council District 3: Mary Flute- Cooksey and David W. Thornton, Sr., elected.

Council District 4: Don Garvin and Teasie McCrary, Jr., in runoff.

Council District 5: Melvina Shotpouch and Barbara Starr-Scott, elected.

Council District 6: Stephanie Wickliffe Buffalomeat and Johnny Keener, elected.

Council District 7: Harold DeMoss and James B. Hammett, in runoff.

Council District 8: Nick Lay and Dorothy Jean McIntosh, elected.

Council District 9: Charles ``Chuck'' Hoskin, elected.

- - - - - - Byrd gets the most votes in 6 districts

By ROB MARTINDALE c. Tulsa World 5/25/99

Challenger Chad Smith outpolls the incumbent in absentee ballots. TAHLEQUAH -- Chief Joe Byrd was the top vote-getter in six of the nine districts in the Cherokee Nation primary election, while his July 24 runoff opponent, Chad Smith, carried only one district but fared the best with voters casting absentee ballots. Pat Ragsdale, who finished third in the Saturday balloting in the nine-candidate field, carried the other two districts.

Byrd received 4,140 votes, or 32 percent, compared to 2,535, or 19 percent, for Smith. Ragsdale ran third with 2,162, or 16 percent.

A breakdown of the voting Monday showed that Byrd was the top vote-getter in Cherokee, Adair, Sequoyah, Delaware, Mayes and Craig counties.

The largest bloc of votes was represented by the absentees, which went to Smith, who also garnered more votes in the Tulsa-Washington County district.

Ragsdale carried Rogers County and a district consisting of McIntosh, Muskogee and Wagoner counties.

Vote totals for other candidates were:

Dwight W. Birdwell, 1,909;

Meredith Frailey, 1,444;

Deputy Chief: James Garland Eagle, 453;

Maxie Thompson, 223;

Haskell Murphy, 137; and Virginia Stroud, 108. The vote by absentee and county:

Absentee:Smith, 962; Byrd, 834; Ragsdale, 791; Birdwell, 541; Frailey, 369; Eagle, 125; Thompson, 39; Stroud, 29; and Murphy, 17.

Cherokee:Byrd, 769; Smith, 348; Birdwell, 266; Ragsdale, 202; Frailey, 132; Eagle and Murphy, both 55; Thompson, 48; and Stroud, 18.

Adair:Byrd, 612; Birdwell, 471; Frailey, 231; Eagle 103; Ragsdale, 93; Smith, 92; Murphy, 28; Thompson, 13; and Stroud, 9.

Sequoyah:Byrd, 747; Smith, 141; Birdwell, 121; Ragsdale, 67; Eagle, 36; Frailey, 34; Thompson, 8; Murphy, 6; and Stroud, 5.

McIntosh-Muskogee-Wagoner: Ragsdale, 300; Smith, 153; Byrd, 149; Birdwell, 100; Frailey, 43; Eagle, 27; Murphy and Stroud, both 11; and Thompson, 4.

Delaware:Byrd, 359; Smith, 256; Birdwell, 123; Ragsdale, 113; Frailey, 79; Thompson, 77; Eagle, 44; and Murphy and Stroud, 7 each.

Mayes:Byrd, 234; Frailey, 233; Smith, 128; Ragsdale, 98; Birdwell, 87; Eagle, 19; Thompson, 15; Stroud, 5; and Murphy, 3.

Rogers:Ragsdale, 149; Byrd and Smith, both 113; Frailey, 88; Birdwell, 61; Eagle, 12; Thompson, 8; Stroud, 7; and Murphy, 2.

Tulsa-Washington:Smith, 244; Ragsdale, 233; Frailey, 183; Byrd, 182; Birdwell, 123; Eagle, 15; Stroud, 12; Thompson, 11; and Murphy, 7.

Craig:Byrd, 141; Ragsdale, 116; Smith, 98; Frailey, 52; Eagle, 17; Birdwell, 16; Stroud, 5; Murphy, 1; and Thompson, 0.

The nine districts have a total of 32 precincts. The election was monitored by an observation team from the Carter Center in Atlanta.

Hastings Shade, Smith's running mate, and Bill John Baker, who is on the Byrd ticket, ran almost a dead heat in the deputy chief race. Shade finished with 3,579 votes and Baker, 3,533. They are in a runoff. Three other candidates were in the race.

Shade carried the absentee ballots and Cherokee, Delaware and Mayes counties. Baker carried Adair and Sequoyah counties, while Paula Holder, who ran third, carried the McIntosh-Muskogee- Wagoner district, the Tulsa-Washington district and Rogers and Craig counties.

The primary election was marked by confusion among several Cherokees on where precincts were located and if they were registered to vote.

Voter registration is now closed until after the July 24 runoff.

Anyone with questions about precinct locations, voter qualification or absentee voting should contact the Cherokee Nation Election Services Office at (918) 458-5899 or (800) 353-2895.

The 200,000-member tribe has about 156,000 members of voting age, with 26,000 actually registered, the tribe reported.

Tribunal approves contempt charges against tribal group
c. Tulsa World 5/28/99

TAHLEQUAH -- The Judicial Appeals Tribunal of the Cherokee Nation has given approval for a special prosecutor to file indirect contempt-of-court charges against Chief Joe Byrd and four others.

The charges allege that the five were a party to the establishment of an illegal district court at the Cherokee Nation headquarters.

Named in addition to Byrd are Deputy Chief James Garland Eagle, former Chief of Staff Gary Stopp, tribal District Judge DeWayne Littlejohn and Tina Jordan, a former district judge.

A district court system was established at Cherokee Nation head quarters during the current constitutional crisis in the tribe.

Philip Viles Jr., a justice on the Judicial Appeals Tribunal, the tribe's supreme court, said the district court had no standing because it was not located at the downtown Tahlequah Cherokee Nation Courthouse.

Viles said tribal funds had been misused in salary payments to the district judges.

Another high court justice, Darrell Dowty, who was appointed by Byrd, will preside over a jury trial if one is held. The special prosecutor was given until June 4 to file charges.

Cherokee Nation judge to rule on boycotting councilors
c. Tulsa World 6/12/99

TAHLEQUAH -- A Cherokee Nation district judge said he would issue an opinion Monday on an effort to stop six members of the tribal council from boycotting meetings.

Tribal District Judge John Cripps took more than three hours of testimony in the case Friday before taking the matter under advisement.

The boycotts by the six council members have left the 15-member council without a quorum to conduct business more than a dozen times during the past year.

The six council members contend that a majority of council members loyal to Chief Joe Byrd are trying to destroy the tribe's court system.

Byrd said the failure of the council to reach a quorum and conduct meetings has threatened tribal programs that depend on federal funds.

The lawsuit against the six council members was brought by Eddie Crittenden, who has noted that they are being paid around $1,500 a month despite missing meetings.

Ruling to end council boycott is on hold
By ROB MARTINDALE c. Tulsa World 6/15/99

TAHLEQUAH -- A tribal district judge Monday ordered six boycotting members of the Cherokee Nation Council to attend meetings, but a supreme court justice put the ruling on hold.

District Judge John Cripps ordered the boycotters to attend council sessions on grounds that ``irreparable harm will be suffered by the tribe unless the full council attends to business.''

The case to require the attendance of the boycotters was filed in tribal court by Ed Crittenden and six other council members, who complained that the boycotters had continued to receive monthly paychecks while not attending to their duties.

The boycotters have skipped more than 12 meetings since April 1998, charging that the Byrd administration is trying to destroy the tribe's judicial system.

After Cripps filed his order, the boycotters filed the supreme court appeal, asking for a stay of the proceedings. It was upheld by Chief Justice Philip Viles Jr.

Viles scheduled a 3:15 p.m. Friday hearing on the matter.

Cherokee Chief Joe Byrd was jubilant over the order by Cripps, whom Byrd appointed to the bench but was more subdued after the appeal was filed.

After Cripps' ruling, Byrd said the order was ``nothing more than what we hoped for . . . that everyone would come together and take care of the business of the Cherokee Nation.''

Byrd said he was disappointed by the appeal.

``Once again it is the Cherokee people and the nation that are being hurt,'' he said.

The boycotts on the 15-member council have left it without a quorum of 10 for council meetings.

The boycotts have emerged as an issue in the Cherokee Nation runoff election scheduled for July 24. Byrd is opposed for the office of chief by attorney Chad Smith, who has the support from the boycotting group as a whole.

The boycotts, council members aligned with Byrd said, have threatened federal funds for important tribal programs. The tribe has an annual budget of $140 million- plus, most of it coming through the U.S. Department of Interior.

Diane Blalock, attorney for the boycotters, said in the appeal to the supreme court that they had been ordered to attend council sessions ``regardless of the agenda.''

Had they attended meetings in the past, the appeal said, ``the judi cial branch of the Cherokee Nation would no longer exist and millions of dollars in fuel tax collected for the benefit of Cherokee citizens would have been misspent.''

Byrd has an 8-6 majority on the council, which has one neutral member.

A meeting was scheduled Monday night, but another boycott left the council without a quorum.

Court urged to protect tribal councilors in boycott
By ROD WALTON c. Tulsa World 6/19/99

TAHLEQUAH -- Lawyers for six boycotting members of the Cherokee tribal council asked the tribe's high court to protect their clients from having to participate in unconstitutional actions by the other councilors.

The Judicial Appeals Tribunal heard oral arguments from both sides in a dispute over the six members' decision not to attend meetings. The holdout councilors have skipped more than 12 meetings since April 1998.

The boycott has prevented the council from having a quorum.

Earlier this week, a district tribal judge granted a petition by another council member, Ed Crittenden, asking that the boycotting members be forced to attend meetings. Tribal business is forced to a standstill without the six members' presence, Crittenden's side pleaded.

``If it's something they don't want to talk about or want to hap pen, they just don't attend the meetings,'' said attorney Tim Baker. ``That could go on forever, and it needs to stop.''

The Judicial Appeals Tribunal granted a stay of the district court motion earlier this week. The boycotting members are asking the tribunal to continue that stay.

The boycotting members' attorneys say their clients are actually a minority on the 15-member council. The holdouts fear they will be made a part of unconstitutional actions by supporters of Chief Joe Byrd, such as voting for an unbalanced tribal budget.

``We said we have a constitutional duty not to attend these meetings, which would call for the passage of illegal actions,'' said attorney Diane Hammons.

Justices Darrell Dowty and Phillip Viles Jr. will study the arguments before making a decision.

The boycotting councilors have been Paula Holder, Troy Wayne Poteete, William Smoke, Barbara Starr Scott, Harold DeMoss and Nick Lay.

As the court proceeding ended Friday afternoon, Viles noted that Sunday will mark the second anniversary of Byrd's early morning takeover of the Cherokee Nation Courthouse. The June 20, 1997, dispute kept the justices out of the courthouse for several months and resulted in a six-month ``cooling- off'' period in which the tribe's supreme court did not hear cases.

Special Meeting Falls Through
c. Examiner-Enterprise 6/27/99

Tahlequah (AP) - The wrangling within the Cherokee Tribal Council continued when a special meeting fell through because of the lack of a quorum. Six council members who have boycotted. previous meetings called by backers of Chief Joe Byrd sought the special meeting Friday night. But this time, with one exception, it was the chiefs supporters who failed to show. The six Byrd adversaries had hoped to approve special programs and funding that has been waiting to help the Cherokee people. "We had an opportunity to sit down and pass all these resolutions to get funding and services to the people," council member Barbara Starr Scott said. "Cherokee people are tired of the current administration playing politics with their lives," said Chad Smith, a candidate in the upcoming runoff election for chief. "These councilors' refusal to attend the special meeting is proof of Byrd's continuing personal agenda," Smith said. On June 18, Cherokee Nation Special Prosecutor, Darrell L. Moore, directed the tribe's Judicial Appeals Tribunal (JAT) to issue an Order compelling Chief Joe Byrd and other individuals to appear in court to answer and show cause why then should not be held in contempt of the Court's Order issued on Feb. 17, 1998. Byrd and other officials from the Cherokee Nation purportedly failed to follow the Court's Feb. 17th order to return all court files that were illegally removed from the tribe's courthouse in the Byrd ordered pre-dawn raid and take over of the Judicial Branch court on June 20, 1997. The Court also ordered Tina Jordan and DeWayne Littlejohn, two Byrd appointed District Judges, to cease and desist from any and all judicial acts. Jordan and Littlejohn disregarded the JAT Order and continued to operate an illegal court within the Executive Branch. Deputy Chief Garland Eagle along with Byrd's chief of staff, Gary Stopp, are also named as individuals in the Special Prosecutors Order to appear in court to answer charges of contempt of court. Another special meeting has been called for Monday night by the Byrd faction. The six council members in attendance Friday Ms. Scott, William Smoke, Harold DeMoss, Nick Lay, Troy Poteete and Paula Holder - said they will not attend that meeting. Ms. Scott said the legality of that meeting is questionable. Eight of the council members must agree to call a special meeting. Ms. Scott said she had been hopeful this time there would be a quorum since council members Harold Phillips and Sam Ed Bush approved the meeting along with the six boycotters. Holder said the six refuse to attend meetings where the agendas address controversial issues yet to be resolved by the Cherokee courts. The tribal council has been split since turmoil broke out in February, 1997 when tribal marshals raided Byrd's office during an investigation into alleged misspending. In the contempt of court matter, Stopp signed and forwarded numerous check requests on behalf of Jordan and Littlejohn to the accounting department after the Court had ordered they cease and desist from judicial duties. The JAT also ordered and directed Donald Vaughn, Byrd's Interim Controller and Daniel C. Howard, Byrd's Director of Accounting and all employees of the accounting department of the Cherokee nation "not accept, process, and or approve any request for any funds whatsoever from any party whomsoever, which will not be, or may be, utilized by Tina Jordan DeWayne Littlejohn and or their purported Court Clerk or Clerks in maintaining their illegal court, or funding or paying any compensation and or expenses relating to the illegal court system in operation at the Cherokee nation Complex." Byrd and Eagle, allegedly with knowledge of the Court's order signed checks drawn on the Cherokee Nation accounts compensating Jordan and Littlejohn for judicial acts performed after Feb. 17, 1998. Allegedly Chief Byrd and Deputy Chief Eagle signed additional compensation checks for Littlejohn in November and December 1998 and January and February 1999. Each of the individuals named in the special prosecutors notice were apparently aware of the Court's Order of February 17, 1998 that specifically warned that if the order was disobeyed the punishment for said disobedience was contempt. Each are charged with failure to comply with the terms of the Court's Order. Moore has requested a date be set by the tribe's supreme court (JAT) for an initial appearance by each named and charged individual. The prosecutor's order said that each individual should be advised of the punishment associated with a finding of indirect contempt; a fine up to $500, imprisonment up to six (6) months, or both. Byrd and others named in the order to appear in court will be given an opportunity to answer and each individual shall be given an opportunity to demand a trial by jury.

Ex-challenger sides with Byrd
By AP Wire Service 6/19/99

STILWELL (AP) -- Cherokee Chief Joe Byrd received the endorsement Friday of one of his former challengers after agreeing to seek her input on an economic development plan.

Meredith Frailey, who finished fifth in the chief's race last month, originally joined other candidates in backing Byrd's runoff opponent, Chad Smith.

But she told The Associated Press on Friday that Byrd's interest in her business and economic development plan led her to reconsider.

"Based on Joe's new approach, I decided to throw my support to him," she said while attending a 30th anniversary celebration at Cherokee Nation Industries in Stilwell.

Frailey said she made the decision after a great deal of thought and talks with supporters. She said Byrd did not make any promises of a job.

"As a member of his team, I believe I can add strength whether through employment or as an adviser," said Frailey, who is on leave from her job as a marketing manager for a Tulsa firm.

Smith has accused Byrd of trying to win support through job offers as he campaigns for the July 24 runoff.

But Byrd, who also attended the CNI celebration, said he had made no job offers or promises to Frailey. He also said, however, he would be willing to hire her, saying, "she brings a lot to the table."

"We were able to agree that the tribe needs economic development, and that's her area," Byrd said. "I was able to convince her we could work together well."

Frailey, who also has a law degree and who formerly headed CNI, is the cousin of former Chief Ross Swimmer. She lost with 11 percent of the vote.

She said her economic plan includes the recruitment of diverse businesses, but that she and Byrd had not worked out the specifics.

Smith expressed disappointment with Frailey's announcement.

"My heart goes out for the Swimmer family, and for Meredith's dedicated supporters, to see her sell out to Joe Byrd," he said in a news release.

Many of Frailey's supporters cited her ties to Swimmer and the fact that she had not taken a side in the ongoing tribal turmoil.