One resulting action is that the Biskinik will now have an insert with candidates and election information in the May issue. Another is that a letter was sent to registered voters asking they check box whether they want their addresses released to
qualified candidates, those whose replies were postmarked before April
30th will be accepted. It is unknown at this point the number of letters
that were returned undeliverable as a result of no forwarding address
or if the person was deceased. Some have quoted their sources as saying
it numbered in the thousands.
On Monday morning (May
11th) the Election Board at the Choctaw Nation headquarters in Durant
will begin accepting applications for candidacy for the offices of Chief
and Council. The council seats and incumbents are:
 |
| Choctaw District Map |
District 1 - Idabel, Thomas Williston
District 2 - Broken Bow, Tony Messenger (retiring)
District 3 - Talihina, Kenny Bryant
District 5 - Stigler, Ron Perry
District 8 - Hugo, Perry Thompson
District 11 - McAlester, Bob Pate
Filing
will close at the end of business day on Wednesday, May 13th. After
that date, the names of the qualified candidates will be posted along
with information on how they can be reached. The date of election is
July 11th.
Eaglemanz Commentary
This election
year, we have heard that several candidates are running in District 2 -
Broken Bow, where long time Choctaw Nation employee, Tony Messenger, is retiring from
public service. Names of possible candidates have popped up for this
open seat: Ivan Battiest, Tony Ward, Green Davis, Mike Amos and Taloa Gibson.
Originally, I had intended to run for Chief this year, but after the
Merida trial, attending the the only public Election Reform Task Force meeting
and then seeing the resulting tribal council actions, I began to
consider running for District 2 council. It wasn't until an incident of
betrayal by a Senior Executive Officer, Stacy Shepard, regarding
developing a prison reintegration program for Chahta people leaving
prison, that I decided my best course of action was to wait until the
2019 election where I will run for Chief.
My decision
based upon the experiences I pointed out above is to demonstrate the
capacity of our people to become the leaders we are. Those who are
elected are not our leaders, they are the people who willingly offer
themselves up for public service. This means they are to be accountable
to the people, their actions are open and above board. No secret
meetings behind closed doors, no withholding of information affecting
the Chahta people and above all no refusal to answer the questions of
the Chahta people.
It seems that years ago after the
Chahta people won a victory in averting termination by J.W. Belvin and
the federal government, we were beginning to recover when we had our
only free and fair election that placed David Gardner as Chief. When he
died in office, it seemed that a process was put into place that began
to disempower the Chahta people. If you spoke out against the chief, you
or your relatives were threatened with the loss of their Choctaw Nation
job or you might be blacklisted and services were withheld from you.
Then the sitting chief was arrested and convicted for embezzlement, but
won re-election in spite of that. Then a few years later he was indicted
for sexual assault of a female employee and sentenced to prison.
Most
everyone had thought the era of fear and intimidation was over. People
remembered Chahta people passing out pamphlets printed by "Choctaws for
Democracy" and being arrested and charged. This had a chilling effect on
the voice of the people that one had better not speak out or up. The
issues were a biased election process and a slanted tribal paper that
actively promoted the Chief and Tribal Council. People began calling the
Biskinik, "The Bisquik: for white and fluffy feel good news", tribal
employees were conditioned to tell nursery fairy tales about the
administration, or to not speak at all.
The Merida
trial exposed more than the administration probably cared for and when
it became known of the abuses of office, various groups circulated the
information in the social media. It has become known that the
administration has began paying attention to various groups that have
formed, such as Choctaws Rising, Chahta Veterans for Chahta Civil Rights, Eaglemanz: Chahta Nation, and the Choctaw National Party.
These groups are made up of former council members, attorneys, military
veterans, medical personnel, a minister, American Indian Movement
activists and other Chahta citizens like yourself who want to bring
about accountability and transparency in the constitution, elections and
the administration of the Choctaw Nation.
These groups
have traveled to a number of communities to help get the word out, even
to the gathering in Bakersfield, California. There were several Chahta
okla expressed their surprise because they had not known about the trial
or the activities of the various grassroots for a positive
transformation. Some of the delegation who traveled there were also
surprised by the hostilities encountered from the organizers, Bill and
Theresa Harrison. Two members, Yannash Scott and Stephen LeFlore, were
told they could not march in the arena to honor military and war
veterans with their banner "Chahta Veterans for Chahta Civil Rights". Even
I was told that if I was going to talk about politics I don't need to
come back. I returned on the following day and learned that the
organizers had attempted to have campus security remove them
from the premises. The day before, Batton was present when the veterans
were told they could enter the arena with their banner, during the
night and the next morning I learned that Batton had been made aware of
the incidents taking place. I spoke with Batton later at this event and
he had urged the organizers to not make an issue of it. Apparently, the
Harrisons disregarded Batton, so when these men were approached by
campus security, Batton sent his personal security officer to intervene
as can be seen in the video.
Perhaps the most disturbing element of this event was the "Ugly Choctaw Contest". When I heard this over the loudspeakers, I was stunned. I watched one man urged on by his family to go out into the arena and it appeared he grudgingly stood up and with each step I saw his spirit sink away into the ground. He may have not felt he was the best looking man there, but he did not need this. I cannot explain how heartbroken I felt for this man. I saw others going out without a care, smiling. I turned away from this spectacle and thought about what has reduced us to something as disparaging as this. I've spent most of my life defending Native rights and lands through awareness and direct action. I've written about the conditioning and brainwashing that our people have gone through to make us feel inferior, and that we have to stand tall to make our children proud, to be Native, proud to be Chahta, even if they have other blood coursing through their veins because we all bleed red. We've taken on issues of mascots, policies that affect traditional cultural and spiritual practices and other forms of institutional racism, even from our own people. It was our Chahta people who recently walked off Adam Sandlers set after they had been lied to when they had been assured of a tasteful representation of Native people.
When it comes to institutional racism, we are often told that there are more important issues, I strongly disagree. All of these issues are interconnected, they can be tied into our high rate of alcoholism/drug use, teen suicides and low self-esteem, as well as a societal misunderstanding of whom we are as Native people. It is hard to break through the steel walls of stereotypes, and people are surprised to find Natives who are educated and work as professionals. The struggle to break through has been ongoing for years.
And for Chahta people, we can look within our own territory and see these things happening, even during Tushkahoma. Instead of Native performers, we see only non-Native performers, we go into the arts & crafts building and see flea market items, and then our traditional stickball games, we see how it has been conformed to fit within another societys form of sports. We had no referees, time-outs, or announcers. It seems as if we are slowly losing our grip on whom we were as Chahta people.
This is where each and everyone of us comes in, we have to begin standing up in our leadership role and demand that the candidates who are going to run for office support what we want. We have to make our voice heard throughout our nation wherever our Chahta people live.
We must be the ones setting up a candidates forum so that we can present the changes that we want to see and find out who will vow to make it happen. One of the key points I feel will weed out the candidates is to ask who will present a council bill in their first meeting to reduce the salary of the Chief and Council:
The Chief makes $281,000.00 per year, with medical and numerous other perks. I would propose lowering that salary to $65,000.00 per year. If the Choctaw Nation health care is good enough for us, then it has to be good enough for them, otherwise, they can pay for superior health care out of their salary or work harder to improve our health care services. The Council members can have their $151,000.00 salary cut to $35,000.00 per year, with the same stipulations as the Chief regarding medical.
Any Choctaw who is making minimum wage ($7.25 an hour) could gross as much as $15,080.00 per year. As a person who has met real traditional chiefs, they are usually the poorest of their people because they give what they have to help the people survive. Our Chief and council should not be living better than the people they have been elected to serve. I can accept that corporate ceo's get paid a lot more, and if our people want that kind of money, then go to work for a corporation. We are not a corporation, we are a Nation of Indigenous peoples and we have a cultural standard of practice that served us well before we began acting like Nahullos. If a person who is elected can show us how they have raised our people above the poverty line and that we have prospered as a people, TOGETHER! Then I say we should reward them with a slight salary increase. The people who run for these positions should do so solely for the love of their people, not for how much money they can pocket.
The following are some points that can be formulated into questions for the upcoming election so that we can find those willing to stand up for the people. More will be forthcoming in the coming weeks.
Perhaps the most disturbing element of this event was the "Ugly Choctaw Contest". When I heard this over the loudspeakers, I was stunned. I watched one man urged on by his family to go out into the arena and it appeared he grudgingly stood up and with each step I saw his spirit sink away into the ground. He may have not felt he was the best looking man there, but he did not need this. I cannot explain how heartbroken I felt for this man. I saw others going out without a care, smiling. I turned away from this spectacle and thought about what has reduced us to something as disparaging as this. I've spent most of my life defending Native rights and lands through awareness and direct action. I've written about the conditioning and brainwashing that our people have gone through to make us feel inferior, and that we have to stand tall to make our children proud, to be Native, proud to be Chahta, even if they have other blood coursing through their veins because we all bleed red. We've taken on issues of mascots, policies that affect traditional cultural and spiritual practices and other forms of institutional racism, even from our own people. It was our Chahta people who recently walked off Adam Sandlers set after they had been lied to when they had been assured of a tasteful representation of Native people.
When it comes to institutional racism, we are often told that there are more important issues, I strongly disagree. All of these issues are interconnected, they can be tied into our high rate of alcoholism/drug use, teen suicides and low self-esteem, as well as a societal misunderstanding of whom we are as Native people. It is hard to break through the steel walls of stereotypes, and people are surprised to find Natives who are educated and work as professionals. The struggle to break through has been ongoing for years.
And for Chahta people, we can look within our own territory and see these things happening, even during Tushkahoma. Instead of Native performers, we see only non-Native performers, we go into the arts & crafts building and see flea market items, and then our traditional stickball games, we see how it has been conformed to fit within another societys form of sports. We had no referees, time-outs, or announcers. It seems as if we are slowly losing our grip on whom we were as Chahta people.
This is where each and everyone of us comes in, we have to begin standing up in our leadership role and demand that the candidates who are going to run for office support what we want. We have to make our voice heard throughout our nation wherever our Chahta people live.
We must be the ones setting up a candidates forum so that we can present the changes that we want to see and find out who will vow to make it happen. One of the key points I feel will weed out the candidates is to ask who will present a council bill in their first meeting to reduce the salary of the Chief and Council:
The Chief makes $281,000.00 per year, with medical and numerous other perks. I would propose lowering that salary to $65,000.00 per year. If the Choctaw Nation health care is good enough for us, then it has to be good enough for them, otherwise, they can pay for superior health care out of their salary or work harder to improve our health care services. The Council members can have their $151,000.00 salary cut to $35,000.00 per year, with the same stipulations as the Chief regarding medical.
Any Choctaw who is making minimum wage ($7.25 an hour) could gross as much as $15,080.00 per year. As a person who has met real traditional chiefs, they are usually the poorest of their people because they give what they have to help the people survive. Our Chief and council should not be living better than the people they have been elected to serve. I can accept that corporate ceo's get paid a lot more, and if our people want that kind of money, then go to work for a corporation. We are not a corporation, we are a Nation of Indigenous peoples and we have a cultural standard of practice that served us well before we began acting like Nahullos. If a person who is elected can show us how they have raised our people above the poverty line and that we have prospered as a people, TOGETHER! Then I say we should reward them with a slight salary increase. The people who run for these positions should do so solely for the love of their people, not for how much money they can pocket.
The following are some points that can be formulated into questions for the upcoming election so that we can find those willing to stand up for the people. More will be forthcoming in the coming weeks.
Election and campaign reform: one
should not be able to “buy” an election based upon how much money one has or
how popular they have made themselves as a result. It should be about the issues
that they stand upon and what they will contribute to the Nation as a whole. The
hard honest truth is that a candidate needs access to the registered voters,
and we have a vehicle for that:
a)
The Biskinik, in the three months prior to an election, candidates must
announce their intent to file and present their platforms, the paper must give
equal time to all candidates after they have formally filed their candidacy,
b)
Our community centers should be made available to the community for a candidate’s
forum for council and chiefs. I'm inclined to make attendance by candidates mandatory or they forfeit the
race.
c)
The CNO website should have a section of the website set aside for the
candidates with their platforms, their photo, bio and contact info. With these
items, it isn't really necessary to fund-raise, because this will provide at a
minimum, exposure and a means of connecting with registered voters.
d) It also needs to be said that no campaigning should be conducted by the
candidates while employed by the CNO, nor should volunteers employed by the CNO conduct similar
campaign activities. Violators employment will be terminated and future employment will be prohibited.
(Not all of us
have a million dollars to run a campaign with. From the information revealed by
Pyle and Batton during the Merida trial, their ability to raise such a massive amount is by virtue of
their office creates an uneven playing field. Should this be adopted, then we
should ask Batton to transfer the estimated one million dollars to an interest
bearing account to cover the expense of mailing the paper and documented
related costs. The balance in this account with interest accrued should be
published each month. The basis for this is as I’ve stated, this money was
raised by the position held in the Choctaw Nation, it would be an honorable
gesture.)
Constitutional Amendments or a Constitutional Convention: There is a need to strengthen our constitution, after 32 years, we now have an better idea of its shortcomings. We need to know from our candidates if they will support a constitutional convention before the next election in two years. Choctaws Rising has a list of proposed amendments, while I do not support tampering with the blood quantum for holding office, I would support all the other proposed changes.
The Choctaw National Party also has a list of the platforms, take a look at these and see if this is something you will support and ask the candidates to affirm or refuse to support these type of changes.
And because it is an election time for the next two months, maybe we can obtain a public reply from Batton on the Chahta Veterans for Chahta Civil Rights Petition to respond to the Chahta peoples concerns about how this breakdown occurred, where are the checks and balances to guarantee this hasn't happened in other circumstances prior to this federal investigation, and afterwards. There are many questions that have been on the table, but Batton has said he would only meet with the people one on one. I'm sorry, that is not good enough, nor is it productive. It would be more expedient to address a general gathering where we can all hear the questions and the answers at the same time, as well as record it for those who could not attend. This is the accountability that is lacking from our administration. Whenever we ask for answers, no official should refuse to provide it.
We only have two months to get our own forums set up and the Chief will have to (or should) attend forums set up by the people in each district. Especially when we have a candidate for Chief who will be filing this week, D.J. Battiest. I recently heard D.J. speak in Durant and found her to be charismatic, sincere and above all down to earth. We will be looking forward to hearing more from her in the next two months.
The following is my suggestion for a timeline for the districts to host the forum for the candidates/incumbents (Chief and Council) on a Saturday:
May 23rd
District 1, Idabel @ 12pm
District 2, Broken Bow, @ 6pm
May 30th,
NONE (Memorial Day weekend is when most families have their own time)
June 6th,
District 3 - Talihina, @12pm
District 11 - McAlester @6pm
June 13th
District 5 - Stigler @ 6PM
June 20th
District 8 - Hugo @ 6PM
These are merely suggestions and it could work for those where the locations are nearby that two in one day could be done. The community in each district could host the forums with a potluck and set the stage for future political campaigns, making fundraising an obsolete process. We don't need to see wasteful spending of tour buses, lavish spectacles or big name musicians. We aren't Nahullo's, we just want to hear the truth and see your hearts with no distractions.
Remember several corporations have made political contributions to Batton and Pyle with hopes of obtaining a contract with the Choctaw Nation enriching them with a million dollars to campaign. Lets remove the potential for abuse and take control of our elections. We are the leaders, and they are the public servants. We didn't get this way overnight and it it isn't going to be fixed quickly, we have a long road, so lets begin walking it together with dignity, integrity and a common voice.
YAKOKE!
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