Devastation in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee

The homeland of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, along with its trust lands in Cherokee and Graham counties largely escaped damage brought on by a devastating wave of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes Wednesday. Residents of north Alabama, north Georgia and east Tennessee were not so lucky. The tribe does have members residing in those three states, and it's not much of a stretch to say that they were impacted in some way.
The city of Tuscaloosa, Ala. was hit particularly hard. Having graduated from Auburn, I've always looked at the home of the University of Alabama with a certain animosity. However, that animosity begins and ends with sports. The residents of this town are hurting and need enormous assistance to rebuild.
While there are numerous ways to help, I'd like to point out one group that started close to my childhood home in Opelika, Ala. It's Toomers for Tuscaloosa (named for Toomers Corner in Auburn). While they haven't yet set up an fund for donations, they do have lots of information about places for donations. I strongly recommend you visit. I also challenge our current tribal leaders and candidates who are challenging them to donate to relief efforts. While it could possibly help out a tribal member impacted by these storms, it definitely will help out fellow human beings impacted by an unimaginable tragedy.

The Annual Report - Ignoring the Cesspool Next to the Rose Garden

I got my annual report in the mail, just like the other two adults in my house. My first reaction was how much does it cost to put this crap out? I know the printing industry pretty well. For newsprint, it costs about $1.00 to print a 16 page broadsheet paper. That's newsprint, which is considerably cheaper than the glossy, heavy weight, coated paper used in the spine-bound publication to selectively inform us about what's going on with our tribal government. Add to that the cost of mailing, which given the weight of these reports, added to the fact they were sealed in individual flat envelopes, and I guarantee you that's not cheap, and I somehow doubt that the media rate was used. That was mailed out to probably half of the tribe (the portion that one can assume is of voting age) so that's 7,000 copies printed and mailed.
The other question I have, which was the same question I had with just about every annual report tribal government mailed out, what are they not telling me? It's all just rays of sunshine with these reports, which amount to campaigning for Michell Hicks at the tribe's expense.
Of course there's no mention of how well the tribally built, financed and funded golf course is doing. There's bragging on the improvements to the Dora Reed building, but no mention of the DSS findings that have jeopardized the childcare center's license. There's no mention of Cherokee Bottled Water, which went under, and no mention of the Cherokee One Feather, which is every tribal members' newspaper, which under the direction of what is clearly incompetent leadership, is headed the same direction. And why has it been so long (more than 10 years) since the tribe publicly released the findings of its audits?
Whether the chief wants to acknowledge this or not, we're all stakeholders in this tribe. We deserve to know the truth and the whole truth, and I'd like to remind Michell Hicks, a half truth is the same thing as a half lie. The tribal members deserve better than this.

Citizen-Times publishes major load of crap

I don't think anything highlights the glaring absence of Native Americans in the upper management of the Asheville Citizen-Times than this load of fertilizer they published April 5. In fact it shows a lack of Native Americans in the staff period (or at least turning a deaf ear to any they do have on staff).
A call to the Eastern Band of Cherokee or to the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma or the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee in Oklahoma would've told the Citizen-Times that there is no such tribe as the Western Band Cherokee of Missouri, and that this is just a typical snake oil and medicine show.
George Benge, the last Native American executive editor at the Citizen-Times would've never allowed this garbage to be published, at least not without calling BS on it.

Wow One Feather, Wow

While I still haven't yet seen the print edition, for which a PDF version is downloadable on its website, so far nothing has been posted on the One Feather's website about who has filed to run for office this year.
I don't blame Scott. He actually was on vacation, and the editor is the one who's responsible for news coverage anyway, which leaves guess who. It's an election year, and the chief and vice chief's offices, along with Tribal Council are up for grabs. Yeah, that's news.