By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
CHEROKEE, N.C. – Human trafficking, housing for members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), and mental health were just a few of the topics discussed at the Cherokee Town Hall meeting held at the Chief Joyce Dugan Cultural Arts Center on the evening of Monday, March 4.
Vice Chief Alan B. Ensley opens the Cherokee Town Hall meeting which was held at the Chief Joyce Dugan Cultural Arts Center on the evening of Monday, March 4. The event was organized by his office and moderated by Bunsey Crowe, shown in background. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
EBCI Vice Chief Alan B. Ensley, whose office organized the event, thanked the Cherokee Community Club Council in his opening remarks, “I want to thank Tammy Jackson for everything she does through the Community Club Council. They generated all the topics that are going to be discussed tonight. They do a lot of great work.”
“I want to thank the Chief for the working relationship, and the Tribal Council, the relationship since the new Council and the new Chief have been inaugurated. The whole atmosphere has changed, and it has changed for the better for our Tribe. We’re all working together.”
EBCI Principal Chief Michell Hicks then gave his opening remarks where he thanked Vice Chief Ensley and the members of the EBCI Tribal Council for their work. “The way we’re going to excel and reap the long-term benefits for our Tribe is to keep talking – keep communicating and making sure that we all are on the same page and create a similar message and similar plan.”
Chief Hicks added, “We are creating a government strategy that will include elements of the hospital, elements of the school, and any other related entity. It’s something we’re excited about.”
“We want community input. We’re trying to fly at a higher level in regards to our planning.”
EBCI Constitution
The first topic of the night was the development of a constitution for the EBCI.
Tribal Council Chairman Parker, who is also serving as chairman of the Constitution Committee, commented, “This constitution committee, this new incarnation, came to adapt, reform, address emerging challenges and perspectives while incorporating new expertise and insights into this process, and pursuing a revamped constitution that we can bring back to the leadership and to the people for consideration as a governing document. We feel like it ensures continuity by building on the work of previous efforts.”
It was reported that the first meeting of this new Constitution Committee was held on Feb. 29.
Chairman Parker said the next meeting will be held on Thursday, March 28 at the Tribal Council conference room (rock building). This meeting will not be open to the public, but future meetings going forward will be.
Human Trafficking
Marsha Jackson, EBCI Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Program manager, commented, “There are two hotspots that we are aware of. And, I want to say that I think when I answered this question previously, I identified it as a specific location, but I really want to identify it as our community. Trafficking is happening in our community, and it’s consistent with familial trafficking. That’s one of the biggest things that we have seen in our program.”
“We have received phone calls from the casino in regards to possible trafficking victims. The other piece to that is they have a separate set of protocols and things that they follow associated with that.”
Freida Saylor, Cherokee Indian Hospital Authority director of behavioral health, noted, “We have started education for all of our providers and all of our employees at the Cherokee Indian Hospital for human trafficking so they can recognize signs and symptoms and the risk factors of human trafficking.”
She said Cherokee Indian Hospital has a crisis response team and various safety plans in place to help with identifying victims of human trafficking.
Jackson said collaboration between various EBCI tribal programs and entities is important. “It is a collaborative partner effort to resolving and to address those cases specifically. If you know or hear of anything, please report it. We won’t know if we don’t get the opportunity to know where it’s happening.”
“I do know that we need to make better efforts to educate our youth so we’re working to do that.”
Mental Health
Sheena Lambert, EBCI Public Health and Human Services public health director, said that mental health was a common point in the last tribal health assessment in 2018. “The health assessment really goes into the tribal health improvement plan. We have four health priority areas and mental health is one of the four that we’ve been focusing on the past few years.”
She said their team has been expanding youth assessments for mental health and wellness in the community and promoting mental health resources.
Lambert spoke about the TCC (Tribal Coordinator Committee) saying, “The focus is on substance use. However, a lot of mental health and substance use just kind of overlay…so part of the TCC is to create a tribal action plan and that plan can cover topics such as marijuana, opioid use, and it’s literally a really integrated committee of folks which makes it quite different because those folks are required to be at the table. So, you have the criminal justice system, the hospital, us, and the school, and just tons of folks at the table. Then, there’s a huge data component that is sort of integrated in the TCC…we have lots of data, it’s just putting it together and making sure that we’re moving forward in a way that everyone works together.”
Saylor commented, “We do our best to always assess people when they’re coming in…I think that we try to meet people where they’re at in the community.”
Tribal Member Portal
Discussed for several years, the idea of having an online portal only accessible by EBCI tribal members is close to becoming reality.
Kevin Jackson, EBCI Information Technology director, said, “Citizen portals have been used for the past two decades to give businesses and governments the opportunity, or the ability, to put information out to their citizens more effectively and efficiently.”
“This portal will only be accessible for tribal members. We will be using a multi-factor authentication to protect the data of the Tribe and our individuals that register for this tribal membership portal.”
Shenelle Feather, an EBCI tribal member, asked what is going to be done to make sure people don’t take screenshots of the information on the portal and share it on social media. She also inquired if the portal will be interactive with forms that can be filled out online.
Jackson responded, “We are working on a privacy statement so you will see that every time you log in that will go over the guidelines and the law and protection of our data. You can’t keep people from doing that, but we are doing everything that we can to protect the actual data that’s stored in the database.”
“You’ll key everything in through the portal.”
He said the portal is currently in the testing phase and will be rolled out in three phases. “When we talk about transparency and accountability, this portal will be utilized to give the membership the ability to apply for driveways to be paved, housing applications, education services through our education program. You will do this through here. It’s only accessible for tribal membership.”
“This portal will be a continuous development for years to come. As the tribe grows, changes, this portal will change as well.”
Jackson added, “The confidentiality piece is that if there are sessions of Council, or if there are sessions of Budget Council, we want that to be aired. We don’t want that going out to the public so the only way for it to be viewed is via this portal.”
“We want to make sure everything is protected.”
Housing
EBCI Secretary of Housing Edwin Taylor spoke of several new housing projects including a 54-unit apartment complex for the Whitetree property in Soco; three subdivisions on Cooper’s Creek, Olivet Church Rd., and the 441 corridor which will provide around 60 single-family homes for sale, and 35 lots for individuals to rent or purchase for manufactured homes on Big Cove Loop on Macedonia Rd.
“On the time frame, probably 12 months is what you’re looking at from the time you start your land documents, you get your financing in place, and the site gets pushed out before you can actually close on your loan.”
Joey Owle, an EBCI tribal member, asked, “Going along with the theme of IT and having a public portal for folks to navigate through to find applicable tribal forms, is Housing continuing to work with IT or going at it to develop a long form and other associated documents to maybe process more efficiently?”
Secretary Taylor responded, “An automated long form is in the process so that there’s a tracking trail as to where that document is at, whose desk it’s sitting on waiting for approval. So, that is in process.”
He said they are working on an automated process through the upcoming tribal member portal for the financing of homes, online applications, online leases, and online payments.
Several audience members asked about the homelessness issue in Cherokee. Secretary Taylor said, “Right now, Housing doesn’t have the ability to manage a homeless shelter. It’s more of a social service function. We do have some supportive housing for individuals in recovery. It’s not enough. We need more.”
He said there are currently 10 units on Olivet Church Rd. for people in recovery at a subsidized rental rate as well as 24 units of temporary housing for people out of a home due to fire, mold, or other mitigation.
Projects status update
EBCI Secretary of Commerce Sean Ross said the current project list for the EBCI exceeds 100 projects. “One of the things that both the Vice Chief and Chief have impressed upon us is to operate with a heightened sense of agility and fluidity with regard to how we assess this process with regard to community input. I think that’s something that we have been pretty agile with.”
Some of the projects mentioned during the meeting are the Junaluska Museum and Memorial Site, the Snowbird Cultural and Language Facility, a community pool, Soco Falls trail improvements, and the future of the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds.
Principal Chief Michell Hicks gives his opening remarks at Monday’s event.
Secretary Ross said, “This year, we shifted the Fair to the old high school site. The premise behind that and the thoughts behind us moving the fairgrounds permanently to that site is for the sheer size that that site affords.”
The old Cherokee High School site is about 21 acres compared to the 7 acres at the old Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds site, he said. Of having the new fairgrounds at the old high school site, he noted, “Within that, that affords us the opportunity to have bigger events, more amenities within that footprint, and the ability to scale up or scale down events as we see fit.”
Lisa Montelongo, an EBCI tribal member, said, “Changing the fairgrounds over to the high school – I don’t agree with it. I think we need to have the New Kituwah Language Academy there that can hook up to this school so that they can have those walkways also. I have a granddaughter that attends, and she’s five years old. She deserves better than being in an old motel room.”
Chief Hicks responded, “We’re very much aware that the school has asked for a multi-purpose facility. One of the things that we’ve got to do is there are some infrastructure issues that need to be dealt with. So, what our plan was, was basically to handle the water and sewer issue around that particular site where Kituwah is currently located. And, as we get that underway, which will be in the near future, we hope to be able to find grant funds so that we can build this multi-purpose center.”
Joey Owle inquired about the fairgrounds, “What’s the plan and process going forward with those two sites to say these would be most viable with economic revenue generating projects as opposed to a community project?”
Secretary Ross responded, “Those are economic projects. Obviously, those are areas that can generate revenue back to the community. We want to align that with our strategy of having ecotourism. We do believe that with all the projects, with all of the plans that we have in place, we think our greatest resource is the river, the waterway, and our natural resources. We do feel that we have to incorporate and expand on that in every possible way.”
Owle then asked about the Fire Mountain Trail expansion. “That was supposed to have broken ground already…can you explain what happened to that project?”
Secretary Ross said, “It is not cancelled. It is on hold temporarily. Again…as we assess the project as a whole and incorporating it into the other projects and the scope of work for those, we need to better understand what will replace that.”
Chief Hicks added, “What we’ve had to do is re-evaluate a lot of projects. And, when we look at the scope of some of the projects versus financial resources, we’re having to re-evaluate. It’s as simple as that. I can’t sit here and tell you that this Fire Mountain Project is going to make the cut. Yeah, it was under contract, but we always have the right to re-evaluate these types of scenarios. If we take a look at the project list, the count that I have is well over $500 million.”
