By BROOKLYN BROWN BIGMEAT
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – On the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 2, Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) voted to table Res. No. 290 reinstating the Board of Managers of Qualla Enterprises, LLC, who were suspended via Res. No. 181.
Aniwodihi (Painttown) Rep. Shannon Swimmer, who served on an advisory committee comprised of Dinilawigi members and EBCI employees to review the activity of the board, stated, “On page 2, line 9 and 10 [of Res. No. 290] it’s saying that the board of managers will have sixty days to implement the recommendations, and I have to just draw attention to the fact that some of those board members have been on there for years…They’ve had plenty of time to do what they should’ve done. As someone who was on that advisory committee, we saw firsthand after meeting for hours and hours with board members, employees, the directors, the contractors—we did a lot of work and we went through a lot of document review—and giving them another sixty days is really recognizing that they haven’t done what they should’ve done in the years that they were there.”
Kolanvyi (Big Cove) Rep. Venita Wolfe stated, “I move to kill and the reasons why I move to kill is because this group are not new to leadership at all. We have a former councilman, we have a businessperson…They’ve been there, they’ve had the opportunity to do what they needed to do…I’m angry because last month, two councilwomen brought in an emergency resolution to discuss this, to address taking these members off the board. Was it read? No. Was it accepted? No, because, I believe, this was coming in.”
Elawodi (Yellowhill) Rep. Shennelle Feather, who also served on the advisory committee, seconded Wolfe’s move to kill, and asked EBCI Attorney General Michael McConnell to clarify who submitted the resolution to him that was submitted on behalf of Dinilawigi without Feather, Wolfe, Swimmer, and Kolanvyi Rep. Lavita Hill seeing the resolution. McConnell answered that a draft resolution was submitted to him by Wayohi (Wolftown) Rep. Mike Parker.
Rep. Feather stated, “It’s my understanding that the township of Wolftown asked both of their councilmen to remove everyone but Tagan [Crowe]. That was the request, and I understand Bo [Crowe] abstaining.”
Wayohi Rep. Bo Crowe is the uncle of Tagan Crowe, a board member of Qualla Enterprises, LLC. Rep. Feather asked why Gahvsgi (Chairperson) and Tsisqwohi (Birdtown) Rep. Jim Owle and Tsisqwohi Rep. Boyd Owle had not abstained as relatives of board member Morgan Owle Crisp. Gahvsgi Owle said Owle Crisp was not his immediate family as defined by Cherokee Code. McConnell clarified that the code defines immediate family as parents, spouses and children. Rep. Feather said that is a colonized definition of kinship.
Rep. Feather continued, “I was on the advisory committee, and my advisement was to remove everyone but Tagan [Crowe]. I firmly believe that Tagan was trying to correct a lot of the things that weren’t being done properly…There’s a worker at the grove that’s only making $17.73 an hour and has been working there for four years. This board hasn’t even increased the pay for our employees, our relatives who are working their tails off to make sure that this is successful for our community members…We are paying these individuals $80,000? I don’t know, I don’t have any minutes. We reviewed 400, 500 documents and barely any minutes. No by-laws. No standard operating procedures. We don’t have those. None. Zero. Zilch. This board is a liability. These three members are liabilities. Period. I have zero confidence…”
After Rep. Parker stated that he was not aware of what was in the advisory committee’s report, Rep. Swimmer stated that the advisory committee report was presented orally to Dinilawigi, Rep. but Parker was not present. “We gave an oral report, and the reason we reported it orally was because we didn’t want to put in black and white what was going on, like the fact that you have an IT person being paid $12,000 a month not doing any work. That was authorized by this board. The fact that we walk into a room up there and there’s cash lying all over the place. Those are the kind of things we were trying not to put on air or put out here in public, but since you want to act like you don’t know about it, I’m telling you now.”
Rep. Swimmer continued, “I don’t understand it. I can’t make sense of why you won’t just vote to remove these people and put in people who would do a better job. We deserve that.”
During the discussion, Jacob Reed resigned his position as a board member via a text message received by Gahvsgi Owle and Ugvwiyuhi (Principal Chief) Michell Hicks.
Tutiyi (Snowbird) and Tsalagi Gadugi (Cherokee Co.) Rep. Adam Wachacha moved to pass the resolution, stating that he believed the 60 days would give the board time to implement adjustments, and if expectations were not met at the end of the sixty days, Dinilawigi could consider a resolution to remove the board members.
Dinilawigi went off air for several hours following an unrelated verbal altercation that occurred in the gallery and returned at (insert time). The Dinilawigi then voted to table Res. No. 290. Three items were withdrawn including: Item No. 19 seeking to remove Board Member Albert Rose, Item No. 20 seeking to remove Board Member Morgan Owle Crisp, and Item No. 21 seeking to remove Board Member Jacob Reed. Item No. 18, which was seeking to remove all Board Members, was held.
