With 25 days left before Tribal Council can adopt changes to the Tribe’s election laws, Tribal Council voted to retable a proposed ordinance Dec. 6 with changes and amendments. With an ordinance passed in September, changes can be made to election laws until Dec. 31. The election year is now defined as Jan. 1 – Sept. 30 that a general election takes place.

The right to petition for a redress of grievances is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed to American citizens, and it’s reaffirmed in the Indian Civil Rights Act and the tribal code of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Resolutions #483 (1996), #639 (2001), #1030 (2005) authorized the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to purchase property at Cooper’s Creek for the purposes of Housing. 

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has one member, the late PFC Charles George, who has received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration.  Now, tribal leaders are pushing for another brave, heroic Cherokee, the late Sgt. John Decator Burgess, to receive that honor. 

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has a lot of economic development projects and expansions in the works, but there is one problem looming on all of them – suitable housing for the workforce to man them.  That issue was discussed during Tribal Council requests for time on Wednesday, Dec. 5.