Cherokee Tribal Court Report – Judgment Summary for June 1

Miss Cherokee gives Report on Spring Activities

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is looking at ways to cut costs and save energy – all with the flip of a switch. Energy efficient lights and lighting upgrades are the focus of Erin Evans, one of two Climate Corps Fellows with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) working with CDOT this summer.

Shan Goshorn, an EBCI tribal member living in Tulsa, won the AT&T Grand Prize at the 25th Annual Red Earth Festival’s juried art competition earlier this month. Her piece, “Educational Genocide – The Legacy of the Carlisle Indian Boarding”, was finished just in time to meet the competition deadline and took the top prize as she won a ribbon, medallion and $1,500.

Air, Ollie, Grind, and Fakie are just a few of the many skateboard terms that’ll be used frequently at the new Cherokee Action Sports Park, located across from Bradley’s Campground on Acquoni Road in the Yellowhill Community, which officially opened on Friday, June 10.

The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 1 out of every 3 American Indian women will be raped in their lifetime and 75 percent will be physically assaulted. Rashica Manjoo, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, visited Cherokee in January specifically to gather information on the problem in Indian Country.

A federal jury sitting in Bryson City found James Ernest Lespier, 33, an EBCI tribal member, guilty of fatally shooting Erien Amanda Smith on the in the Rought Branch Community on the Cherokee Indian Reservation on May 18, 2010, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.