I was watching the live feed of Tribal Council and again some of the official video archives of different sessions of government workings, and I came away a little sad at what we are allowing ourselves to be and how we talk to the people we say that we love. 

We will soon be the proud recipients of a tribal government that has, for the first time in our people’s history, decided to use tribal resources to directly benefit people who aren’t even citizens of the US. 

Getting youth engaged in the Cherokee language can be challenging.

Our congressional representative in congress, Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) was recently reprimanded by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee over how he chose to respond to allegations of sexual harassment from his female staffers.

We, as a Tribe, have taken a position that drug abuse is a sickness or disease. If so, why is it that we maintain a contradictory view of zero tolerance? I can’t think of another illness that will result in immediate termination if you have it even once.

People often make the mistake of assuming that government control of the media consists solely of trying to censor the paper. It’s much more than that, and they often do it to the private media as well, and tribal governments aren’t the only one who engage in these tactics.

With what has happened with this year’s midterms, in Florida, in North Dakota, in Georgia, where issues of voter suppression, provisional ballots, recounts and the potential for runoffs, it should be that local elections are conducted in ways to instill faith in our democracy.

Without a press free from political influence, governmental transparency is hindered, and the people must rely on sources for information regarding their leadership that will be, many times, suspect or biased.