This is another year of decision. We are in what the election board, and Code, call “election year.” It was designated, in part, to prevent our governors from creating preferential law, or to be perceived as creating preferential law to garner votes and stay in office. Equally, it was to protect the incumbent leadership from manipulation by special interests within the tribe.

Cherokee people have the immense privilege of having access to our Mother Town. Kituwah, and what remains of the mound, was signed into trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Department of the Interior in December of 2021.

Recent events bring up a truth that bears constant remembrance and reminder. It was beat into my head during my education in business and marketing and has been borne out for decades in my career; “Perception is reality”.

Lew Harding, Post 143 commander, praised the One Feather for speaking truth to power. We, at the newspaper, believe that the power is our tribal community, the citizens, and members of the Eastern Band Cherokee.

It is probably a good time to revisit the many outcries by the One Feather and the community regarding the continued need for an organized office for the distribution of public information and at least an update of the Cherokee Code section dealing with public records.