week of 12/18/02
 
 
 
  Cherokee to audit tribal enrollment
By Don Hendershot

“It’s not about money, it’s about blood,” says Teresa McCoy, a member of the Cherokee Tribal Council who represents the Big Cove community.

McCoy was referring to the coming audit of the enrolled members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. Tribal members passed a referendum Dec. 3 asking whether they wanted to conduct the audit.

McCoy says she is disturbed by those who say the audit is about the bi-annual cash payments from casino profits. She was particularly upset by a WLOS-TV report she says aired on Dec. 16. She said the segment misrepresented the feelings of tribal members who voted to conduct the audit of tribal rolls.

“WLOS needs just a little more information. Money is not the primary reason for the audit,” McCoy said.

The long, often contentious argument regarding was apparently settled by the Dec. 3 referendum. With 1,897 enrolled members voting, the referendum calling for an audit passed 1,089 for and 808 against.

“They could have held this referendum in 1925, the year after Fred Baker established the official roll and the outcome would have been the same. My grandmother, who passed away in 1981, before there was any per capita, always felt there should be an audit. It is a question of legitimacy,” McCoy said.

Tribal members passed a resolution last June on a 7-5 vote calling for an audit. Principal Chief Leon Jones called the audit “camouflage,” and he vetoed that resolution. When Jones defended his veto in July, he told council members that an audit was the first step toward disenrollment.

“When we campaigned we didn’t ask how did you get on the roll, what is your blood degree? We asked would you vote for me? We took an oath to take care of every member of the tribe, no matter how they got on the roll,” Jones said.

The vote on the veto was the same 7-5 as on the resolution. The veto stood because it requires a two-thirds majority to overturn a veto. McCoy introduced the resolution again in July and it passed 7-5.

Council members consistently supporting the audit are McCoy, Brenda Norville, Rich Panther, B. Ensley, Albert Crowe, Marie Junaluska and Dwayne Jackson. The five in opposition were chairman Bob Blankenship, vice-chair Larry Blythe, Jim Owle, Tommye Saunooke and Glenda Sanders.

On Aug. 1 the same seven council members passed B. Ensley’s resolution calling for a referendum, which led to the December vote.

McCoy said the next step would be for the election board to bring the referendum results before the board to be verified at January’s council meeting.

“Once the vote is approved council can proceed to call someone in to talk to us about the logistics of an audit,” McCoy said.

She said that person might be James Mills of the firm DCIAmerica. DCIAmerica has worked with several tribes across the country on enrollment issues. McCoy said that Mills had met with the enrollment committee before and that committee members felt comfortable with him.

She says she has no idea what an audit might cost the tribe, but that when she asked tribal members if a quarter-million dollar price tag would change the way they felt regarding an audit the answer was no.

McCoy said she was disappointed in some of the misinformation that was put out before the referendum. Some people told her they had been told every tribal member would have to undergo DNA testing.

George Pheasant, a Big Cove resident, said he had heard that same thing. His wife said she was told it would cost a million dollars a year for five years.

“I just hope the five council members who have opposed this audit understand that the quicker we get on with it, the better it will be for the tribe,” McCoy said.