After almost a quarter of century of service on the Cherokee Tribal Council — nearly half as chairman — Dan McCoy is leaving.

The current council chairman was defeated two weeks ago in the September general election. No one was more surprised than McCoy, who was the top Birdtown vote-getter in the June 7 primary with 187 votes.

“The election was a surprise to me. You know a person running for office can generally tell if they’re going to win or lose. I have not figured out what happened,” McCoy said.

McCoy, 58, said there were probably several contributing factors.

“I think many of my voters may have stayed home thinking,‘Dan’s got this thing won.’”

He said the newly created Cherokee Preservation Foundation could have also been a divisive issue. The recently passed Second Amendment to the gaming compact between the state and the tribe creates the Foundation, whose mission is to protect tribal natural resources and assist in tribal economic development. The amendment also directs the tribe to fund the Foundation from net gaming revenue at $5 million per year for the next three years.

Opponents of the funding mechanism argued that the money for the Foundation should come from the tribe’s 50 percent after the revenue was split 50-50 between the tribe and per capita payments to enrolled members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. Other council members, including McCoy, felt the Foundation was a business expense and should come out before the revenue was split.

“My opposition in Birdtown said we gave the governor $5 million. We didn’t give the governor anything. That money comes back to the tribe.

“If we took the money out after the split Harrah’s would have no obligation. This way they fund 17 percent of the Foundation,” McCoy said.

McCoy said his opposition also spread false rumors a few days before the election, “that I received a million dollars from gaming.” And he feared trips to D.C. and Raleigh kept him away from his community.

Albert Crowe is the new Birdtown representative, and incumbent Jim Owle is the other representative.
But McCoy has no regrets about his service to the tribe.

“Some people disagree with me because I simply tell it like it is. But everything I’ve ever done while on the council was to try and make life better for our Indian people tomorrow,” he said.

In a strange paradox, those people opposing the Foundation funding because they feared it would take money from their per capita might not even have a per capita if it wasn’t for McCoy.

“I wrote the first law and put it before council — to take 50 percent of net profit from gaming and put it in per capita check form for the people,” McCoy said. It took him two councils to get it passed.

“Many in the council wanted to put the money in tribal coffers and set up services for the people,” he said.

Without a doubt, high stakes gaming and the success of the casino is the biggest difference between today’s council and that of earlier years, McCoy said.

“The tribe is a multi-million dollar business today,” McCoy said.

“Gaming gave us money to make a lot of other changes. We’ve been able to improve housing, health care, infrastructure and education. There are many more of our kids in college than when I first started in politics,” he said.

In those days, the late 1970s, council members were paid $35 a day for council meetings and $15 per committee meeting. Today, Tribal Council salaries are set at $40,000 a year for council members and $42,000 a year for the chairman and vice-chairman.

“People ran for council back then because we felt we had something to offer our tribe. Some might run today because it’s a good paycheck,” McCoy said.

In 1982, McCoy brought high stakes gaming to the reservation by opening a Class II bingo operation, which he ran for years. With the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1998, the tribe’s gaming operation was upgraded to Class III and a small casino was established on Aquoni Road.
According to McCoy, that casino was quickly outgrown and the tribe sought financing and a management partner. Harrah’s was awarded the contract, and the Cherokee Casino was an instant success.

McCoy said when he began his career on the Tribal Council, Cherokee had an operating budget of $2 to $3 million. Today it is nearly $100 million.

McCoy would like to see the next council continue to work towards re-establishing family oriented tourism on the Qualla Boundary. The casino, along with family based tourism, would assure that the tribe’s and the surrounding area’s economy would grow, McCoy said.

Asked to comment on his years of service McCoy said he would ask tribal members to “sit down and look at the big picture. Look at the work I did for this tribe and ask them selves — because of what Dan did, by working with everyone, is the tribe better off now than 20 years ago? That’s the bottom line.”

Though McCoy will vacate his seat on the board when new council members take office in October, he says he isn’t planning any kind of retirement.

“I think I’ll be back in the picture later on,” he said.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News