Impeachment attorney faces allegations of misconduct

The attorney who argued for the impeachment of former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert has been issued an order from the Cherokee Tribal Court requiring him to show the court why allegations against him from former Attorney General Danny Davis shouldn’t result in disciplinary action.

Dorm renaming recognizes Cherokee history

Before white settlers corrupted the name to Cullowhee, the land along the Tuckasegee River south of Sylva was known to the Cherokee people as “Joolth-cullah-whee,” or Judaculla’s place.

FBI investigation of Cherokee BIA official extends beyond marriage fraud

The FBI’s investigation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Cherokee Agency’s deputy superintendent Ruth Marie Sequoyah McCoy goes far deeper than the charges of marriage fraud that she and 11 others are currently facing, according to recently filed court documents.

Tribal members oppose alcohol expansion

About 100 people piled into the exhibit hall at the Cherokee Indian Fair Grounds the evening of Monday, Nov. 6, to tell Tribal Council members what they think about expanding alcohol sales on the Qualla Boundary. The consensus was clear: the tribal members filling the room wanted a referendum, and they wanted to see alcohol sales stay siloed on casino property.

Bill Taylor to represent tribe in Raleigh, D.C.

Former Tribal Council Chairman Bill Taylor is now settling into a new position as the tribe’s governmental affairs liaison after Principal Chief Richard Sneed hired him in October. 

Newly issued alcohol permits cause backlash against off-casino sales

Five years ago, Cherokee voters gave a decisive response on a referendum question asking whether they’d like to see the historical ban on alcohol sales outside casino property lifted on the Qualla Boundary, with 60 percent voting to keep Cherokee dry.

EBCI and Smokies work toward agreement for plant gathering in park boundaries

Cherokee tribal members could be gathering sochan plants from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as early as next spring after Tribal Council’s vote last week to fund the $68,100 needed to complete the regulatory process.

Guilty pleas filed in marriage fraud case

Four people accused of entering into fraudulent marriages with non-U.S. citizens will plead guilty to the charge of marriage fraud, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The family that works together: Home cooking and community still draws crowds at Granny’s Kitchen

It’s 3 p.m. on a weekday, a time when any restaurant would be well within its rights to be all but empty. But business at Granny’s Kitchen in Cherokee is humming along steadily, the main parking lot about half full and the hostess busily engaged with fielding phone calls, ringing up customers on their way out and welcoming customers on their way in.

Runoff election overturns recount results in Cherokee

An Oct. 10 runoff election to determine the winner of a disputed Tribal Council seat ended with a reversal of results from the original election.


While the two candidates were separated by only a handful of votes following the Sept. 7 General Election, the margin was much wider Oct. 10. Albert Rose beat challenger Ashley Sessions with 541 votes, or 58.7 percent, to her 381.

Sessions believes her loss was unjust and that there should never have been a runoff election to start with.

“I’m just kind of disappointed and really confused about the entire situation,” she said. “But I definitely think that it’s made our community and our people more aware of how bad the corruption is in our tribal government.”

Rose and challenger Ashley Sessions have been locked in a battle to represent the Birdtown community ever since preliminary results rolled in from the Sept. 7 General Election. Those results showed Sessions trailing Rose by only 12 votes, a margin of 0.7 percent.

When Sessions asked for a recount, election workers found a large number of early voting ballots that the machine had failed to count on election night. These uncounted ballots were largely the result of absentee ballots that had been changed to serve as early voting ballots when election workers ran out of early voting ballots on the last day of early voting. It was the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ first time offering early voting, and election workers underestimated the number of ballots they would need for each community.

The machine did not read the repurposed ballots, leading to a discrepancy between election night and recount results. The recount reversed the original outcome, with Sessions beating Rose by five votes.

“Whenever the recount took place, the chairman of the election board Denise Ballard, she assured me that the recount was final,” Sessions said. “She congratulated me on live TV.”

Rose, however, protested the recount results. Represented by attorney Rob Saunooke, he contended that the “mysteriously appearing” early voting ballots were unreliable. While all Tribal Council candidates in all communities received some additional votes when the discrepancy in Birdtown triggered a recount of all races, the increase in votes was largest in Birdtown. First-place finisher Boyd Owle received the largest boost in the recount, gaining 30 votes.

Rose said that the fact that unmarked early voting ballots were stored in an unlocked box raised suspicion that they could have been tampered with, though he offered no proof that they had. He also said that one person not eligible to vote in Birdtown, a relative of Sessions, had voted in the election.

The election board agreed with Rose and ordered a runoff election, but Sessions challenged the decision in Cherokee Supreme Court. Represented by Scott Jones, she argued that there was nothing mysterious about the initially uncounted ballots and that there was no objective proof that anything untoward capable of affecting the election’s outcome had occurred. However, the court ultimately upheld the board’s decision.

The method of conducting the runoff election was markedly different from that of the General Election. In the runoff, voters were choosing one of two candidates to represent them, rather than selecting two of four like they had in the General Election. The runoff was on a Tuesday rather than on a Thursday, as for regularly scheduled elections.

However, the biggest difference between the two elections was that the runoff allowed no opportunity for absentee or early voting. Some tribal members who live or work away from the Qualla Boundary had made special trips to vote Sept. 7 or ordered absentee ballots to participate.

During the General Election, Sessions did not receive any absentee votes, but according to recount results she received 93 early votes, 63 percent more than the 57 that Rose received. Rose received two absentee votes.

The election issue has been a contentious one in the mist of an already tense political climate in Cherokee. During the controversial impeachment of former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert in May, Rose had been consistently pro-impeachment, voting to remove Lambert from office and also testifying during the hearing. Sessions, meanwhile, had been vocally anti-impeachment.

The General Election Sept. 7 swept many pro-impeachment candidates out of office. Rose is one of only three pro-impeachment incumbents who regained a seat on Tribal Council. Seven of the nine pro-impeachment councilmembers had run for re-election. Meanwhile, of the two anti-impeachment councilmembers who ran for re-election, both were the top vote-getters in their communities.

Sessions called her experience running for office as “the biggest roller coaster ride,” and said, while she does plan to remain an active voice in tribal government she’s not sure if she will put her name out there as a candidate in 2019.

“It’s definitely going from making history being the first woman in 60 years to win council in Birdtown to being the first person ever to have a runoff and have an election taken from them,” she said. “It’s definitely been an adventure.”

Rose did not return multiple calls requesting comment. He was not present during Annual Council Monday, Oct. 16, and queries to the Tribal Operations Program asking when his swearing-in might take place were not returned as of press time.

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