Will We Reach Fifty Thousand?

My Chahta Family,

Today the Choctaw Voting Block has logged in 49,197 views since it’s inception.  I remember Susan Stockton said our little blog wouldn’t last a month and all of this would blow over in a year.  I don’t think the Nahullo’s that run the CNO realize what it means to answer to the people.  I know she certainly doesn’t.

What have we seen since the inception?  Well, we have seen Greg Pyle step down and give the reins to Gary Batton (without our consent or a vote), we have seen the indictments of many high ranking nahullo’s within the CNO be indicted by the FBI and the IRS Criminal Division, we have seen a council candidate win the absentee vote yet lose the election, we have seen groups of Chahta exercising their rights to free speech such as Eaglemanz Blog (Ben Carnes), Choctaws Rising (Kalyn Free) and of course Choctaw Voting Block.

We have seen our people sharing their stories on this blog.  They have spoken about lack of adequate descent housing for our elders, we have heard about YEARS on waiting lists for trailer homes, we have heard about the lack of available dentures, help for orphaned Chahta children, assistance for parents desperate to get their kids back, we have heard about illegal working conditions and discrimination toward Chahta tribal members within our own government, we have heard about degreed Chahta working menial jobs, we have heard about corruption that reaches so far I am ashamed to write about it.  What do you think my people when you see the millionaires who run our nation?  They aren’t millionaires because they are self made businessmen they are millionaires because there were millions coming in by the truck load and it had to go somewhere.  So let’s give the people a little and we will take A LOT – so say the ones in power.  Someday I plan to write about comparable salaries in corporations and see how these ticks compare to, I hate to say it, Corporate America.

The services we do have are shallow and like a dusting of care for appearances sake.  However, you Chahta who are working to help other Chahta just by doing what you do every day with little budget don’t think you aren’t appreciated because you are.  A kind word on a phone can sometimes mean the world to someone who has lost a loved one and needs burial assistance.  Those kind words are what and who we are.  It keeps us banded together despite the corruption and greed that have infiltrated the upper levels of our house.

I recently read a post about a young man who was angry that his grandfather made too much money on his small retirement income to receive assistance for much needed renovations for his house.  If there are income guidelines then it’s probably federal monies which means it’s not tribal dollars (I am purely guessing here) so where is the tribal money spent?  It’s a big question and could be asked on so many different levels.  Really, forensic audits are needed and I guess that’s where the IRS Criminal Division comes in.

Our people, our children deserve so much better than this.  The things our children could do if given all the opportunities made possible by money.  Our elders could have clean sturdy homes and still live in the mini mother-land.  I say this because in far eastern Chahta country in the beautiful Kiamichi and Ouachita Mountains our people live in some of the poorest conditions in the U.S. all because they don’t want to leave their families who have been there for generations, since removal.  Ben Carnes said it best when he expressed the joy in his heart when he found out, after years of living away from home, that his extended family still had a bit of allotment land.  He now lives there with his family.  We have a connection to our land and our ancestors.  No matter how much the current administration would like to move on and leave the past in the past we are connected because we are Indian people and our people died by the thousands traveling to these Western Choctaw lands. Sometimes, when I go to those areas to walk I imagine our people and how it must have looked to them.  They were sick and starving but they had finally made it.  I don’t know why but I become very emotional because even to just imagine it fills me with sorrow.  Those brothers and sisters who live away from our Western homelands – someday you should come here and walk through the mountains and feel the connection.  I am not talking about Labor Day I am talking about the quiet of our ancestral lands.  You will be touched as well.

I hope the CVB blog will hit 50,000 views because our people need to know what is happening and they need to exercise their rights to make change.  Not in 40 plus years have we, as Chahta people, been so close to revolution.  So you see Miko Batton you could be the one to make change if you so choose.  Wouldn’t that be a powerful legacy to leave your descendants?  Your own family?  You could balance the system, you could make the entire nation transparent, you could take the money out of the elections, you could turn the tribal paper into a true balance of information for our citizens, you could open up our elections and welcome differing points of view, you could purge our government of the ticks and fleas and you could start with term limits.  It is within your power and that is the only way by which to measure whether you are any different than Roberts or Pyle.  This blog may slow but it won’t go away until the Chahta are once again empowered within our own nation.

For my Chahta Family,

CW