Cherokee chief announces re-election bid

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Cherokee Chief Chad Smith, whose 1999 election brought an end to two years of tribal turmoil, announced Wednesday that he will seek another term. <br><br>Smith said his top priorities

Wednesday, January 15th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Cherokee Chief Chad Smith, whose 1999 election brought an end to two years of tribal turmoil, announced Wednesday that he will seek another term.

Smith said his top priorities are jobs, language preservation and health care, having long accomplished his first mandate _ restoring tribal peace.

``The last four years we've come a long way,'' Smith said in announcing his candidacy at the Tulsa Press Club. ``We focused on long-term strategy and we began to execute that long-term strategy.''

Filing for the Cherokee elections opens Feb. 3 and runs through Feb. 12. The general election will take place May 24 with a runoff July 26.

The Cherokee Nation, with more than 210,000 members nationwide, is the second-largest Indian tribe in the country behind the Navajo Nation.

Smith defeated incumbent Joe Byrd in 1999 after two years of internal strife. He was arrested in the summer of 1997 as he and others tried to stop Byrd's administration from closing the tribe's historic courthouse in Tahlequah. The next month, rival factions clashed on the courthouse steps.

Smith said he has done what Cherokees asked him to do by restoring order, increasing funding for health care and housing, creating jobs and funding Cherokee-language Head Start classes.

The chief said he rose above the strife by refusing to respond to ``cheap shots'' and by focusing on his plan for economic and cultural development.

He also pointed to his creation of a free tribal press, the tribe's open records act and its independent election commission as key to avoiding future clashes.

Smith said he would not make Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry's proposed state lottery a campaign issue, saying it's unclear what the ramifications of a lottery would be on tribal gaming.

He also said tribal gaming provides ``a limited window of opportunity'' for economic development because of its political volatility.

``The laws could change tomorrow and you'd be gone,'' he said.

Instead, he wants to see the tribe develop cultural tourism, businesses that take advantage of the tribe's base in eastern Oklahoma and business that provides economic solutions to environmental problems, such as chicken waste disposal.

His campaign slogan uses Cherokee words ``ga-du-gi,'' or coming together to work for a common purpose.

Smith said he's not sure who might run against him.

``In Cherokee politics, it could be half the Cherokee Nation,'' he said. ``It's yet to be seen.''

Smith's running mate for deputy chief is Joe Grayson Jr., a full-blood Cherokee and Vietnam veteran who will resign his current post on the tribe's tax commission. His previous running partner, Hastings Shade, will focus instead on providing cultural leadership.