And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 00:39:23 -0500 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Challenger Wins Cherokee Chief's Post Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Challenger Wins Cherokee Chief's Post 1.21 a.m. ET (522 GMT) July 25, 1999 TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma — Challenger Chad Smith won the leadership of the Cherokee tribe Saturday, defeating controversial incumbent Joe Byrd in a hotly contested election in the second largest American Indian nation. Preliminary results gave Smith a 56 percent to 44 percent victory over Byrd in the race for chief of the 200,000-member Cherokee tribe. Only the Navajo nation is larger. Smith, once placed under arrest by Byrd, called for reconciliation and healing after his win. "This is the beginning of the process of healing,'' Smith said in his victory speech in the capital of the Cherokee nation in eastern Oklahoma. "Now we have to set aside our past differences and look to the future. I would like Joe Byrd to be a part of that.'' Byrd's term since 1995 has been marked by repeated clashes involving the chief, tribal marshals and the judiciary, and Smith supporters over allegations of financial abuse. Byrd fired tribal marshals who tried to search his office for evidence of alleged misspending and shut down the courthouse at one point. Smith was arrested while protesting that closing in 1997. In his concession speech, Byrd again denied allegations of financial abuses. An estimated 13,000 Cherokees cast ballots in voting monitored by the Atlanta-based Carter Foundation, called in by the tribal election commission after allegations of voter intimidation during a primary runoff. Officials of the foundation established by former President Jimmy Carter said there were no reports of abuses during the voting. © 1999, News America Digital Publishing, Inc. d/b/a Fox News Online. All rights reserved. Fox News is a registered trademark of 20th Century Fox Film Corp. © Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
