Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Welcome Back


I took the above pic this afternoon of Kiowa Business Committee members, L-R; Richard Kauahquo, Committeeman; Earnest Redbird, Committeeman; Donald Tofpi, Chairman; Dr. Ted Lonewolf, Vice-Chairman; and Dave Geimausaddle, Committeeman, approximately one mile west of Verden, OK.

We were returning from an earlier meeting at Chickasha and stopped to survey Kiowa owned property where we are planning to open a new tribal casino. The property contains 80 acres and is bisected by highways US 62/SH 9, a major thoroughfare thru S.W. Oklahoma. Our priority remains with the Carnegie casino but the opening of the Verden facility could happen shortly thereafter.

Most of the KBC attended the annual Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association conference in Tulsa last week where we met with National Indian Gaming Commission Chairman Philip Hogan and we were able to question him regarding our submission of amendments to our Kiowa Gaming Ordinance. He acknowledged receipt of our submission and NIGC forwarded a copy of his signed approval to us yesterday. We were also able to participate in several conference workshops on subjects relevent to our performance of oversight and controls of our tribal gaming.

Other meetings and subjects covered since our return from Tulsa were:


  • 8 Tribes Consortium meet at our Kiowa Casino regarding IHS issues.

  • A well attended Water Rights workshop at Cameron University in Lawton co-sponsored by the Kiowa and Comanche Tribes and presented by members of the O.U. School of Law.

  • A meeting with Indian City General Manager Kevin Wahkinney regarding administrative procedures and reporting.

  • Chairman Tofpi met with the IHS Director yesterday in Oklahoma City regarding our Lawton, Anadarko, and Carnegie IHS facilities and services.

  • A meeting this morning with Legal Counsel for the Kiowa Tribe and Panther Partners regarding Arbitration/Settlement issues.

My wife Allie and I, with daughter Alison, recently returned from a two week vacation in Allie's home area of the Northwest and I spent a portion of our trip researching possible video locales for a project i've been working on since a year prior to my service on the KBC. The end product will be a high-def video documetary of Kiowa history, told by the Kiowas themselves. I will present some imagery and a brief project description in a subsequent posting to this blog, so, stay tuned.








Sunday, June 21, 2009

Ah-ho Khoygoo!

First, I wish to express my sincere appreciation for your vote of confidence in me. The election was certified yesterday (Saturday) and the newly elected members to the KBC, including yours truly, will take their oath of office on Monday, June 30, at 10:00 AM. The election results, including all the numbers, are posted on Kiowa Voices at http://kiowaok.com/news/newsletter.


Secondly, I took the above pic yesterday, Saturday, up at Indian City USA of a group of young dancers entertaining and educating a group of tourists on the first day of our "soft opening". Yes, we are now reopened full time and things will only get better from here on! The new hours are 10:00AM-6:00PM, 7 days a week. A number of new events are being planned including the revival of the annual Blues Festival, a powwow on Labor Day weekend, and a Holloween Haunted Trail Ride, for starters. KBC development activities continue with Leasure & Associates and we will be meeting at the State Capital next week with Oklahoma State tourism reps and others who wish to partner with us in the expansion of Indian City and tourism for Southwest Oklahoma. There are many development tasks to accomplish yet and we are fortunate to have an experienced and eager staff of employees to attend to the day-to-day operations of the facility, and we continue to receive numerous offers of assistance from many individuals, groups and tribal members who wish to be a part of the exciting possibilities.



This second pic was taken last Wednesday, June 17, at the Chickasaw Tribe's Treasure Valley Casino at Davis, Ok. Pictured are KBC members, L-R, Committeeman David Geimausaddle, Chairman Donald Tofpi, myself, Vice Chairman Charles Toyebo, Committeeman Richard Kauahquo, and Kiowa Casino Operating Authority CEO Lee Rhoades.

We also visited the Chickasaw's Cash Creek Casino nearby at Sulpher, OK for a visual survey and visit with their General Manager as a possible model for our new Carnegie casino. We are also diligently working on the Verden and Hobart area casinos and the Kiowa Tribe should see some positive movement on our gaming expansion within a short period. Stay tuned.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Recent KBC Activities

I am constantly questioned by tribal members of the latest issues being addressed by the KBC and it is sometimes difficult to determine which subject may interest the questioner the most. It seems we are constantly bombarded from many directions with some issues requiring immediate attention while other tasks leave us a little lead time for accomplishment. Being salaried allows the KBC to readily act on immediate tribal needs, and to devote more time in planning for long range goals. During my first service on the KBC (unsalaried) we would have maybe one or two working sessions per month and one required monthly meeting to act on all matters that arose during the previous month. Needless to say, the business of tribal governance at that time was agonizingly slow with very little time to devote toward new enterprise development.

My past five and 1/2 months on the KBC has been rather enjoyable as I prefer to maintain a constant, steady pace in whatever effort I apply myself to. The present KBC has assigned sub-committees for monitoring and assisting the various programs and enterprises in development and we are continually communicating our activities with one another so there are no surprises brought to the table during our monthly or special-called meetings. When I filed for this position I stated that one of my objectives was to lend some stability to the seated KBC as they were recovering from a turbulent political episode and I feel that we have been a unified, working body and able to make advancements toward long-range developments for our tribe.
This is leading to a listing of some of the recent issues and services we've covered during the past few weeks which might illustrate the range of our activities. As stated previously, please feel free to contact me with any questions, answers, and/or civil comments. Click the comments link at the end of the post(s).
  • Acquisition and distribution of FEMA trailer houses to tribal members.
  • Survey of AOA building for rehab.
  • Bates Scholarship grant requests.
  • Kiowa Hearing Board appointments.
  • Indian City USA re-opening and expansion development.
  • State Dept of Enviromental Quality compliance requirements for Indian City water system.
  • Appointment of new members of Kiowa Gaming Commission.
  • IHS expansion of Carnegie clinic.
  • New and improved employee health insurance coverage.
  • Establishment of Anadarko satellite office.
  • Development of 3-story, 100-room hotel and events facility at Kiowa Casino.
  • Public recall hearing for former KGC commissioners.
  • Additional casinos development near Hobart, Carnegie, and Verden.
  • Flooding of Headstart building and clinic due to heavy rains.
  • Consultation with Devil's Tower Superintendent and staff re: scoping document and facilities renovations, and comprehensive interpretation plan.
  • Numerous individual tribal member requests for various assistance needs.
  • Tornado relief assistance to numerous tribal members in Anadarko.
  • Reestablishment of 7 Tribes Consortium. Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes join the Consortium.
  • Begin water rights planning for KCA territorial jurisdiction.
  • Improve information, and governmental transparency, to tribal membership with new website development.
  • Establishment of a new office for economic development.




Saturday, May 30, 2009

Check out my wife's art site at http://alliechaddlesone.com

Update

I recently attended the unvieling ceremony for the new KCA Reservation signs at the KCALUC office in Lawton along with several other KBC members. The event was attended by a number of KCA committee members and the Director of the Oklahoma State Department of Transportation. Pictured are KBC members (L-R) Committeeman Alva D. Tsoodle, Committeeman Richard Kuahquooh, Chairman Donald Tofpi, yours truly, and Vice-Chairman Charles Toyebo.
ODOT will erect the Entering/Exiting signs at 28 sites where state highways intersect the former boundaries of the KCA Reservation.

The boundaries of the KCA Reservation were established by treaty with the United States on October 21, 1867 containing 3,000,000 acres and covering approximately 1/2 of the southwest corner of Oklahoma. Our first treaty with the United States on May 26, 1837 established our first reservation boundaries which included a southwest portion of Kansas, a southeast portion of Colorado, a large portion of eastern New Mexico, most of western Texas, most of western Oklahoma, and contained an area of 78,000,000 acres.

The above event illustrates the seemingly endlesss procession of tasks, issues, and service requirements presented to the KBC on a daily basis. Some situations have origins with our distant ancestors, such as the reservation signage, while other issues of recent origin may have a profound impact on our descendents and require careful and diligent attention by our contemporaries. The "business" of Kiowa governance should not be dictated by traditional concept, nor should it be conveyed to proponents of radical change. The truth of the matter is, we have imposed radical change on ourselves from the time of our northern mountain residence to our present location as a plains warrior society. Conversely, while we have easily adapted to modern society and eagerly look forward toward future developments, we are oftentimes openly regarded by many other tribal people as a steadfast traditional culture.

These contradictions of Kiowa import must be a constant regard in decision making by the Kiowa Business Committee. I am congnizant of and pay homage to the historical contributions of my forefathers, but I also keep in mind that change is needed and inevitable in many areas and I strive for balanced and workable solutions beneficial to all Kiowas in my decision making tasks on the KBC.

As stated in a previous posting, this blog was started as a communication to all Kiowas of my desire to serve you during another term on the KBC by soliciting your votes in the upcoming elections of June 13th. I will post more info in the upcoming days before the election and please don't hesitate to contact me with your questions, or answers. Ah ho! O baw haw.

p.s.: Questioned Dwayne Davis, Chairman, Kiowa Election Board, about the election schedule and he informed me that absentee ballots must be received by the Election Board no later than 10:00a.m., Saturday, June 13, 2009, to be counted. Just a reminder.







Friday, May 22, 2009

Disclaimer


I must add here that all postings in reference to the Kiowa Business Committee within this site are not endorsed nor approved by the KBC, nor does this site claim to represent any official position or release-of-information of the KBC. The views and information entered here are my own as a member of the KBC and I, to the extent permissable by law, take no responsibility or liability for any direct, special, indirect, consequential or incidental damages of any kind arising from the use or misuse of this site.

With that out of the way, I wish to commend the many tribal employees who worked overtime to lend assistance to our tribal membership, and others, who were directly and indirectly affected by the recent tornado here in Anadarko. The damage occured mainly within the city boundaries and many homes and businesses experienced varying levels of damage and destruction. Luckily, there were no serious personal injuries or deaths and clean-up and repair will continue for several months to come. A number of our employees will continue to assist with that process and the KBC is committed to help the large concentration of our membership within Anadarko.

I attended a meeting yesterday of the revived Seven Tribes Consortium which is chaired by the Chairman of the KBC. The Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes were added(making it nine tribes) and represented by Chairman Darrell Flyingman. Anadarko City Manager Robert Williamson attended the meeting as the Consortium passed a supporting resolution to assist Anadarko's application for a FEMA disaster declaration and recovery assistance.

I am including a picture of the Grandstand at the fairgrounds which had the roof blown off. The Baldwin Bldg also has extensive damage to it's northeast corner.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Indian City USA


Good News! We brought Mr. Kevin Wahkinney on board yesterday as the new manager for our tourism enterprise at Indian City. He previously served several years as manager for the Comanche Nation Water Park in Lawton and has a background in tourism and economic development. His first order of business is correcting the water supply problem for re-opening the facility which should happen within a few days. Mr. Wahkinney expressed his eagerness to begin the task and he also recognizes the great potential for future developments at the facility.
I, along with KBC Chairman Don Tofpi and KBC Secretary Sharon Pena, have been selected as a sub-committee to oversee the operations and future development of Indian City and we have had numerous work sessions in planning for the re-opening and phased development. We have also contracted the services of Mr. Lynn Leasure of Leasure & Associates, a proven tour developer from the state of Utah, who has extensive experience working with tribal, state and local-government tour facilities across the western United States. Mr Leasure is pictured here conferring with Chairman Tofpi at one of the Indian City site features.
We recently met with Okla. State Rep. T.W. Shannon of Lawton who chairs the State Dept of Tourism and the Dept of Transportation, and he was very receptive to the development plans we presented and requested an on-site visit and follow up meet to plan for State assistance to our efforts.
We are taking a measured, well planned approach toward the accomplishment of our goals with Indian City and the end result should produce an enterprise which all Kiowas can take pride in. I will follow with later update postings as we progress.




Sunday, May 10, 2009

Greetings To All

Initially, my postings here are to announce my candidacy as a committeeman on the Kiowa Business Committee in the upcoming Kiowa tribal elections, and to discuss my personal activity and contributions to Kiowa tribal governance.
I will later provide updates on current and projected KBC efforts and accomplishments and will welcome any questions and civil comments on any Kiowa related subject matter.
Apart from the KBC activity, I am multi-tasking on other interesting projects and will cover those in subsequent postings and photo imagery.
So, Kiowas, please remember the elections on Saturday, June 13th, and I will sincerely appreciate your vote of confidence and support. Aho!