Chief candidates debate plans to protect elders

May 3—Principal chief candidates for the 2023 Cherokee election discussed their plans to protect elders from becoming victims of cyber crime.

The event was hosted by the Cherokee Phoenix last Tuesday evening, April 25, at Sequoyah High School's Place Where They Place. Candidates include David Cornsilk, Chuck Hoskin Jr., Wes Nofire, and Cara Cowan Watts. Tim Landes, Cherokee Phoenix Editorial Board member, moderated.

"According to the FBI's 2021 Elder fraud Report, cyber crime cost Americans over 50 nearly $3 billion last year," said Landes. "...If elected, what will you do ... to help protect Cherokee elders?"

Cornsilk discussed his 85-year-old mother and how she gets many calls from people claiming to have money for her.

"She gets excited because she thinks she's won a million dollars and I have to figure out ways to keep her from clicking 'yes' on many things," said Cornsilk.

Cornsilk said many problems stem from a lack of training, and that begins with expanding internet access for Cherokee people.

"We have to be able to train our people [for things like] not giving out their addresses, not giving out their Medicare number," said Cornsilk. "We have to make sure they do not associate with people that will be harmful to them."

Nofire said he would work with the CN attorney general and marshals to have congruent jurisdiction with federal and state officers.

"I already have those relationships built... but one thing that is difficult to overcome is our elders ability to keep up with technology. I know even at my young age it's sometimes tough to keep up with all the new technological advances," he said.

Nofire said the tribe needs be concerned about what it is doing to its citizens.

"We know that the Gadugi Portal seemed to be very good at first, but as we witnessed throughout the past elections, it seems like everybody's being contacted," said Nofire. "So we know that your information out there was sold to the highest bidder, and under my watch, we will not do that."

Like Cornsilk, Watts said has had to help her mother with internet issues.

"This is a point in time as a nation where our sovereignty has been acknowledged ... and we have an opportunity, but this government has failed to act [and] has failed to put the laws in place that would protect our elders from cyber crimes," said Watts.

Watts said when the Gadugi Portal came out and $2,000 in federal tax money was issued to citizens, she had people report crimes to her about people stealing their $2,000 from them or saying they'd received their children's money without permission.

"And this administration failed to act, failed to protect the money that these Cherokee people needed...," said Watts.

After Watts challenged the current administration, Hoskin said the problems facing elders ring true to him because of experiences he has taking care of his aunt.

"She's got one of those life alerts and she'll hit it if she [has] a health care issue or she needs okra — I'll go either way and I'll go to the rescue. But ... we do have laws in place to protect elders," said Hoskin. "Just last fall, we held an Elders Summit and committed $3 million to scale up our Elder Protection Unit."

Hoskin's time to respond to the challenge ran out, but he continued with his response to the initial question.

"I have to take issue with this idea that we don't have laws in place," said Hoskin. "We have seized the opportunity under McGirt to scale up our criminal justice system, to upgrade our laws, to put more money into prosecutors. We have a law right now that protects people's data being sold because there's an injunction in place right now against Councilor Cowan Watts' website, which put every elder's name out on the internet, and the law stopped it. There's always room for improvement, but if you want to see more improvement, I'd like another four years."

As she was challenged, Watts was allowed to respond.

"What's interesting about the case that was submitted is, it ignored the facts on the table, that there was more information readily available under the Oklahoma Voter Registration database and more," said Watts. "So I find it interesting when it was brought up that they don't have their thumb on the court, when the judge rules with the very brief that was filed initially without even reading our attorney's brief, and at the same time they did nothing to protect these five [plaintiffs]."

Cornsilk pointed out that although Hoskin says he doesn't want to have his thumb on the scales of the court, he believes otherwise. Cornsilk said he thinks there are a lot of thumbs on the court, which are creating situations where the Cherokee people are endangered by their own courts and systems.

"The case that we're talking about with [Watts] is voter registration information. It's not something that isn't available to every single one of you who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation," said Cornsilk. "Now we know that there was a question about the forms that were used... but that case was designed purely for publicity and it was a collusion, in my opinion, between the principal chief and our court system."

Hoskin cited his track record in response.

"Well, if the issue is protecting elders ...you can look at our track record. You can look at the millions of dollars we put into protecting elders; you can look at the laws we put in place to make sure there's a blanket of protection .... And look, if I need to rebut the idea that I'm going to protect the identities, addresses, and phone numbers of our precious elders, folks, I'm on that side every day of the week."

Watts responded that the current administration wants to keep power so badly it is willing to suppress citizens' voting rights.

"They will go to great lengths, not just in publicity to cover up other matters... but also to make sure while they have access to data that you do not, and neither do any of the candidates," said Watts.

Nofire, in his rebuttal, urged putting politics aside.

"Not only do we got to protect [our elders, we've got to] make good on our promises. So whenever I say I'm going to protect all of our elders, I mean it and [with] everything in our administration's powers, that's what we're going to do," he said.

Watts recalled talking with a sheriff in her area about a stack of paper containing "crimes against [Cherokee] people that went dismissed or declined to prosecute."

"...It demonstrates every day that the current leadership is unable and unwilling to protect our tribal citizens.... Every day it's a demonstration that they're not willing to step up for us as the little Cherokee people that aren't here for pay-to-play politics," said Watts.

Hoskin said protecting elders should be a priority for everyone. He cited human services staff that go out and help elders and the tribal prosecutor's office that holds people accountable for abusing elders.

"This criticism about our criminal justice system sounds a lot like what the enemies of sovereignty threw at the deputy chief and I when they tried to take our reservation away and we stared them down," said Hoskin. "We've got to continue to scale up our criminal justice system. ... I'm proud of the fact that we committed $30 million immediately to increase our criminal justice system on behalf of elders and all citizens."

What's next

The rest of the Principal Chief Debate will be detailed in the May 6-7 weekend edition of TDP.