'She wanted everyone to thrive': Leader of Ottawa Tribe dies after 12 years in office
Ethel Cook brought people together.
First, she taught employees how to work as a team as a corporate trainer. Then, she emphasized the importance of collaboration as the chief of the Ottawa Tribe. She led the northeast Oklahoma tribe for 12 years until her death Sunday. She was 72.
“She wanted everyone to thrive,” said Sherrise Starkey, one of Cook’s three daughters.
“Always,” added another daughter, Samantha Cook.
Their mother grew up in Miami, in the corner of Oklahoma where Ottawa families were forced to settle in 1867 after ceding their homelands near the Great Lakes. Her great-grandfather, Joseph Badger King, served as chief of the tribe around that time.
Cook would follow in his path more than a century later. But she spent the first chapter of her career at telecommunications companies, working her way up from warehouse jobs to a trainer, her daughters said.
After Cook retired, she and her husband, Sam, moved back to Miami in 2003 to help care for their aging parents. She also took on more leadership roles within the tribe, starting with its gaming commission. She was elected chief in 2011 and went on to be reelected four more times, most recently in May.
The position had no salary, and she advocated against adding one. “She said, ‘I’m here for my heart and my people,'" Samantha Cook said.
'She put everything she had in her role'
During her dozen years in office, Ethel Cook pushed to expand the tribe’s economic base beyond gaming. She oversaw the opening of two gas stations and a restaurant on historic Route 66 in the middle of Miami.
“She was right there in the trenches, and she would know every detail, down to what type of screws were going in the ceiling,” said Mikal Scott-Werner, who serves as second councilman for the Ottawa Tribe. “She put everything she had in her role, and I think that’s why she was so successful.”
Cook liked to use the phrase “united front” to describe how she thought things should get done. Scott-Werner’s work schedule as a nurse prevented her from driving her daughter to Ottawa language classes, so Cook stepped up to give the girl rides so she could attend.
Cook saw the tribe’s businesses as not only vital for tribal members, but the surrounding community. In Ottawa County, the median household income is $42,000, 25% lower than the statewide average. About 20% of residents live in poverty, according to census estimates.
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When school groups and local charities approached the tribe for support, Cook believed in hearing out every request and helping out as much as possible, Scott-Werner said. “They were all on the table to discuss,” she said. “They were equally important.”
Cook became a fixture in community groups such as the local chamber, which honored her with a surprise award in 2021 for all of her achievements. She led the effort to repair a bridge that had been closed for two years, helping to secure federal funding to replace it.
“Her leadership will be felt for decades and probably never duplicated,” Bless Parker, the mayor of Miami, said in a statement.
How Ethel Cook, Ottawa Tribe worked closely with other tribes in Oklahoma
Cook also believed in working closely with the eight other tribes located in the county. After news of her death, leaders of the Eastern Shawnee and Peoria tribes ordered flags be flown at half staff.
Cook saw it as both a duty and a challenge to make sure the Ottawa Tribe was front and center in efforts to benefit the community, said Ben Barnes, the chief of the Shawnee Tribe, which is also based in Miami.
“She was really proud that the Ottawa Tribe had shared its name with the county in which we all lived,” Barnes said.
One of the largest joint tribal projects is still unfolding, as the Ottawa Tribe and its neighbors work to build up their criminal justice systems in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's McGirt ruling. Courts recently affirmed the small Ottawa Reservation, as well as two others in Ottawa County, continue to exist.
“We just weren’t thinking for our tribe. It was for everybody around here,” Scott-Werner said. “She would always say, ‘We may not see it, but our grandchildren will certainly see what we’ve done today.’”
Cook continued to work on tribal issues and projects even after she entered hospice care, her daughters said. She had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia two years ago.
She hoped to see the tribe move into manufacturing, and the tribe just broke ground on a new hotel and RV park next to its casino.
“She’s still living on in everything that is being built,” Samantha Cook said.
Ethel Cook is also survived by her husband, daughter Tonya Cook and three grandchildren. A graveside service will take place Saturday at the Ottawa Indian Cemetery east of Miami.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ethel Cook, chief of the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma, dies at 72
