Opinion: Eastern Cherokee leaders kick reporter out of meeting

The Tribal Council kicked us out again. Holly Kays, a reporter for The Smoky Mountain News, was told on July 9 to leave a meeting of the Cherokee Tribal Council. No meaningful reason was given as to why members of the council did not want our reporter present.

This is the second time in the last seven months the Tribal Council, under the leadership of Chairwoman Terri Henry, has decided to exclude the media from their meetings. Such actions would be against the law in all 100 counties in North Carolina.

Our reporter is not a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, but by my estimation that’s totally irrelevant. Many tribal members use our paper — and the other newspapers in this region — as a source of information. Those tribal members care about and want a voice in what their government is doing. They are the ones who deserve to know how the Tribal Council conducts its business, and they are the ones who should be irate and insulted by the fact that their elected representatives think it’s OK to intimidate the press.

Covering Cherokee Tribal Council has always been difficult. Unlike other public bodies who spend our tax dollars, Cherokee is considered a sovereign nation and therefore exempt from North Carolina public meeting laws. So while it has its own municipal code and has adopted a Free Press Act with regard to tribal publications, it does not currently have a Constitution and therefore can legally kick our reporter— or any other reporter — out of its meetings. The first time it happened to our reporter, the decision came with an added caveat: a police escort out of the council house.