URL: https://www.indianz.com/News/archives/000871.asp

Monday, August 18, 2003

Impeachment proceedings within the Eastern Band of Cherokees will only "create more hurt and hard feelings in a close-knit community," The Asheville Citizen Times says in an editorial.

The paper says that anger over a letter mailed to off-reservation tribal members is justified. But the paper questions how an impeachment against chief Leon Jones, who was already voted out of office in a recent primary, will help mend the wounds.

"What is gained by holding a trial to remove someone from office who has already been removed from office by the voters?" the paper asks.

Jones and Bob Blankenship, a council member, are accused of violating their oath by using a tribal membership list to send the election mailing. "But the list is published in the tribe's newspaper, so there's no secret about who the members are, nor does the tribe's law prohibit access to the list," the paper notes.

Get the Story:
Editorial: A Cherokee impeachment effort would divide tribe and accomplish little (The Asheville Citizen Times 8/16)

Relevant Links:
Eastern Band of Cherokees - http://www.cherokee-nc.com

Related Stories:
Cherokee impeachment to begin next month (8/12)
Eastern Cherokee chief facing impeachment hearing (8/8)
Eastern Cherokee chief ousted in primary (06/06)
Eastern Cherokee mailing stirs election probe (05/20)
Eastern Cherokee Tribe to hold primary election (05/19)

All stories in the Indianz.Com Archive are available for publishing under a Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)