TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMANCHE NATION BUSINESS COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING JANUARY 9, 2010, 10:00 A.M. COMANCHE NATION BUSINESS CENTER LAWTON, OKLAHOMA __________________________________________________________ REPORTED BY: CHRYSTAL H. VANCE, CSR DODSON REPORTING & ASSOCIATES 435 NORTH WALKER, SUITE 102 OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 73102 (405) 235-1828 ~ (405) 235-1266 (FAX) dcri@coxinet.net 1 A P P E A R A N C E S 2 3 COMANCHE NATION BUSINESS COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 4 Michael Burgess, Chairman 5 Richard Henson, Vice-Chairman 6 Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary-Treasurer 7 Edmond Mahseet, Committeeman #1 8 Lanny Asepermy, Committeeman #2 9 Darrel Kosechequetah, Committeeman #3 10 Clyde R. Narcomey, Committeeman #4 11 12 LEGAL COUNSEL: 13 William Norman, James Burson Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker 14 15 16 17 * * * * * 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 INDEX OF PROCEEDINGS 2 3 PAGE 4 Meeting called to order at 10:00 a.m. 4 5 Roll call 4 6 Invocation 4 7 Motion passed to approve prior minutes 6 8 Motion passed to amend the agenda 10 9 Motion passed to approve Resolution No. 01-10 10 10 Motion passed to approve Resolution No. 02-10 11 11 Motion passed to approve Resolution No. 03-10 13 12 Motion passed to approve Resolution No. 04-10 15 13 Motion passed to approve Resolution No. 05-10 19 14 Motion passed to approve the Chairman to attend 56 the Indian Gaming Conference in San Diego 15 Motion passed to approve Resolution No. 06-10 61 16 Motion passed to approve Resolution No. 07-10 63 17 Bill and Mike Rowell from Lakeview Cable address 65 18 the CBC. 19 Presentation by William Voelker of Sia 72 20 Mr. Thomas Narcomey addresses the CBC regarding 80 The appointment of the TA by referendum vote 21 Discussion on Language Immersion program 90 22 Execution session began at 12:58 p.m. 112 23 24 25 1 (Meeting called to order at 10:00 a.m.) 2 MR. BURGESS: Ladies and Gentleman, thank you 3 for being here with us today. We're going to go ahead and 4 get started. Call to order. Bob, go ahead and give us 5 our roll call, please. 6 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Michael Burgess? 7 MR. BURGESS: Here. 8 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Richard Henson? 9 MR. HENSON: Here. 10 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Robert Tippeconnie? Here. 11 Edmond Mahseet? 12 MR. ASEPERMY: He's in rout. 13 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Lanny Asepermy? 14 MR. ASEPERMY: Here. 15 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Darryl Kosechequetah? 16 MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Here. 17 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Clyde Narcomey? 18 MR. NARCOMEY: Here. 19 MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Chairman, we have a 20 quorum. 21 MR. BURGESS: All right. Thank you very 22 much. Mr. Tippeconnie, will you give us the invocation, 23 please. 24 (Invocation.) 25 MR. BURGESS: We have a few minutes here for those of you who are members who would like to look at December and November monthly minutes. MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman? MR. BURGESS: Yes. MR. NARCOMEY: I have a question. On your college deal, did you say, or whoever, that if they're not accredited by this March 2010, that we're not going to fund it no more? That was the understanding that I had. Is that true or do we know? MR. BURGESS: No, by March we should have a letter in preliminary information, something, to National Accreditation Association, higher learning. And with that letter, it gives them intial status of an accredited institution. Now, they're currently under accredited status with Cameron University. They have an MOU since 2005 that they're operating under. That's what I've been told. And then if we -- we need to hear from them and then we're going to be doing that -- MR. NARCOMEY: Okay. Now, this resolution that was voted on the 5th for this college charter, 183-09. MR. BURGESS: Uh-huh. It's been tabled, right? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah, it's tabled. MR. NARCOMEY: That's what I was thinking. Here in the newsletter, it looked like we passed it. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We did not pass it. MR. NARCOMEY: Okay. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We're waiting for a response from them. MR. NARCOMEY: Okay. That's all. I make a motion to approve, Mr. Chairman. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Is there any other discussion on the agenda? MR. HENSON: Yeah, I want to amend it to put on the amended preference resolution. MR. BURGESS: Okay. So we have a motion to approve last month's minutes, and that was by Mr. Narcomey. We need a second on that and then we'll come to the agenda. MR. ASEPERMY: Second on the minutes. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Asepermy seconds. Call for the question. All those in favor, say "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, say "nay." Ayes have it. MR. ASEPERMY: Are we going to do an amendment -- I mean -- MR.BURGESS: Motion to amend the agenda for resolutions, is it not, Mr. Henson? MR. HENSON: Yeah, for the -- had on the last meeting. MR. ASEPERMY: Where's it at? MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's not here. We have to table it. MR. ASEPERMY: Do we have that resolution? MR. HENSON: I've got it right here. MR. ASEPERMY: Do you want to make copies for us? MR. HENSON: Sure. MR. TIPPECONNIE: And I also want to amend the agenda to put Mr. Burgess in executive session. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Ron Burgess? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah. MR. ASEPERMY: I think we owe Mr. Burgess -- he needs to be put somewhere on the top. He's been here on and off numerous times. MR. TIPPECONNIE: He's okay with going into executive. MR. ASEPERMY: I mean, I'm talking, we've got 17 items. Are we going to put him on the bottom? He should have been right on the top. We promised him an answer today. MR. NARCOMEY: I second that. MR. BURGESS: Okay. MR. ASEPERMY: Do we put him number one? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Number one in exec, is that what you're saying, Clyde? MR. NARCOMEY: Well, Lanny said it. I just agree with it. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Pardon? MR. NARCOMEY: Lanny brought it up and I agreed with him. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Okay. So put him where? MR. NARCOMEY: Number one. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Number one in executive session. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman? MR. BURGESS: Yes. MR. ASEPERMY: I don't know whether to add Comanche Boy to executive or to charitable. MR. BURGESS: Is there a request for assistance? MR. ASEPERMY: I've got, yeah, two e-mails from him last Thursday and Friday. I thought it was being handled by the Gaming Board, but, apparently, they dropped the ball on these last two fights. And I've already talked to Clyde about it, and Eddie, and some of the others at our last meeting. So we can put it on the bottom, if you want, on executive session. I can present the request from him. MR. BURGESS: Well, we've got all the other requests like that as charitable funds, so that's -- MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. So you want to do it there? No. 6, Comanche Boy? MR. BURGESS: Yes. That's two items to amend on the agenda. Mr. Henson, your amendment will be No. 6 in the resolutions. What is that number? MR. HENSON: 169-09. MR. ASEPERMY: And it's changed to? MR. HENSON: What would that be changed? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Indian preference, outside the government. MR. HENSON: What number would it be on the resolution? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Oh, we'll use the same number. MR. HENSON: Oh, okay. MR. BURGESS: All right. We've got a motion here to amend the agenda, adding Resolution No. 6 to the Resolution 169-09 in the resolutions area. And then the other amendment will be to bring Mr. Ron Burgess into executive session as the first person to be discussed with. MR. ASEPERMY: And Comanche Boy. MR. BURGESS: Oh, and Comanche Boy on charitable contributions. MR. ASEPERMY: No. 6 on charitable? MR. BURGESS: Yes. Call for the question. Motion has been made by Mr. Henson. MR. ASEPERMY: Second. MR. BURGESS: A second by Mr. Asepermy. All those in favor, say "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: Motion passes for those amendments -- agenda amendments. Resolution No. 01-10, a resolution about ineligible applicants for the Comanche Nation rolls. They didn't make -- they're not direct descendents of allottees eligible for membership under our constitution. Any questions? MR. NARCOMEY: I make a vote to approve Resolution 01-10, Mr. Chairman. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Motion to approve. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I second it. MR. BURGESS: A second by Mr. Tippeconnie. All those favor say "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed say "nay." Ayes have it. Resolution 02-10, also a list of ineligibles due to them being enrolled with another tribe at the time they made application here. They did not drop the enrollment with another tribe; therefore, they're not eligible for enrollment in the Comanche Nation. Any discussion? Motion to approve? MR. HENSON: I'll make that motion. MR. BURGESS: Motion by Mr. Henson. Second? MR. ASEPERMY: I second that. MR. BURGESS: Second has been made. All those in favor, signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: Ayes have it. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, one of the denials is eligible, the one that was born in 1995 when they turn 18, which will be another four years. MR. TIPPECONNIE: They'll be considered at that time. MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, and what enrollment does, they put it in a file and they notify the person, if they're still interested when they turn 18. MR. BURGESS: Correct. We'll get into a new constitution and open it up, a one-year, two, if not three-year window, would be better for these folks, someone who doesn't know at the 18 that they could and the parents didn't know either. Resolution No. 03-10. This is a resolution to approve those who are eligible for enrollment. They're descendents of original allottees and they have one-eighth or more degree of Comanche blood, and have met all qualifying factors. Any questions? MR. HENSON: They've got some -- they've got some people here back from 1979 and 2004. MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, but if you read under there, Mr. Henson, it says, "never enrolled with another tribe." There's an explanation for all of those that are over 18 years old. MR. HENSON: I'm talking about the younger ones. I was just wondering why they hadn't enrolled them before. MR. ASEPERMY: You're going back -- MR. HENSON: Some in there that's 2008, 2004, 2003. MR. BURGESS: Young ones. MR. HENSON: That could have been enrolled when they were born. I was wondering why -- MR. BURGESS: That's it. Information-wise, doesn't flow on that. Some people just don't follow through. MR. HENSON: Okay. I make a motion we accept. MR. ASEPERMY: Second. MS. PARKER: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to request that you read the names of those approved for the enrollment. MR. BURGESS: Okay. What we've done is made this available in the past, just one time, in that we've had two pages or more. A lot of these what we've done, we've told them, also, to start putting underneath their english names, or whatever, the family they come from. So I'll just read -- like right here, we've got a lot of families that you'll know, Tenequer, Poco, Tomah, Pebeashy, Pewo, Parker, Poafpybitty, Farwell. We've got the Indian families listed, so people know who's coming from -- where they're descended from. Just one time. MR. ASEPERMY: Call for the question. MR. BURGESS: Okay. All those in favor, signify by saying "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed say "nay." The ayes have it. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, for the record, that brings our enrollment up to 14,699. Of the 24 enrolled today, one -- 13 are one-eighth a degree of Comanche blood. MR. BURGESS: All right. Here's the individuals: Jasmine Arranaga, Elizabeth Bravo-Jacques, Steven Brown, Nicolle Cantrell, Scott Crown, Garrett Ferguson, Evalina Garcia, Courtney Giphart, Taybree Haskell, Marina Hernandez, Michael Hoahwah, Mikalyn Hoahwah, Jewell Horinek, Riley Lewis, Melinda Mathus, Jose Palmer-Guido, Mario Palmer, Gwen Paukei, Kacy Peifer, Kalea Revell, Arlene Schonchin, Leah Smith, Emily Spear, James White, Jr. Those are the enrollees at this time. Motion has passed. Mr. Asepermy, did you do a second on that? MR. ASEPERMY: Yes, sir. MR. BURGESS: Bunky, you did the motion. Now, coming to Resolution 04-10. This is the resolution to amend the KCA budget. MR. TIPPECONNIE: We had originally passed the motion, but the figure was wrong. It was 250, should have been 270. So this amendment is to bring it to the 270. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Any discussion, Gentlemen? MR. ASEPERMY: What's the budget say? MR. TIPPECONNIE: It says 270. MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. MR. BURGESS: Motion? MR. TIPPECONNIE: I'll make the motion. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I second. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Motion has been made to accept. Mr. Kosechequetah has made the second. All those in favor say "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed say "nay." All right. Motion has passed. KCA now gets to spend their money. Resolution No. 5. This is resolution -- Resolution 05-10 reads, "Whereas the Comanche Business Committee is the duly-elected official body designated to conduct business for and on behalf of the Comanche Nation; and, whereas, the Comanche Nation Business Committee requests to rename the Comanche Nation Gymnasium to George "Woogie" Watchetaker Hall; and be it resolved that the Comanche Nation Business Committee hereby approves the renaming of the gymnasium to George "Woogie" Watchetaker Hall." MR. NARCOMEY: I make a motion to approve, Mr. Chairman. MR. HENSON: I'll second it. MR. BURGESS: Motion to approve by Mr. Narcomey and second by Mr. Henson. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, I would like to read this before we go any further. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Please do. MR. ASEPERMY: "George 'Woogie' Watchetaker was a full-blood Comanche of the Antelope and Yamparika bands. He was a world champion fancy war dancer, a rainmaker, a former member of the Comanche Business Committee, a painter, a flutist, a spiritual leader, a lobbyist for Native American rights, a semi-pro baseball player, goodwill ambassador, and a singer of native songs." "Mr. Watchetaker danced before President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman and the Congress at the Nation's capital in Washington D.C. In 1970, while on tour in Europe, he and Doc Tate Nevequaya gave a royal Comanche performance before the Queen of England. Their performance was so impressive that the Queen knighted both of them. Mr. Watchetaker was born on May 15, 1917, and passed away at Age 77 on May 27, 1993. He is buried at the Otipoby Cemetery in Fort Sill." Mr. Nelson, when you do a little bio and a little bronze plaque, if we pass this, a photograph and a bio should be placed in the entrance or somewhere where people can read this. I got his birthdate wrong. I think it's 1917. The month and year are correct. MR. NELSON: We'll make sure his birthdate -- MR. ASEPERMY: And you might have J.J. research that further to see if there's anything else. There's the rest of the information on him. MR. NELSON: There was a picture given of Woogie from a past soldier of Fort Sill that nobody has ever seen. This picture is so explicit of how Woogie, and how our people would have looked way back when. Nobody's ever seen this picture, Mike. You've seen it, I've sent it to you. And I hope when you guys approve this, that maybe the next meeting, you'll see this picture, that will be the picture to approve, because it's one that's never been seen. But what I remember of Woogie, this really does amplify what Woogie was all about. MR. RON BURGESS: I was going to say, that I don't know if you might consider it, that if they were knighted, him and Doc were knighted, they would be referred to as "Sir." Because the english, when you're knighted by the Queen of England, you're referred to as "Sir." You know, Sir Woogie Watchetaker and Sir Doc -- MR. ASEPERMY: Lord George. MR. RON BURGESS: But, I mean, that's the title -- MR. ASEPERMY: That was his knighted name, Lord George. MR. BURGESS: We'll make sure we'll put that into his bio history, put it on the plaque. We'll try to get one of those plaques done. And we'll find the right photo and get that engraved with it and do something on the outside of the building. Later on, in the spring, weather is better and when we finish with the gymnasium, we're going to have a dedication ceremony. We want to put the word out to any of his relatives and descendants that might have stories or remembrances of him. We'll try to set aside a dedication date. And we'd like the community invited. The one thing that I remember of Uncle Woogie -- and I was living off and away -- that he was the first person I've heard of that was on the committee that they called upon to do re-interments -- (Edmond Mahseet entered the room at 10:24 a.m.) MR. BURGESS: -- of exposed bodies of our people, that they were determined to be our people. And because he was on the committee and highly-involved in the culture, he was one they called to establish what you might call the first NAGPRA program and process for the Nation back in, what was it, the 70's or 80's when he was on. So that's the beginning of our NAGPRA program. Yes, Bobby? BOBBY: I knew Woogie a long time. And I know he was a humble man, so I'm thinking it might be best if we contact the family to see what they think about what -- MR. BURGESS: Well, we'll mention the historical fact on that. I mean, a lot of people are just going to refer to him as Woogie. You know, that should be one for the history books for us, and having two like that. So all those in favor of this motion to approve naming our gymnasium George "Woogie" Watchetaker Hall, please say "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, say "nay." The motion has passed. MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman? MR. BURGESS: Yes. MR. NARCOMEY: At the last meeting, we discussed this on Woogie, and we also discussed renaming the Bingo Road. MR. ASEPERMY: Oh, yeah. MR. NARCOMEY: You know, to donate the land to build the new road up through the complex. MR. BURGESS: Right. We are going to -- we have a letter going out to the residents on that road to get their approval, or agreement, I should say. We're going to have a motion later on, Ladies and Gentlemen. While we have the road called Bingo Road, it's brought to us that, why don't we recognize our own people. And since we're not playing bingo at the Tribe, we can change the name. So the county commissioners have asked us to contact everyone along the road that has a mailbox address to get their agreement to change the name. And the name will be -- we're talking about Otipoby Lane. What was the maiden name? MR. NARCOMEY: Perconaic. MR. BURGESS: For the record? MR. NARCOMEY: P-E-R-C-O-N-A-I-C. MR. BURGESS: So Ladies and Gentlemen, in another month or sore another resolution to rename our road from Bingo Road to Annie Perconaic Lane. She donated the roadway from her land to the Tribe back when they got started, sometime back when. That'll be in the future. All right. Moving on to No. 6. Mr. Henson, this is the resolution -- yes? MR. NARCOMEY: The TA needs to say something. MR. NELSON: Okay. I was talking to Will Owens. Since that is an actual road of the county, that we need to make sure that we check with the county, that we can change that road. Because it starts -- if you remember, it starts on the east side of I-44, then it was cut off to Bingo Road. So let's make sure we check and get that approved or we won't get our mail. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Owens is the one who told us to go through the process checked with the county. So that's what we found out. MR. NELSON: Good. MR. BURGESS: All right. Resolution No. 169- 09. This is the resolution approving the Indian Hiring Act in all entities of the Tribe outside of the tribal government itself. Mr. Henson, do you have a copy? Is this it? MR. HENSON: Yeah. MR. BURGESS: This resolution reads that the -- we have a normal -- "Whereas, the Comanche Nation Business Committee is a duly-elected official body designated to conduct business for and on behalf of the Comanche Nation. Comanche Nation Human Resources policies and procedures include the section Indian Preference Ordinance." "Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Comanche Nation Business Committee hereby amends all the Comanche Nation Human Resources policies and procedures to include in the section Indian Preference Ordinance." It's a two-page document, which essentially re-enforces the hiring of Comanches and other Native Americans prior to hiring other individuals as, how do you say, qualified? MR. HENSON: Qualified Comanches. MR. BURGESS: So it doesn't mean we can't hire non-Indians, it just means that there is -- the Indian Preference is going to be re-enforced in all entities of our Nation. Those entities are the college, economic development, casino management. What else, Bunky? MR. HENSON: All the Comanche Indians. MR. BURGESS: All things that the Nation here, as the Business Committee, that we've established as entities of the Tribe, such as the museum, even. There is an Indian Preference hiring policy that they need to insert in their personnel policies and procedures manual. MR. MAHSEET: Could you read that preference, Mr. Chairman? MR. ASEPERMY: It's two pages, plus this. You've got a copy of it. MR. MAHSEET: I'd like to -- MR. BURGESS: You want me to read all of it? MR. MAHSEET: Just the part on the Indian Preference. MR. ASEPERMY: The 102(C). MR. MAHSEET: 102(C). MR. BURGESS: 102 -- no, you're talking about E -- MR. TIPPECONNIE: "C" is just the definition. MR. BURGESS: Yeah, 104. MR. ASEPERMY: Oh, 104? MR. BURGESS: Yeah. Section 104. All right, guys. I'll bite my tongue, y'all. "It is a policy of the CBC to provide hiring and promotion preference to officially-enrolled members, other Comanche Nation who meet the essential job qualifications for an open position." 104(A) reads: "When job vacancies occur, the Nation will first attempt to fill job vacancies with qualified Comanche tribal members. If qualified Comanche tribal members cannot be recruited, the recruitment will be directed towards members of other federally-recognized tribes. If those efforts fail, a non-Indian may be recruited based on a non-discriminatory employment opportunity. In each of the above situations and in the priority listed, the Nation will select from the above applicants who best meet the specified qualifications for the position." B: "Applicants who are claiming Indian Preference, must submit a copy of a certificate of degree of Indian blood verified by their respective enrollment officer or the superintendent of the BIA agency having jurisdiction over their tribe." C: "Enrolled members of the Comanche Nation must provide an enrollment number." D: "Human Resources will adhere to Indian Hiring Preference procedures." E: "Indian Preference in hiring procedures. One, advertise every vacant position for advertising policies; two, qualified Comanche candidates as to qualified or highly-qualified; three, give selecting officials certificate of eligibles; four, if less than three candidates, selecting official may re-advertise once. If three or more candidates, selecting official must select; five, if no Comanches apply, then Human Resources is to qualify other Indian candidates. The above procedures apply when doing so." "Six, if only one qualified Comanche applies, he or she will appear on all certificates of eligibles. A selection must be made the second advertisement, if not the first. If no selection is made on second advertisement, then position must be cancelled and cannot be re-advertised for six months; seven, Indian Preference applies to all positions, including reorganization; eight, if no Indian applied, then the above procedures apply to all over non-Indian candidates." And then Section 2 of 104 says, "Non- discriminatory employment opportunity. Subject to the Native American Preference as described in Section 2 or any federal laws or rules of a funding source, the Comanche Nation (a) will not discriminate against any employee or candidate for employment because of sex, age, race, creed, color, disability or national origin, and (b) will take affirmative action to insure that candidates are employed without regard to their race, creed, or national origin." So that's the section on Indian Preference hiring. MR. ASEPERMY: I have one other question. Mr. Nelson? What's your take? MR. NELSON: I think we've done a 360 on this. I say let's do this. MR. ASEPERMY: Call for the question. MR. HENSON: I make a motion to approve. MR. BURGESS: Motion approved by Mr. Henson. Second? MR. ASEPERMY: Second, Mr. Chairman. MR. BURGESS: Okay. A second has been made. Any discussion? MR. NELSON: Yeah, Mike. MR. BURGESS: Go ahead. MR. NELSON: I think that last omission you made, Bunky, if you'd let Jim just see that part. That one part -- MR. BURGESS: The omission? MR. NELSON: The last part that was scratched out. MR. HENSON: We had scratched that out last time. MR. NORMAN: That's the only change? MR. HENSON: Yeah. The penalties part of it, we just scratched it out completely. It'll be left up to the HR. MR. TIPPECONNIE: It just has the one sentence. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: And this is to amend what is done by the tribal complex? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Have it apply across. MR. HENSON: This is the same policy that the tribal complex has across the board. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Will it apply across our gaming facilities, economic development, all Comanche enterprises? MR. HENSON: Everything. It's across the board. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: It seems to me that they all have Comanche Indian Preference already implemented in the by-laws. MR. HENSON: It's -- the way they've got it written, it's -- they can go around it, if they want. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: What's the difference between the way that you see they have it written and the way that it's written right here? MR. HENSON: Well, the way they've got it written right now, is that they have Indian Preference, but they can select whoever they -- highly-qualified is what they said. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Right. For example, what would -- MR. HENSON: For instance, I'll give you an example. The -- what's his name? The kid from HR? MR. BURGESS: Francis Attocknie. MR. HENSON: Francis Attocknie would work for the gaming at the Comanche Casino. He was the most highly-qualified for the job, yet they selected -- MR. NORMAN: Excuse me -- MR. HENSON: -- another person for the job. MR. NORMAN: Excuse me, Mr. Chairman. You probably don't want to talk about employment decisions. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Confidentiality. MR. HENSON: That's right, I'm sorry. Anyway, that's basically what happened. And it'll continue to happen as long as it's written that way, because everybody does their own no interpretation. This leaves no interpretation. This leaves the way to do it correctly. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Well, this makes a way to hire Comanches, if three of them apply, I think this was the instance that was given when we had the discussion before. Chief Griffin, I don't think he's here, he was trying to understand what you were talking about. He said, "So if there's three Comanches that apply and let's say two others and -- or two other Indians, and let's say three whites, that you'll only see the three Comanches?" MR. HENSON: If they're qualified for the job, yes. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: You won't even see the other applicants? MR. HENSON: No. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: You're not even going to look at their resumes? MR. HENSON: No. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: See, the problem I have with that is that we don't know that we're getting the best-qualified person for the job, in my opinion. MR. HENSON: The way all positions with -- I mean, advertisements are, is that they have qualified or highly-qualified. So if they are qualified people for the job, then they're qualified for the job. If they are highly -- there's two ways to rate them, either qualified or highly-qualified. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Uh-huh. MR. HENSON: And if they're qualified, then maybe we just get the people that's qualified, we only got qualified people, then that's -- they're going to see. That means this people are qualified for the job. Just because you go and say, if you advertise to get highly- qualified, then they'll be pushed over as highly-qualified people. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Okay. Regardless of race. So you're saying if there's two or three qualified Comanches, what if there's two highly-qualified Kiowas or others? MR. HENSON: The Comanches will be seen first. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: See, that's my point. You're not necessarily seeing the highly-qualified, you're seeing the qualified. MR. HENSON: Yes. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Do you understand what I'm saying? MR. HENSON: Yes. MR. MAHSEET: And this is why I asked the Chairman to bring that up, because there's still some gray area in there. If we're going to do that, then it's almost the same as affirmative action. And affirmative action, then is -- it allows a person of color to be hired, regardless, if they're qualified or not and can do the job. MR. HENSON: No, affirmative action -- MR. MAHSEET: And the reason why I'm saying that, is because you said you brought up a situation. Well, the situation is affirmative action. And affirmative action almost guarantees somebody a job just because they're of color. MR. HENSON: No. MR. MAHSEET: And that's the same way this Indian Preference is doing right now. Just because they're Comanche, we're going to hire them, regardless, if they can do the job or not. MR. HENSON: No, affirmative action means that they get a preference, but they have to be qualified for the job. It's just like here -- MR. MAHSEET: Affirmative action, you can go out there in most any state organizations, that you go out there, there's a person of color who is hired by affirmative action and it's only been because of the color. MR. RON BURGESS: It should only be in the case, right, that if all applicants are equal qualified, that if one of the applicants is Comanche, then they're hired, right? MR. BURGESS: That's generally -- this is what it basically means, is that if their qualifications are just as equal to other applicants -- MR. RON BURGESS: Right. MR. BURGESS: -- they would be considered first. MR. RON BURGESS: Yeah, I mean, that's how it should be. I mean, that's what most cases are in most places where they hire native preference or something like that. It just says in all -- if there was a master's degree required, and a white guy, a Kiowas, a Comanche all have a master's degree and experience, well, then, you hire the Comanche, because he's equal. But if he's not, if the Comanche only has a bachelor's degree, and a master's degree is required, then you would hire either the white guy or the Kiowa guy because they're more qualified. So that's how it should read, right? I mean, that's the only -- MR. HENSON: That's the way it does read. You have to meet the qualifications to be hired. MR. RON BURGESS: Right, that's what I got from the reading, so -- MR. HENSON: Yeah, you have to meet the qualifications. You can't just submit an application saying, "I'm Comanche, I'm going to be hired." You have to be qualified for the job. You're not going to be hired just because you're Comanche. MR. ASEPERMY: Darryl, are you saying that we have -- we'll just say we have three people that are highly-qualified, one of them is Numunu, one is another tribe and is one a non-Indian. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Yeah. MR. ASEPERMY: That Comanche automatically gets the job, that's what you're saying? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: No, I'm not saying -- what I'm saying is, I think, we have supervisors, we have managers, we have people that do hiring outside of the Tribe for a money-making entities, and they should have the ability to sit across the table in an interview with whoever it is from the pool of applicants and see them eye-to-eye and face-to-face and make a judgment call on who is going to be the best person for that job. They should have that ability. I think it takes it away from them. MR. ASEPERMY: So are you saying that this is -- you disagree with this or -- MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Yeah, across the board, yeah. MR. BURGESS: Well, I've seen those other policies particularly at the gaming hall, and they were three paragraphs, one paragraph, specified Indian Preference, then the sentence in that same paragraph stated that "The most-qualified will be hired." It didn't specify how to find the most-qualified Native American person. And that was a problem we saw with it, that it was subject to interpretation; that you didn't say -- just as Mr. Burgess here, young Burgess is telling us, that to go through the whole certification of candidates, you pick out those that are the highly-qualified, and out of that group, the Indians should have preference to be hired. It doesn't mean that you can't hire the non-Indian. At least give them preference in interviewing, preference -- if there's only one Indian ands they're qualified, moreso than the non-Indian, but they pick the non-Indian to go into this position, and the Indian has been there for two years and is a tribal member, they didn't follow their own preference and procedures. And that's what was in their policy. So this is trying to define how -- MR. MAHSEET: Before we move on, let us sit down with those business entities and say, all right business entity, and go over those policies and procedures -- MR. BURGESS: We've tried that. MR. MAHSEET: -- give this authority and just give them a blanket authority, because they are a business entity. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I agree. We need their input on -- MR. TIPPECONNIE: We do. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: -- on the policy that we're trying to put over the top of that. MR. ASEPERMY: Every one of them, the Gaming Board, the Gaming Commission, Economic Development, everyone outside of the governmental -- the governmental -- the nation governmental, they have their own policy and procedures for -- MR. BURGESS: For hiring. MR. ASEPERMY: For hiring. MR. BURGESS: And they all interpret it differently. MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah. So what we're trying to do is, we're trying to get everybody on the same sheet of music, I'm assuming, right, Mr. Chairman? MR. BURGESS: Yes. MR. ASEPERMY: Well, I haven't heard from Economic Development, I haven't heard from Gaming. MR. BURGESS: I believe we have one person here. Is Mrs. Nelson still here? MS. NELSON: Yes. MR. HENSON: Let me say this before we get started: We, as the CBC, saw this policy right here and we passed it for the tribal government. Why are we questioning this to go across the board? We established Economic Development to get jobs for our people personally. Now, how they do that is, they go through it and they do Indian Preference. Now, we've got a question of, do we want Indian Preference outside of the government? Because that's the way I'm reading it. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: No. MR. HENSON: Why is this not good enough for other Comanche entities, instead of just the government? What's the difference? It's the same policy that we passed for the government. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I want to make this one comment, you know, the Comanche Nation is rising. You know, we're a big political influence, we're a big economic in Southwestern Oklahoma. And we've grown in fast pace. You know, in just a few years, we've moved up to the standing we have today. And we have not been fully equipped to meet this time. And it doesn't mean that we haven't identified those shortcomings and those weaknesses and began to put some strategy or application or some actions to get a correction. We're doing that. So I want the tribal members to know, you know, we're acting very smartly to get our ourselves into good business practice with skills, skilled people. Now, when you look around, I think at the moment outside the Nation -- well, even internally in the Nation -- we're not all that skill level yet. Skill level is the matter of qualification. When we advertise for a job, we want qualification. Well, the qualification has to be very strong, if we want skilled people. You know, as an example, anymore, a lot of our key people, almost they have to have master's degrees. You know, some of them, yes, we can have that undergraduate degree, that BS degree, but we're going to have to look more and more -- and not just on degrees. Degrees don't make it. You have to have an example of experience where you operated a business for five or six years, where you had a management supervisory job and you operated that and you were successful by performance rating. There's some other qualifications that we have to be looking at. And if we don't look at these kind of things -- I can go on, but if we don't look at those kind of things, we're not going to succeed as a very successful nation. Okay. Given that, I have a question in my mind. You know, when I look about our outside enterprises and activities and our government, sometimes, you know, it's -- well, in some cases, it's going to take us a while to get to where I think the skill will be. So I think we have to acknowledge that, in this interim, as we rise outside in outside enterprises, outside the government, I even say inside the government, we're going to have to look at all people, all people who can qualify for those jobs, regardless of race, creed, color, sex, or etcetera. For a moment, we really have to look that way, I think. Because if we're going to achieve, we have to go after the best if we can. And that doesn't mean I say we discriminate against our people. If our people come up and they qualify with that standard, wow, that's where we want us to be. And that's what we have to do in our educational processes. That's what we have to do in our training processes. We have to start working hard to equip our people to arrive at these levels of competitiveness. Well, anyway, this, consequently sometimes these preferences are a concern in my mind. Because I can think -- take as an example, just use one example, our cities, our towns, Geronimo, Elgin, Fletcher, all of these are really suffering, now, economically. And what's happening in some of them, like Cache, all our retired military are moving to these places. They're basically -- I don't want to be prejudiced about it -- building these big homes, because they can afford it. But one thing they don't do is pay taxes. They don't pay property taxes. They're excused -- well, you know, that's too preferential. If you're living in Cache, you need a tax base. If you're living in Fletcher, you need a tax base. Everyone should be contributing to the tax base. I'm just talking too much, maybe, and my colleagues may not want that, but I want you to know, you know, I think the time is to rise above. And I think we have to look at it from an advantage of taking the very best without who they are and what they are. Now, if it's a Comanche that gets up there and is competitive, wow, I'm one that's really going to raise the flag. At the same time, if we get a non-Indian up there, wow, let's say, you mentor, you train a Comanche to take your job. And that should be what's our system should be working out. We need to train our people, because our people are not equipped. They're not equipped. That's nothing wrong with us. That's all of society. We've got to get our people equipped. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Tippeconnie -- MR. RON BURGESS: May I make a quick -- I think the Comanche preference saves us from keeping it -- it keeps the politics out of our hire. So, for example, what I was saying, if we have three candidates that are all equal qualifications, they all have -- they all feel that they are all perfectly qualified, I think if you have the Comanche preference, it makes -- you know, it doesn't make us, but it makes you hire the Comanche because they're equally qualified. And I think that takes the tribal politics out of it. Because if you don't have that, and say someone in your family or you don't get along with that family, or you know how tribal politics go, they may not hire that Comanche because of their personal feelings and they may hire the other tribal member or the white person because there is no Comanche preference. It kind of keeps the politics out of it, because it follows policy. Policy says you hire the most qualified person, if they're all equal, because she's Comanche or he's Comanche. Whereas, as if, you know, say, you know, someone is Comanche, they may not like them, and they might not hire them because of the family history or the politics, or whatever, but I think when you have that policy that says that Comanche is hired, that they're all equally qualified, that forces you to hire them and keeps tribal politics out of the hiring, and you get the best qualified person that happens to be Comanche. Whereas, if you don't have Comanche Preference, and you can hire any of the three qualified people, well, then, you're going to hire the person that may not be Comanche, because there's no policy that says you have to hire the best qualified Comanche. And I think that kind of is the opposite effect, if you don't have that policy across the board. You know, I'm just saying that I know how it gets. You know, it can get personal sometimes, you know, with tribal business. And I think that keeps the personal out of it when you have to follow policy. So I think I'm kind of for across-the-board, and I think just because of that policy, we'll keep -- you know, it keeps policy, and it keeps it out of being personal. MR. HENSON: Let me say one thing first, Bob. The reason I'm putting this -- or the reason I'm bringing this forward is because we passed it for the Tribe. The other part is that we needed out in our Comanche Nation. I don't want to disagree with anybody, but we have a lot of qualified, highly-qualified Comanche people with education. If they are worried about getting the most highly-qualified person for this job, or anything else, it does say that you have to be qualified to begin with. But if you want a much higher qualifications, then it's up to that manager or that position that's giving that -- that's giving that advertisement or that PD out there to get out and recruit for that job. If he knows somebody that's Comanche, then get out and recruit for it. I want our Comanche Nation, our people -- our people, ourself, to rise and step. And if we don't do it this way, we're not going to do that. We're not going to be utilizing our own people. You can take and go down to our education department over there and they have names, after names, after names of qualified -- highly-qualified people with degrees. Now, just because they've got a degree, doesn't mean that they'll be the best for the job, but they are highly-qualified. A degree, in most cases, with three years of specialized experience, will make them highly-qualified. Now, my last statement, I'm not going to say anymore, we, the CBC, saw fit to pass this, the same thing for the Tribe. This is the policy that we passed for the Tribe. Now, I don't know what the question is or why we can't put this across-the-board. Are we saying, as a CBC, or CBC members, that we're not going to hire qualified people down here at our government? We're not applying the same thing to our government that we're going to apply outside our government? What's the difference? What's going on here? MR. ASEPERMY: We've got Oscar from the Gaming Commission -- MR. HENSON: Bob wants to say something. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I want to ask you all a question about -- I didn't hear all that what you guys were talking about in there a while ago, but do you have Veterans' preference in there? MR. HENSON: Yes. MR. ASEPERMY: No. MR. BURGESS: That's in the policies at the Tribe already. MR. ASEPERMY: Oh, it is? MR. BURGESS: Yeah. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So you do have Veterans' preference? MR. HENSON: Yes. MR. BURGESS: Yes. Delphine, you had your hand up? And then we'll come back to you, LaNora. MS. NELSON: Well, I was just going to say that, you know, the Economic Development Act mandates Economic Development to hire Comanche. And that's in our mission statement under the Act, which is the whole purpose of Economic Development, is to provide sustainable incomes for Comanche tribal members, as well as providing jobs. So that is a part of the Act, itself, that -- you know, and that's Comanche law, Economic Development Act. So we are mandated by Comanche law to hire Comanche. And if there is a management position, you know, all of our -- we're looking at, right now, Economic Development has a 90 percent Comanche employment. And even the managers, the Comanche managers, we bring them along to train them to be able to run a profitable business. So our managers are Comanche. MR. BURGESS: LaNora? MS. PARKER: I was just going to make a comment that I think it should be across-the-board. I'm in agreement with Mr. Henson. MR. BURGESS: Okay. The question came about native -- excuse me, Veteran's preference. We have that in the policies at the Tribe, correct, Mr. Nelson? MR. NELSON: Yes, we do. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Mahseet was asking. Yes, Oscar? MR. CODOPONY: Not having seen the complete language on this, so just the point that I would like to make from the Gaming Commission's perspective is that, we -- one of the things we did when we looked at our hiring practices, we went back and found what the Tribe -- and I say "Tribe", I mean tribal government, because you are our governmental entity. And the law that you pass says, this is how you treat your hiring preferences, and then we conform our policy within that. We don't violate it. It may not be exactly what the law says, but we don't violate that law. And if this changes that somehow, then we'll revisit our policy. It's one of those things that we take a look at is that we have to be at least this stringent. We can be more stringent, if we want, but we've got to at least conform to what the CBC passes as a law. And so, you know, that's the attitude and perspective that we've always had. MR. BURGESS: Well, thank you. I'll make the last comment here, and then Mr. Henson really wants to vote on this. There's two items that I heard; one is our resolution here doesn't re-enforce mentoring or training programs. Now, there's one entity that has a mentoring program. One person said, "Well, you have to be employed first." And a new applicant was told, "No, you can't get into the mentoring program because you're not employed." But if an applicant has the qualification to go into such training, they should be brought in with that knowledge, and agree to it. Now, on the other hand, Mr. Kosechequetah made the point that this policy is seen sometimes to prohibit the hiring of our Comanche people or other Indians. But, now, I hear from you, Mr. Codopony, and then over here we heard from Economic Development. These are separate entities under the Tribe who are seeing the same policy and practicing it in different ways. What we're trying to bring together is a continuity and understanding and all parties under us, that this is the Indian Preference Hiring Act under the Comanche Nation and all entities. And I'm in concurrence with this. I agree with this policy. I don't read it so that it would exclude anyone who is more qualified than myself. And there are a lot of people who are. But I'm strong enough in myself that my experience wills out. And I can tell me you the story of a person who went to the job interview in sweat pants, T-shirt, unruly hair, because they're Comanche, they thought they had the job. That's not being professional about yourself and showing to the people you're trying to work for, that you have professional demeanor, professional character to come to the interview and say, "I'm here to take this job. I can do this job. Here's why I can do it and I will show you how." That is strong character. And we need that in our people. You know, no one should assume because they're Comanche they have the job. And that's what we're trying to say here to both applicants and to management. And we are probably the only tribe on this side of the state that does not have more tribal managers within all of our entities. We have a lot of qualified, but when you look at it, some of our managers don't have the strong, strong background that those of us have to go out in the open world and start dealing out there and taking on those kinds of jobs. Mr. Henson is asking that he wants to vote on this. And I really want to see putting in a mentoring program, too, for all of our entities for our people. MR. HENSON: We can amend that to include the mentoring program. MR. TIPPECONNIE: No, let's bring it back. MR. BURGESS: Bring it back? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah, bring it back in February. We'll redo it. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, you've got another -- MR. BURGESS: Yes? MS. TWOHATCHET: Mr. Chairman, I guess most of you gentlemen were not on the committee at the time I presented the mentoring program to the CBC. It's been about two or three years ago. And each year, I presented that again. I will be doing that again. And that if we had a program for graduating seniors -- it's similar to the ambassador program that AIO has, just for Comanche students who are juniors and seniors, or maybe they're graduate students. Because we have open the funding for graduate students, now, and we have -- it's really exciting to see the number of graduates and areas that they're graduating in. But, again, you know, there's one particular student who's won our scholarship award, plus she has a CNG grant. I think she's working in Texas now. She's Comanche. She wanted to work for the Tribe, but there were no opportunities available. So if we could start them when they're students and work with the universities to, at least get some kind of credit for that, that will be a tremendous thing we could do for our Comanche public. Thank you. MR. BURGESS: Thank you. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to -- with all due respect, Robert, military retired, they do pay property taxes unless they're 100 percent disabled. If you serve in the military and you're disabled, you don't pay property taxes. MR. TIPPECONNIE: But is it a -- MR. ASEPERMY: Comanches that live on trust land don't pay property taxes. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Is it a reduced tax, though, for all the -- MR. BURGESS: Wait a minute. How did this come in? MR. TIPPECONNIE: He's correcting me. MR. ASEPERMY: Don't start a war over here. MR. TIPPECONNIE: On taxes. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Don't go into that touchy subject. Well, do you want to table this until we get an amendment or do you want to vote on it? MR. HENSON: Vote on it. MR. BURGESS: Lanny seconded it. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: I still think there's some confusion, because what you're saying slightly differs from the interpretation of the Vice-Chairman. MR. BURGESS: Well, I'm saying I read through it. I read it and I understand it. It doesn't mean I can't select another highly-qualified Comanche. It all depends, right now, on that entity. That person makes the interview table and that's where you can sell yourself. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Okay. MR. BURGESS: That's how I see it. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Do you not see other applicants if there's three Comanches that applied? MR. HENSON: Let me ask you a question, Darryl. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: No, I'm asking him a question. MR. HENSON: Okay. MR. BURGESS: Well, I don't see that -- just saying that there are three applicants that says yes. It doesn't say three Comanches, it says including Comanches. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: Okay. Well, that's slightly different than what the Vice-Chairman -- I'm trying to get clarity on what it is -- your interpretation is versus the Vice-Chairman's interpretation, because it sounds like two different things. The way you're talking, I'd be willing to approve that. MR. TIPPECONNIE: If we had all the candidates that were qualified. MR. HENSON: Let me ask you guys a question. Why did you vote approval on the government side, it's the same thing, and you don't want to do it on this? MR. MAHSEET: I didn't. MR. BURGESS: Well, let me read this -- MR. MAHSEET: Don't say "we", I didn't. MR. HENSON: No, I said -- MR. BURGESS: Hold on, let me read this again. In Section 104(E)4, it only states, "If less than three candidates, a selecting official may re-advertise once. If three or more candidates, selecting official must select from that certification." Number 5 says, "If no Comanches apply, then Human Resources is to qualify other Indian Candidates and the above procedures will apply." Number 6 says, "If only one qualified Comanche applies, he or she will appear on all certificates of eligibles. A selection must be made in the second advertisement, if not the first. If no selection is made on second advertisement, then position must be cancelled and cannot be re-advertised for six months." It doesn't say must hire Comanche. It says Comanche must be considered. That's what it tells me. Well, they can come in and they're going to sell me on themselves in that interview process. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Let me ask this question now: If you have five qualified -- I'll use it even better -- if we have five highly-qualified candidates, and one is -- well, three are Comanche, will we interview all five? MR. BURGESS: I would. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I would, too. And it doesn't say that here. I think we need to look at -- if they're all highly-qualified, we need to look at all of them. MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: That's right. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Regardless of, you know -- MR. BURGESS: No, it doesn't say you can't either. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, the Vice-Chairman is not saying that. MR. BURGESS: Well, I'm reading this and I'm not -- MR. HENSON: Let me explain this once again, if you have three highly-qualified Comanches -- MR. BURGESS: It just has to be included. MR. HENSON: -- why would you want to look at any other non-Indians or non-Comanches? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Because -- MR. HENSON: That's what this policy is. This says that if you've three highly-qualified Comanches, you hire a Comanche that's highly-qualified. You don't have to look at the others, if you've got three highly- qualified. Why would you even do that? It gives you a chance to go around the Comanche preference. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, one thing you learn in the world when you look at these with some experience in it, a lot of people fabricate on paper, they exaggerate and, sometimes, even in presence. But in presence, if you have an array of them, all the highly-qualified, that let's you have a very objective -- hopefully, if the panelists are objective -- objective selection. And I think that's what we need. We need someone who really fits the situation, regardless of, you know, some preference. Now, I like the preference, because I'm strong -- I want Comanches to run everything. But I'm still at the point, until we get to those places, like to have opportunity to look at all the highly-qualified. MR. BURGESS: Well, we have a situation, some entities are interpreting their policies left and the other ones are interpreting on the right. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I know. MR. BURGESS: And in the middle, it's very weak and we're trying to give strength. So we're going to call for the question right now. Mr. Henson has made the motion. A second by Mr. Asepermy. All those in favor say "aye." MR. HENSON: Aye. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, voice vote? MR. BURSON: Roll call. MR. BURGESS: Roll call you mean? MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, roll call votes, whatever you call it. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Roll call vote. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Richard Henson? MR. HENSON: Aye. MR. TIPPECONNIE: I'll pass myself. Edmond Mahseet? MR. MAHSEET: No. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Lanny Asepermy? MR. ASEPERMY: No. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Darryl? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: No. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Clyde Narcomey? MR. NARCOMEY: I'm going to vote "no," and let me tell you the reason why. We have several Comanches that cost the Tribe over $700,000 in fines. Now, they're highly-qualified because they're in the position. One of them is not working for the Tribe no more, the other one still is. Now, given that, they cost the Tribe over 700,000 and we was looking at Comanches. If I was on the Board, I wouldn't hire that person that cost the Tribe over 700, 000, even though they was highly-qualified Comanches. I vote "no." MR. ASEPERMY: Are we getting a vote on Secretary/treasurer? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Well, I feel that this thing needs review. It's incomplete, so I abstain. Have you got the vote, Mr. Chairman? MR. BURGESS: Yes. We have three "No's" MR. TIPPECONNIE: We have four "No's." MR. BURGESS: Four "No's," and one "yes," two abstentions. MR. TIPPECONNIE: You abstain? MR. BURGESS: Uh-huh. MR. ASEPERMY: You voted, Chairman? MR. BURGESS: I abstained. MR. ASEPERMY: Oh, you abstained. Okay. MR. BURGESS: Next item on the agenda, Ladies and Gentlemen -- We're moving into Item No. 1, Indian Gaming Conference in San Diego 2010. I believe it's in late February. MR. TIPPECONNIE: And that's the Chairman makes the trip. MR. BURGESS: Yeah, and others. We can look in your packets, fellows. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah. There's a deal right after the resolutions. MR. BURGESS: There it is. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah, a colorful page right there. MR. BURGESS: Okay. MR. TIPPECONNIE: It's a trade show and convention Indian Gaming -- MR. NARCOMEY: Mr. Chairman, I make the motion to approve. MR. BURGESS: Any of you guys? MR. ASEPERMY: I would hope that someone from the Gaming Commission and the Gaming Board would attend. MR. BURGESS: I'm sure they know about it. MR. ASEPERMY: I would hope one representative from each -- MR. CODOPONY: Generally -- well, not generally. The Executive Director and the CEO attend. The Executive Director of the Commission, CEO of the operating side, and either one commissioner or one board member, if not -- MR. BURGESS: All right. This is the National Indian Gaming Association, which is the annual meeting. It does affect a lot of legislation, does it not? MR. CODOPONY: Yeah, they're -- the last one I attended was a couple of years ago. And since then, like I said, we kind of rotated. But there were multiple sessions, not for technical purposes, but for networking, as far as legislature and other impact. So it's -- there's -- everybody focuses on the trade show and all the things that happen on the floor, but there are a lot of worthwhile classes and a lot of major -- MR. BURGESS: Okay. MR. TIPPECONNIE: A lot of training and workshops. Clyde made the motion. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Narcomey has made the motion. MR. ASEPERMY: This is for your travel? MR. BURGESS: Uh-huh. MR. ASEPERMY: Second. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Asepermy seconds. Any discussion? Call for the vote. All those in favor, say "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, say "nay." Passed. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, I think Mr. Nelson has got something -- MR. NELSON: Mr. Chairman, with the Vice- Chairman's effort, I would hope that the CBC would re-entertain a modification of what you tried to present, Bunky. I know you've worked really, really hard on this. I know the uniformity that you want for the Nation. Sir, I think it takes rewording, maybe a small restructuring. I wish you would re-entertain the CBC with that. MR. BURGESS: Oh, I'm sure we're going to see it again. MR. NELSON: Okay. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Mr. Chairman, this may be inappropriate, but I'd like to interject before we go to the next. MR. BURGESS: Okay. MR. TIPPECONNIE: To change the agenda to act upon two resolutions that have just been brought in. They're grant applications. And, usually, these have a time line. And we really have to get them acted upon, so that they can submit the grant. MR. BURGESS: Okay. So a motion to amend the agenda to include these resolutions? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. And the resolutions will be No. 11 and No. 12. MR. BURGESS: All right. MR. ASEPERMY: Will you provide us a copy of that? MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, I have copies right here. That's the first one this is two this will be No. 11 -- 05-11. MR. BURGESS: 06-10. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Excuse me, 06-10. I'm trying to change the year. MR. ASEPERMY: Is this the grant application for the Department Of Justice? MR. BURGESS: This is the resolution for it. MR. ASEPERMY: 159-10? MR. BURGESS: No, no, no, this will be the No. 06-10. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yeah, 07 is the next one. MR. BURGESS: This is the grant application to the U.S. Department Of Justice. "Whereas, the Comanche Nation Business Committee recognizes that judicial education and specialized court processes play an integral role in the effective responses to the crimes of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking in Indian country." "And, whereas, the U.S. Department of Justice and Court's Training Improvement program has funds available from 50,000 to a maximum of 450,000 to accomplish this purpose. Whereas, the tribal chairman or his designee being the official representative of Comanche Nation, and thereby is authorized to negotiate and approve contracts and any amendments to such." MR. TIPPECONNIE: I think we need to change that, don't we? It's on the bottom, isn't it? MR. ASEPERMY: So the grant is complete, right, Mr. Chairman? MR. BURGESS: I believe it's going to be complete this week. MR. ASEPERMY: It says, "Approved the submission of the grant application," so the -- MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes. MR. ASEPERMY: -- resolution goes to the grant application. MR. TIPPECONNIE: Yes, we always have to have a resolution with the grant application. MR. BURGESS: Yes. MR. ASEPERMY: All right. MR. BURGESS: And I think the 14th, if not, the 24th, something like that, is the deadline. MR. ASEPERMY: I make a motion that we approve Resolution 06-10. MR. BURGESS: This application is being networked by three of our entities, our grants' facilitator, Deborah Yates with our Child Support Services Court, and Mrs. Betty Simmons with our domestic violence shelter. These two people are working on this grant together. MR. NARCOMEY: So this is a grant. It's not going to cost the Tribe anything? MR. BURGESS: No. MR. TIPPECONNIE: No, it's asking for moneys. MR. BURGESS: No matching required. And we're going for the max. I think right now they're at $435,000 in their request over, I believe, it's a two-year period. MR. TIPPECONNIE: To a maximum of 450. MR. BURGESS: Uh-huh. That's something we have to be very responsible, too, talking to my folks here. My desire and my plan is to take us away from just gaming money, instead of spending $20 million in gaming, we should be spending $20 million on federal grants and contracts, and try to double that every three years. Currently, we're sitting about 11 million, so in three years' time, we should be looking at, hopefully, 20 million in grants and contracts servicing our people. That's not just BIA money, Ladies and Gentlemen. In the past four years, we survived -- barely survived about $8.5 million from BIA 638 funds. Now, we're expanding on that. And we have to reach out and do more positive things, and doing grants and bringing in grant writers, which is highly important for us. A lot of tribes who make it big in their management -- you saw grants and contracts moreso than gaming money, so that will be our focus. A motion has been made to approve this. Mr. Asepermy made the motion. MR. NARCOMEY: I second it. MR. BURGESS: Second by Clyde. Call for the question. All those in favor say, "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, say "nay." Ayes have it. MR. TIPPECONNIE: And the next one here will be 07-10. MR. BURGESS: This will be 07-10, fellows. MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. MR. BURGESS: This is another grant through the Department of Health and Human Services to approve provisions the Children's Health Insurance program Re-authorization Act of 2009, called CHIPRA. It's specifically to medicaid program and Children's Health Insurance Program grants. These are funds that range from 50,000 to $300,000. This is to get people who are qualified, and young people, to be insured with health. And the Tribe has to go out and identify them and get this updated. And then the Tribe can claim third-party insurance when we give out prescription assistance, eyeglass assistance. That's the next area that we're going to be moving into to get third-party revenue from insurance companies. "So therefore be it resolved that the Comanche Business Committee does hereby approve the submission of a grant application from the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the Children's Health Insurance Program Re-authorization Act, CHIPRA. Be it further resolved that the Comanche Business Committee acting for and on behalf of the Comanche Nation does hereby authorize this resolution for such intent." Motion to approve? MR. MAHSEET: Mr. Chairman, same people working on it? MR. BURGESS: No, it's Phyllis and, I think, Betty Simmons is working on it. MR. MAHSEET: Okay. MR. NELSON: Deborah Wright. MR. BURGESS: Oh, is it Deborah Wright? Deborah Wright, excuse me. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, I make a motion we approve. MR. HENSON: Second. MR. BURGESS: Motion to approve by Mr. Asepermy, a second by Mr. Henson. Any further discussion? Call for the question. All those in favor say "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: All those opposed, say "nay." Motion is passed. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, before we go into our old and new business. MR. BURGESS: Yes. MR. ASEPERMY: I received this memo from the Department Of Interior. I guess it's from you. You highlighted certain parts on the social services. I would like for you to -- for the record, at least, read the highlighted parts on our social services. MR. NELSON: That was from me, Mr. Asepermy. MR. ASEPERMY: Oh, is it? MR. BURGESS: Yeah. Ladies and Gentlemen, there's a letter here from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Nation. It talks about the report of a review conducted on our IIM accounts from April 14th, 2009 by their person. Six cases were reviewed. And these cases had active distribution plans for Fiscal Year '08. This means that the Tribe was helping specific individuals with their Indian moneys, their IIM accounts, because they have no caretaker or the courts have assigned the Tribe to take care of this account for them. It was observed in the current review that a vast amount of improvement has been made to the overall operation of the Social Services Program in a very short amount of time. Previously, there were a lot of deficiencies or bad things done. They weren't done right. But they're telling us that Mrs. Sandra mithlo, since she was appointed a Social Services Director back in -- after this -- right before this letter came out, in her one-week of employment, the program has really improved. She began to improve in the narrative information given, scheduling meetings with the BIA. And she's completed a lot of contact meetings with supervised IIM accounts; meaning the individuals. She's gone to the homes to talk with them or met with them when they were able to. And she's very good at assessing the needs of the individuals. And they're telling us that, "The program of the Comanches is headed in a positive direction and is diligently making efforts to correct their previous deficiencies." This is signed Mr. Terry Bruner, Acting Regional Director. So we want to say congratulations to Sandra. She's doing a great job of getting our program back up to snuff. That was one of the programs that was reviewed in '04. And later on, as the BIA kept up with us, that caused us to be on high risk. We're slowly and quickly coming off of high risk. So that really helps us in pursuing other grants and contracts. So now back to our agenda. We have Mr. Bill Rowell, Lakeview Cable. Mr. Rowell, will you step forward, please. MR. BILL ROWELL: I am Bill Rowell with Lakeview Cable. This is my son, Mike Rowell. And we have -- do you have before you the proposal that we have for the Comanche Tribe? MR. NELSON: I do not think we do, sir. Do we have copies? MR. BILL ROWELL: We were contacted by Ms. Twohatchet. And this is all by phone. I don't know whether she's here today or not. It has to do with getting cable TV up to her educational facility up at the Comanche tribal complex. And I noticed that -- of course, we've got Bingo Road on here and I think you all are talking about changing it. But, you know, where we are coming from. We've also talked to -- I think Mike has talked to Travis about the Internet portion of it. I'll let him do the talking on IT, because that puts me out. When we get off of cable into Internet, I'm of the old school. But we're -- it's a good opportunity, I think, for us to get cable up to that complex, plus you have a development area just kind of north of you there. This will also include them. They can get cable and Internet in there as well. So I'll turn it over to Mike to give you a good perceptive of what he has proposed. MR. MIKE ROWELL: Thank you. My name is Mike Rowell. I'm with Lakeview Cable, like he just talked about. We have three things that we'd like to discuss with you this morning. The first one is getting cable TV service into the complex. Mrs. Twohatchet was concerned about not having TV services for the bad weather that's there at the complex. There's no TVs, they cannot watch local weather or anything of that nature. She said they had TV once before with Direct TV or Dish Network. You know, if anybody's had that before, when it rains, you lose your signal. And that's probably the best time that you really need your TV is when it's raining real hard. The second thing is, after speaking with her, we had the opportunity to meet with Travis over in the IT department. We found out that you're using about 10 meg bandwidth per day in your Internet service, which is roughly -- talking with him, it's costing you anywhere from 4500 to $5,000 a month in service fees. We have proposed to visit with you in regards to having us supply y'all with Internet. We have would offer you a 15 meg circuit for roughly a $1000 a month, which, right now, if you figured out, you're paying about $500 a month or $500 per meg with your Internet right now. And you're using up -- he said you're using quite a bit of that 10 meg. After you get to a certain point, you really can't push anything else out. With the 15 meg circuit that we proposed to you, it runs out to $66 per month, is the cost on it. We also have in here for the cost of the cable TV service, talking with Ms. Twohatchet, she has approximately four to five TVs that need to be throughout the complex, so they can have service. We also offer that for $150 per month over this contract. We're talking at a contract of three years. Do y'all mind if I walk around a little bit? MR. BURGESS: You have the floor. MR. MIKE ROWELL: I don't like to stand in one spot. But in the contract, this is for a three-year contract. It is a 15 meg circuit. We have a person that's on-staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week that can answer any of your questions, any problems, anything of that nature for you. And this is a fiber line directly from us all the way to your building there at the complex, coming into the complex, and tapping it off and terminate the inside of it. What we're asking for this morning is to help us in the cost of it. And on the back sheet there, you'll see a cost analysis of what the construction costs. And this is from Brown Construction. We had them to come out, we did a walk through, everything on the property from our point where we stop at, over there by the Medicine Park Telephone Company over on 49 and Tackle Box Road to build out to the complex and get it going. One other thing, too, I just want to drop a little note in there. With the education -- I know you all are really concerned about the education programs that you're looking at. With us teaming up with Indian Nations out of -- I think it's Shawnee, might be Shawnee -- we can access the Oklahoma One Education Program. So we can have -- you can have a building go to OSU Southwest Oklahoma School, the college there, and pull out information program, and route it back to the complex for education purposes. MR. BURGESS: We appreciate your presentation. One question I have is -- and what we're going to do is table this and move to another date. MR. MIKE ROWELL: Okay. MR. BURGESS: These business type of ventures take up a lot of time. And we've got community members that have things on the agenda, too. We haven't established a date right now. We're looking at the 14th or the 15th of January. We want to invite you back at that time to give us a cost analysis and how much rebate you'll give to us. I mean, you're asking us to share the costs, then you want us to buy the service from you. MR. MIKE ROWELL: Right, but I also -- real quick, in this $5,000 range that you're paying right now, you're paying a retail from the TDS -- MR. BURGESS: How many shares of your company are you willing to sell to us? MR. MIKE ROWELL: Shares? I'm offering you a real good deal. Because you're going to help me on the construction cost. I am -- for the next three years, I'm going to sell it to you at wholesale. Whereas, these guys are selling it to you at retail for $5,000, I'm selling it to you for $1000 and giving you five more meg than what you currently have right now. MR. BURGESS: We're only getting that for half of this 140,000 or less than 140,000. He's asking us to carry some of these costs. MR. HENSON: You've got 110,000 -- MR. MIKE ROWELL: That's my cost, that's my cost. MR. HENSON: That would be your cost? MR. MIKE ROWELL: That's my cost, what I'm sharing. MR. HENSON: And you're asking us to pay the construction of the $140,000? MR. MIKE ROWELL: Yes, sir, yes, sir. MR. ASEPERMY: Are you an established business already? MR. MIKE ROWELL: Yes, sir, but I'm not in that particular area. I'm more over towards the Medicine Park area, and also in the Wichita Mountain Estates area. But where I have to do, is I have to go back and grab a fiber line to bring it back to you because of such a large amount of bandwidth you're requiring to have. Plus the ability is that we can upgrade you within 30 days at a bigger circuit than what you want at any time. MR. BURGESS: And Mrs. Twohatchet, you're concerned about weather -- MS. TWOHATCHET: Can I present just a couple of -- MR. NELSON: Hang on. Mr. Chairman, you want to entertain this at probably two-week venue from now. And, guys, you know, the last person that talks, usually loses, so I would go on ahead and we'll table this, like the Chairman wants to do and come back we entertain this. MR. BURGESS: Yeah, we're kind of on a tight agenda. MR. MIKE ROWELL: No, I just answered any questions that you asked. MR. NELSON: We appreciate your sales pitch, but -- MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Nelson, I would like to know what our current services are and what the cost of them are. What do we currently have and how much is the cost of that? MR. BURGESS: See, Lanny, he is right about our cost, but we also have a T1 line that was laid out there. We bought that back in 04/05. It's been done. MR. NELSON: How many live in Spur? How many have TDS Internet? That's all we've got out there, guys. We're kind of out in the horizon. MR. BURGESS: There's some other things that have come into play in the past, Lanny. He can bring it to the table and we can make an evaluation at that time. MR. ASEPERMY: Table until the 14th? MR. BURGESS: Thank you, sir. MR. MIKE ROWELL: Thank you. MR. BURGESS: We're looking at the 14th and 15th. Check your calendar for dates. MR. BILL ROWELL: Can I say something? MR. ASEPERMY: Go ahead. MR. BILL ROWELL: I would like to say on behalf of Lakeview Cable, that we're not just a new company. We've been around since '85 -- no, about '79. You know, we all we do Geronimo, we have Cache, Snyder, Tipton, so we're not here today and gone tomorrow. We're here and we've been in operation and we know how to operate. That's just what I wanted to say. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Thank you. We're looking at the 14th, sir. MR. MIKE ROWELL: 14th? MR. BURGESS: But check with Mr. Nelson on Monday to verify. Looking at Item No. 3, Sia. Good morning, Bill. MR. VOELKER: Good morning. Thank you. What I've been distributing is a copy of a resolution that we -- from last year that simply re-affirmed a resolution that we had put in place ten years ago. I'm happy to report that Sia has now existed for ten years as a tribal program. And this body passes lots of resolutions. And, I guess, sometimes things get fuzzy, because we're in a position right now -- and the reason I'm here is just to clarify what Sia is and what we do. And it's not just keeping eagles in cages. It's so much more. It addresses -- and as the resolution language says, we are the entity, official entity within the Tribe responsible for preservation through the cultural understanding of the eagle in history, science and spirit. I'm glad to see Gwen here today. She's a classic example of how quickly we can address the spiritual side. She came to me at a CBC meeting a few months ago with a very sad look on her face. She had to share a personal experience that happened that she no longer had a plume. Without that plume -- that's important for women to wear in their honor hat -- she probably, wouldn't have been able to dance. And I started smiling the minute she started -- she asked me the right way, the old-timey way about this. She didn't ask, she presented her problem. And I smiled because one of the eagles at Sia had dropped exactly the kind of feather she needed just before I left to come down to the CBC meeting. So we're actively helping our people in that regard. I've got articles here that are published in scientific journals. We have raised the bar to such an incredible extent. On the scientific work with eagles, we have produced over 300 native eagles, Bald and Golden eagles, that have been released to the wild. We have eagles from five continents. We take on a global responsibility with our Comanche eagles. So it's very widespread. And it's the eagle in our historic culture. We care for numerous historical artifacts. We have brought back many artifacts, that the bringing back of these items doesn't fall under any existing program. The Tribe doesn't have money set aside to do that. We are able to do it through patronage that we've established for years, even though Sia has existed through ten years as a tribal program, there are 30 years before that of my work, in this regard, my work and the work of our co-horts. You know, there's that old saying, "No good deed goes unpunished." We're catching hell. You would think a program that would be devoted to the eagle in our lives, historically and today, would be such a neutral zone that everybody would support it, but not the case, even in leadership. There's problems, misinterpretation of it. So I'm here today to clear the air, to show you, visually, a little bit of about what we're doing. And I'm going to shut up here in a couple of minutes and we're going to present a DVD that -- I've got three women with me today; two of them are citizen band Pottawatomie interns, totally volunteer interns, and have been with us over a year now, that, technically, aren't interns. Let me introduce Jennifer Randell and Bree Dunham. Girls, stand up. They're responsible for this production that you'll see. And I want to thank Robbie Robertson, the composer. He provided the music that the girls have set this to. And this is all their work. I didn't have anything to do with it, other than just stand in for some of the images. So if we could -- (Video played.) MR. ASEPERMY: Bring that big bird in here. MR. VOELKER: She's named after my auntie, a lot of you don't know, Margaret Thomas. And Waipe exists as a result of artificial insemination. Her mother was a one-winged gunshot victim, lived at the El Reno game farm for many, many years. Her father was a pride, a male Golden Eagle. Using artificial insemination, we created her 27 years ago. And she is one of the number of native eagles who live with us. And I think that's an added advantage when you can actually see the living bird. Female Golden Eagles are much larger than males. And she's at the upper end size-wise. And laid eggs at Sia last year. She was part of an experiment where we used a telemetry egg under her. First time ever. The technology allowed us to check it under her last year. It recorded temperature, humidity, how many times she turned the egg. There were three of them in existence last year; one in Spain with our counterparts, one with us, and one in Great Britain. There's a lot going on at the same time that we can address our spiritual. So it's -- you know, that old saying, you know, "Mohammed going into the mountain." Well, we decided to bring the mountain to Mohammed. Our CBC, some of them, have never been to Sia, so we wanted to be able to bring a piece of Sia, both living and the DVD. I hope y'all enjoyed that. And invite, again, everybody. Come visit us. I think we've only had three of the members sitting up here have been here. Mr. Asepermy was there early before we had the facility complete. So y'all come visit us. At any rate, I don't want to take up too much of your time. But come visit us. There are books that are circulating. Each year, although most of the eagles we produced in the old days, late 70's, 80's, 90's, the birds were slated for release to the wild. Each year, we kept back a bird or two, such was the case with Waipe. And that book, that Golden Eagle featured on the cover, is her full-blood sister, also a daughter of pride. And the little lady that we gave that bird to, who toured the country giving educational programs, had her sister for about 17 years, and then lost her to liver problems. And then she wrote that book. So it's written where both children and adults can appreciate it. So that's her sister. At any rate, thank you all. For those of you who have been to visit us and for your support and prayers and -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Where are you at? MR. VOELKER: In Cyril. Not hard to find, right next to -- actually, what is it, Delphine? MS. NELSON: It's Comanche Cyril Quickstop, right across the street. MR. VOELKER: Right across the street. Can't miss it. Okay. (Applause.) MR. BURGESS: We'll have to have sit down and talk with them at the board meeting. You guys want to say the 14th at 10 o'clock? MR. ASEPERMY: What time and where? Reconvene? MR. BURGESS: Yeah. MR. ASEPERMY: Reconvene at 10 o'clock on the 14th. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Nelson, we have agreed on the 14th to reconvene in the new conference room at the complex. So on Monday, if you would double-check, unless there's something going on. MR. NELSON: I think we had arranged for the Kiowa Tribe. And, you know, they had voted through their nation. It was unprecedented for them to vote about our living assisted center. MR. BURGESS: Oh, is that the 14th? MR. NELSON: Yes, sir, at the college. MR. BURGESS: At the college at 10:00? MR. NELSON: Yes, sir. MR. BURGESS: We plan to have lunch and then it might be over with by 1:00 or 2:00? MR. ASEPERMY: Is this an official -- MR. BURGESS: Oh, it's just us, the CBC for the programs. MR. ASEPERMY: All of us? For us? MR. BURGESS: Those that can make it. MR. ASEPERMY: All right. MR. BURGESS: Gentlemen, we may have to move to the 15th because of the -- MR. ASEPERMY: Okay. MR. BURGESS: So we'll have to move it to the 15th, fellows, which is Friday at 10 a.m. MR. TIPPECONNIE: 10 o'clock. (A brief discussion was had off the record.) MR. BURGESS: Nine o'clock would be better. We should be through by 1:00. MR. ASEPERMY: Do you want the CBC for the assisted living center? MR. BURGESS: On the 14th? MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah. MR. BURGESS: You can be there if you want to. You've got to listen in. MR. ASEPERMY: Optional? MR. BURGESS: Optional. Because it's going to be at the tribal college, is that right, Carol? Mrs. Hall is -- are you still on the executive committee for the Elders? MS. HALL: Yes. MR. ASEPERMY: What time? MR. HENSON: 10 o'clock. MR. NELSON: 10 o'clock. The guys are providing lunch, right? MR. BURGESS: Well, we're hosting it, so we'll do something. So that's why we've got to move it to the 15th. MR. NELSON: Okay. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Voelker, was that all of your presentation? Was that all of your presentation? MR. VOELKER: Well, I'm on executive session, so -- MR. BURGESS: All right. Thomas -- did you have more, Carol? I'm sorry. MS. HALL: No. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Thomas Narcomey. You want to do a presentation to us? MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Yeah. MR. BURGESS: All right. MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Connection of the tribal administrator by a referendum vote. Okay. The way it's done now, we elect a TA by -- at the annual meeting, I guess through council resolutions. And Doc Peaworthy [phonetic], who wanted to put this amendment in the constitution, I don't know what year, but, anyway, in the constitution, it has Section 9 to -- on the tribal council's authority, it says, the -- "To hire a tribal administrator, slash, manager to administer the tribal government. The administrator manager shall be under the direction of the CBC, Business Committee." And that's all it says, so we've been electing, like I said through, the annual meeting. And I don't think the -- at the annual meeting, we ever finished an agenda in I don't know how many years. No telling. And this was -- more time to have time for, you know, doing everything is important for other businesses. And there's no -- I don't know how it got started, how we elected the TA through the annual meeting, but if we do it by referendum vote, just like we elect the CBC -- member of the CBC -- it would be more democratic. Everybody will have a chance to vote for the TA, then the TA can give out resumes and -- like campaigning. It's only for a year. I don't know if anybody wants to campaign for one-year job that's -- that's political hot seat job. And, usually, it's not for every job, that's for sure. Anyway, so that's what I would recommend or request the CBC, they do a resolution or a motion to, say, elect TA by referendum vote, until we change the constitution, or something, have a sunset on there, you know, until we can change the constitution. However, we can hire or elect a TA in the future. MR. BURGESS: All right. MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: So I don't know if there's any discussion MR. BURGESS: We're willing to entertain some thought on this, but it's not a decision we'll make today. We'll come back and have our separate time to present to y'all. Go ahead, Oscar. MR. CODOPONY: Mr. Chairman, I have exactly the opposite view. If we're going to go through the trouble of changing the constitution, I think the seven members of the CBC should hire that TA, and it shouldn't be an annual position. It should be something that you're hiring a professional, public administrator who is -- provides continuity in services, year in and year out. As each one of you come up for re-election, you've got somebody, the newly-elected person, whether you're re-elected or whether there's somebody that replaces existing members, they have somebody that has some history and understands how to run those programs. And instead of becoming a -- you were talking earlier on about having the Comanche preference and about trying to make sure that it isn't just a popularity contest, what we need is a true public administration professional, yes, we want them to be a Comanche, but, still, we need somebody to make sure that those programs go on year after year after year under the guidance, direct guidance, of the CBC. And I think, in that light, the CBC should be the person to hire that person, not the Tribe as a whole. Because you're the one that's going to work with them on a day-to-day basis. MR. BURGESS: Ronnie, I saw you nodding your head. MR. RON BURGESS: That's how it used to be, that's how it used to be. And then we got into this political issue at general council and Doc took it in and made this change. Because somebody that was in that position wasn't appreciated by whomever. But, you know, it really needs to go back. The CBC needs to hire this individual. This individual needs to be there -- you know, I mean, as you change office and new people come in. This individual is part of stability for the Tribe, if you get the right person in there. You know, and that's difficult, it's a difficult position, but it's a very important one. And it used to be that way. You know, it used to be that the tribal administrator came directly under the CBC. Now, if that individual wasn't doing the job, then it's up to the CBC to replace them. You know, you put them under the same guidelines as everybody else. You know, and this -- I can get 30 people and go down to general council and get elected as a tribal administrator. You know, promise them a nice party after the meeting, you know, and get the job. You know, that -- you know, we need to get away from that. That needs to stop. But I don't see us putting a referendum -- another elected official in the Tribe. We've got you and that's all we need. You know, that's -- MR. BURGESS: Well, I don't think he meant that, that if we're going to have to vote -- I know -- what I'm hearing is, that the option should be to have longer and better qualifications and that everybody votes, not just those who attend general council. MR. RON BURGESS: You don't need to vote this person in. The CBC needs to hire them. When you go to general council, present it at general council the proper way, and have them give that authority back to the CBC. MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: I agree the CBC needs to hire TA, but we're stuck with the constitution. If we want to change it, then we make an amendment and change the constitution. I mean, we want all these things, all the term, and whatever, the CBC -- but we're stuck. That's why I said, make a sunset in there that we'll have a referendum vote, like a Band-aid word, until we -- MR. BURGESS: Until we change the constitution. MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Until we change the constitution. One thing I noticed that's pretty important in here is, on this amendment, on the constitution, it don't give a term for the TA. So what do we do now? Can the CBC set a term, like three years -- two, three, four? That's a question we might ask one of your attorneys, if we can could do a CBC resolution. MR. BURGESS: Well, can I give you my experience? MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Well, one year is not time to do nothing. MR. BURGESS: You want to hear our experiences? MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: What? The legal deal, whatever -- MR. BURGESS: Well, you're talking about there's no term, you're right. They're voted in at general council floor. I believe in Delphine's term, wasn't there a resolution or a motion made at a CBC supported you as the TA to keep you in? MS. NELSON: Yeah. MR. BURGESS: Therefore they didn't take nominations because they had a TA? Am I wrong? MS. NELSON: No, they went on ahead and took nominations, because the general council said that wasn't a legal -- MR. BURGESS: Well, the general council voted not to retain you, because they're the ones that put you in. Therefore, then that's when it came to a vote. And it came down to four people and two people. And that was in '04. So General Council took a vote not to retain and they turned around -- MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: General Council resolution is higher than a CBC resolution, so they should have -- MR. BURGESS: I'm just giving a history here, trying to give the people a history about retaining TA's. MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Violated whatever -- MR. BURGESS: No, no, I'm just letting you know, Thomas, and the people here may not remember. MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Okay. Well, you're wrong. That was totally wrong. MR. BURGESS: No, general council is the one that voted not to retain her, not the CBC. MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Yeah, but the council resolution is the highest authority -- I mean, above -- next to the constitution. MR. BURGESS: That's the assumption. I'll pass to Mr. Niedo. Ron, you've been with the Tribe 20 years, do you have any opinion or view on this, or are you -- MR. NIEDO: On the tribal administrator? MR. BURGESS: How to hire, how to retain. MR. NIEDO: I would think that the CBC would be the body that would take us to the tribal administrator. If we can change it, the constitution, amend it. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Delphine? MS. NELSON: Doc Peaworthy is the one that had that -- MR. BURGESS: Yeah, we know. MS. NELSON: Had that amendment to the constitution. You know, because before that amendment to the constitution, the CBC did hire the -- the tribal administrator. When I started with the Tribe in Spring of '89, Bonnie Turner was the tribal administrator. And I think -- Ronnie, was she a holdover from your administration? MR. NIEDO: No, no. MS. NELSON: Well, I believe she was there -- and then Wallace, when he came in his first term, he was the one that fired her. And we didn't have a tribal administrator and adopted that resolution -- I mean, that amendment into the constitution. MR. RON BURGESS: And I don't ever remember voting on that. MS. NELSON: It never was voted on until he put that amendment in the constitution. MR. RON BURGESS: No, I mean, the amendment. I don't ever remember voting on that. MS. RON BURGESS: It was with those amendments that changed the -- MR. NELSON: Tribe to a nation and one-eighth enrollment. MS. NELSON: No, it was way before that. MR. BURSON: It was before that. 1994. MR. NELSON: Well, the chairman was wanting the lifetime extension. MS. NELSON: That was the CEO. He put in the CEO, put in the tribal administrator, and there was two other amendments to the constitution at that time. And that was back in Wallace's first term. MR. BURGESS: Okay. We'll save that discussion, but thank you, Thomas. MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Yeah, table it, because I don't know about the term. Ask one of your attorneys. Could you make it one year? Ten years? I don't know since it don't say nothing. MR. BURGESS: Well, I was almost a life- timer. MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: That's all it said, elect a TA and we don't know how to elect. MR. BURGESS: Well, that will be coming up in the springtime. So, Thomas, we'll take care of -- MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Well, that's why I want to do it now, so we have it straightened out by April. And that way we could have a referendum vote. Everybody is democratic, everybody has a chance to vote. MR. BURGESS: According to our current constitution -- MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Right now, it ain't working. I mean, you know, anybody can bust a whole bunch of people at the annual meeting and be the TA, if they've got the bucks or pay them off. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Thank you, Thomas. Next on our agenda is Gloria Pocowatchit. MR. NARCOMEY: I don't see her. She's got her pages here in the new business. She called me a week or so ago -- MR. BURGESS: Okay. MR. NARCOMEY: -- and explained the situation to me. MR. NELSON: I think you ought to discuss that in executive session. It's kind of up to you guys. MR. NARCOMEY: Are you familiar with anything of that, Willy? MR. NELSON: It cost me a lot of money. You guys need to vote on it. MR. BURGESS: Ladies and Gentlemen, we're going to take a ten-minute break for cigarette time, and -- MR. REDELK: Before you take your break, could I address the Committee? MR. BURGESS: Come forward. MR. REDELK: I'm concerned about what's happening to the budget process. My understanding that you're going through that budget process for 2011. And my concern is that there was rumor that the language monies will all be funneled into the college, and the college will determine the expenditure of those funds. Is that rumor false or true? MR. TIPPECONNIE: No, we haven't said that. We are looking at -- we've had a first session on the budget, and we're looking at tentative adjustments, because of the circumstances of the times, the economics of the times. So we're going to go further yet on that. So that point has not been stated that way or decided that way. MR. REDELK: Was there any discussion in that? MR. TIPPECONNIE: There's been discussion. Because if you'll remember, at one point, the tribal council passed action that all the language groups should be consolidated -- I think you remember -- and placed at the college. So there is that history that was stated by the tribal council saying, take all those different groups and put them as one at the college. So there is yet that discussion in the wind, you know, and we have to reflect upon that as we move into the budget. So a couple of things we're attempting to do is be more efficient in the way we spend money, and more, consequently, effective in the results. We get good results. So we're looking at those two things in the equation, so to speak. So it's just the beginning of our budget process. MR. ASEPERMY: We did not comply with the Tribal Council's -- MR. TIPPECONNIE: Direction. MR. ASEPERMY: -- direction. They said that it would all come under college. It doesn't come all under college. We've got immersion program, we've got the language program, and the college has received a grant for a language program. What we have done is nothing. You still have your program, it's still funded. The Immersion program is still funded with one employee. And I know absolutely nothing about the college's grant for language. I know this: They give classes down there and no one will accept their classroom work, Cameron, OU, Texas Tech, no one, so you're just taking a class. It's not accepted or it's not accredited by anybody. And it's being taught by a non-Comanche. MS. ISAACS: I don't think that was the proposal at the General Council. I think people just had questions about how many programs we had, and it needs to be consolidated in one spot. That's the only thing. And it was told -- MR. ASEPERMY: I think Geneva brought it up. She wanted all of the language programs put at the college. MS. ISAACS: In one spot? MR. ASEPERMY: Yeah, that's what she wanted. We did not comply with that. When I say "we," I guess the CBC at the time. MR. REDELK: There were discussions that were taking place after that resolution with these different entities coming in and meeting at the college. And those discussions did not lead to any type of consolidation. It just, more or less, stopped. Now, if the CBC is wanting to comply with that resolution brought forward at that time, then I think that's probably want needs to happen is another resolution amending that resolution. It's not just different language groups are not willing to work together, it's that they have different purposes and agendas. Now, the language -- I like to call it Tribal Language Office, instead of language immersion. Language Immersion gives it a connotation that really is not language immersion. But the Tribal Language Office, which is, basically. And with my input, we're going to develop a questionnaire this month and next month and get it to these groups that have been actively involved in language revitalization, preservation, usage, whatever you want to call it. And from that questionnaire, from that survey, meet with a group of Comanches. I propose that Videll be one of them, want myself would be one of them, a speaker, and two other Comanches, to look at this -- results of this survey; and from this survey, develop a plan for the Nation. You know, that is the direction that the Tribal Language Office is going to be pursuing here in the next several months. Now, from this plan, once it's developed, it will be presented to you folks and at the General Council. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Nelson, are you aware about this discussion about a plan and survey? MR. NELSON: Yes, sir. MR. BURGESS: Are you including our grants facilitator in the planning office on this early discussion? MR. NELSON: No, it's just in the planning stages, now, sir. MR. BURGESS: The reason I'm asking is, there's possibly some more funding the Tribe or the college is going to access for this area. And -- MR. NELSON: Do you want to ask me to reach out to -- who is it? Who is this -- he's a professor over there that speaks Comanche, a non-Indian? MR. BURGESS: I don't know about them. I'm talking about our Compliance and Develop Department that need to include them on the survey instrument, so it can be maintained and retained. And every three years we should be doing these surveys language should be one of them record of them. Do you all have that? MR. REDELK: This survey will not only target those language groups, that would be the principle groups, this survey is open to any Comanche that wants to complete that survey. And the more input, the better results, hopefully. MR. BURGESS: I mean, the last time I know of the Tribe doing a survey was in 2005. We did that at the Comanche Nation fair. Since that time, I don't know of the Tribe having anymore surveys for needs, materials, equipment, help, assistance, education at all. And in order for us to progress, we need continuous updated information. And these surveys, whether it's just a language, healthcare, we need to have that all compiled and retained in one area. That's why I'm asking that you include our grants facilitator, so we can maintain and continue upgrading these survey instruments. It can't just be done by one little department and not shared. We have to have all of that in a central, localized area for access to writing grants. That's all I'm asking. MR. NELSON: Diabetes Director is here, the Education Director is here. I give them a homework assignment this past week. They have developed an actual survey form, right, ladies? Right? Okay. Nationwide. Now, this, sir, I believe it's on a different path. And, yeah, it's in a planning stage right now. MR. BURGESS: Right. MR. NELSON: Mike, you should know as better well [sic] than everybody. You know, the language immersion started during your tenure as TA, and what progress it has made. MR. ASEPERMY: You established it. MR. BURGESS: Yeah, the CBC did. MR. ASEPERMY: Mr. Chairman, right now, right now -- MR. REDELK: Pardon me. On that issue about the problem language office, it was the -- I was the initiator. I proposed a budget for this office; and the purpose of that office in its initial year was to develop an infant CD. And from that time on, each budget year, it just kept -- MR. BURGESS: It just grew. MR. REDELK: -- going and kept voting for it. And Tomah was the director and it's been -- MR. BURGESS: What is he's referring to, Ron, is that I helped to define the child description for the person in the office. And it somehow expanded from one person doing consultants to two people doing all of this. And what we did, because we had childcare, we produced a couple of books, couple of songs, that the children could have because these were interpreted. That was the whole idea of bringing the language in. Now, Mrs. Aitson has her hands up and then Ms. Beverly Isaacs. MS. AITSON: I'd like to say on that -- what he's talking about. If you're going to have that survey, within that survey, I'd like to see you screening the people that you put in these language groups. Because I would think that if you're going to be in a language -- a Comanche language group, to me, they should be able to speak Comanche. You have people in there that don't know one word of Comanche, but they've got jobs, they're getting paid, you know. And that's not fair to our Indian people that can speak. MR. BURGESS: Okay. MRS. AITSON: That's my concern. MR. BURGESS: That's what I'm telling you, we used consultants who could speak in the beginning when I got it; then after I left the office, it went the other way. All right. Thank you. Mrs. Isaacs? MS. ISAACS: When that language immersion with Tomah was developed, that was when everything was started. I became aware of a lot of things when she started sharing her information with everybody. When Redelk, and what's-her-name, Barbara, when they started -- when they started the program years and years ago, nobody was included, except the really fluent Comanche Elders. And they were just a clique, maybe six of them, and they're probably still here. But, you know, we never knew when they had their meetings. I was asked to come to a meeting by one of the people and -- at a certain time and they changed it, and they changed it to a different direction. And, you know, that's how it went as far as this -- the initial program. A lot of people were not involved, because we weren't -- felt they didn't include us. They didn't want us. But it went on and went on and went on for years and years. And now when Tomah became a part of this, I think that's when the whole started -- everybody started being involved. MR. BURGESS: All right. MR. REDELK: Let me -- let me -- MS. ISAACS: That's how come we -- we wanted it in one thing. And that way, maybe we can know about what's going on, what kind of equipment do we have, what information is going out there. Otherwise, we're just, you know -- MR. REDELK: Let me clarify on some of her statements. In 1993, there was about 30 or 35 Comanches, about three-fourths of them were speakers. We met in the Summer of 1993 and formed the Comanche Language and Culture Preservation Committee. At that time, we were discussing who's going to be members and how are they going to retain their membership. We talked about a variety of things. And what we came down to is, anybody, any Comanche that was interested in advocating for the language could be a member. And from 1993, we established the first Tuesday of the month meeting. It was -- we publicized it, we invited everybody to participate, and we've always been open, your membership is appreciated. Now, today, we're down to just a few members, like she says, but it's not because we're excluding anybody. We want everybody to come in and be a contributing member, but that doesn't always happen. There's always personalities, "I don't like this speaker," we have to deal with a lot of different things in the beginning. But as we progressed, anybody that wanted to participate through our meetings, our activities, could. We invited the seating CBC to participate and never got any participation. Now, one of the very most important things that this Committee did in the beginning was to establish a 501(C)3 status, tax exempt. We were advised by the Chairman, at that time, "You don't need it." We didn't listen to that advice. We went ahead and got it. And because of that, we have took in, not tribal funds, but other funds, and the thousands of dollars since 1994 that ran our programs. And everybody was invited to participate. You may not have participated because you didn't like me, or you didn't like Barbara, or you didn't like one of the speakers, but that's the way -- that's the nature of the beast. Now, the Language Committee, I'm really tooting our own horn, I don't like to brag, but here it goes: We have established for the Nation, a nation -- not nationwide, international-wide recognition of our language groups. And I say "international," because we just recently got $6000 from the Bank in London and we wouldn't have gotten that if we didn't have this 501(C)3 status. So we have been responsibly expending tribal funds and other funds. We haven't been sued. We pay our taxes. We're a competent group of individuals. Now, if you, as committee people, desire us to be under some other entity, then we're going to fight that and we're going to pursue that to the utmost, because -- now, I say that because I have to take it to the Committee and they're going to have to say, "We'll agree with the CBC." MR. BURGESS: Well, I thought I just heard you say at the very beginning that you're willing to work with wherever -- MR. REDELK: That's right. MR. BURGESS: -- General Council puts you, that's General Council. MR. REDELK: Right. MR. BURGESS: And we're charged to follow General Council. MR. REDELK: Right. MR. BURGESS: Now, you're going to say you're going to fight us, if we ask you to network with the college. MR. REDELK: No, I'm talking about funding. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Please clarify that. You were supposed to clarify. All right. MR. REDELK: We started off with the funding process. MR. BURGESS: Okay. Then as a 501(C)3 at what point in time will you not need our funding? MR. REDELK: Well, if the Comanche people, by vote, decide that we're not doing our jobs, what we -- our purposes, then they can vote, don't give the Language Committee money. And at that time, we won't exist, because the Comanche people don't believe in what we're doing. But I will say this, that since 1994, the Comanche people, by 80 percent, have voted for us to receive funding because we provide a service for them. MR. BURGESS: Okay. And then so when we network you, well, every group we put you to work together, you will do that, correct? That's what the Comanche people want. They want you to work together and to put a program forward that will help to educate our people in our own language. And I know personalities get involved. I don't care that somebody doesn't like me. I'm going in there to learn something. And that's what we need to impress upon our people. Now, I know from Elders who spoke to me, they didn't want to share something with that committee because they saw that committee because they saw that committee earning money on this history. I'll just put it that way. That's as salty as I want to put it. And that's what they were afraid of. So sometimes we've lost words, we've lost stories that these Elders would not share, because they were fearful an individual was going to take personal income from that story that belonged to everybody. That's all I can -- I was told. I'm just telling you what I was told. So we are looking at funding Language Preservation Committee, but if we ask you to work with the college so we could have a focal point for retention, communication and historical responsibility. That's what a centralized place would be. And everyone thought, at that time, back in '05 or '06, when that resolution was passed, that that's where it would be, would be at the college. There's another reason for that college. There was a reason for the museum, was to be a repository and accept things that people wanted to display and share, but not give away or sell. That didn't happen for the first museum, so we have to protect these people, the language is one of them. This language is older than anybody in this room or anybody on this earth now. And someone to come and help us and turn around and to profit from it because they want to copyright what they've -- that's what upset a lot of people. I'm speaking openly. I'm not trying to offend anybody. But this is what some of the Elders told me they didn't appreciate. And that that language belongs to a lot of us and that no one should be profiting from that or the production of the book. We understand supporting the organization. But, now, we've come to a hard time -- this is to everybody. I see the hands. Hang on. We have come through something that was never planned for, that no one really thought about, but they should have thought about as leaders. What happens when gaming fails? It has failed us. It's failed us because we came to the Tribe -- everybody gave away money. It has failed us because the economy was not paid attention to. Gaming has fallen down. Now, we're going to have money from gaming, but it's not going to be the lofty amounts that were projected. The one thing we're going to institute is a budget and live on that budget. And it's not going to be 35, 40 million, because it's not there. Our competition has gotten bigger, has gotten better, and people have more options to go places. So what we put on the budget is what we think we can actually afford to share with the community. And we are trying to create a nest egg, so that in the future the Tribe doesn't have to live on gaming income. It can live on these other revenues and savings set aside. We should limit ourselves, not just throw it away. I'm not here to buy votes, I'm here to provide services, we all are. I'm getting on a high horse, but you need to hear this, because you're going to hear it in the future anyway. Now, we're going to come back to the language program. Thank you, Mr. Redelk. We've got this agenda. We're trying to go on break here. MR. REDELK: Okay. I've got one other -- MR. BURGESS: Hang on. I've got two other people that have their hands up. MR. REDELK: I want to say this about our language program, nobody that has every been a member that has contributed to our efforts has profited individually. Now, we do pay our speakers because they are our source for meetings, for gas, or whatever, but -- MR. BURGESS: I'm only relaying what these Elders told me. MR. REDELK: Other than that, we do not sell stories, we give material away because of that tribal dollar. Every person in here that is Comanche deserves to receive anything that we develop. And we have worked that way since our beginning. MR. BURGESS: Okay. I had a hand in the back. MR. REDELK: I've got one other question. Robert, how much did that celebration for the opening at Comanche Nation cost? MR. BURGESS: We don't have the final figure on that. There was a question in the back. We're trying to go on break here and then we'll go to executive session. MR. REDELK: Did you make that available, Robert? MR. BURGESS: Thomas? MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Real quick -- MR. BURGESS: Vincent, Vincent had a question. MR. POCOWATCHIT: You know, I sit here and listen to this stuff. And we've got these classes going on learning the Comanche language and all this. But you go to the complex, none of the employees know how to speak Comanche. How many of you CBC up there can speak Comanche? You know, to me, it's a waste of money to put -- to have these classes, because people just aren't interested. The only way you're going to learn to -- is if you want to. That's the only way. You're not going to learn out of them books. It's just a waste of money. Just like that Elders' program, only a few people benefit from the Elders' program, why should we give them $100,000? I'm an Elder myself, but I don't benefit from none of it, UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Do you ever come to our meetings? MR. POCOWATCHIT: Unless you go knock on their door and go to their meetings. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You don't show up -- MR. POCOWATCHIT: But what about them people in the nursing home? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's open to the public. MR. POCOWATCHIT: What about them people that's sick? They don't get to take these trips. The only ones that take these trips are the only ones that are physically able to get on that bus. And they call it in Comanche Nation Elders' Program. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's right. MR. POCOWATCHIT: That's a bunch of bull. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: No, it's not. MR. POCOWATCHIT: I'm an Elder and I'm against giving them anymore money. MR. BURGESS: Last one. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: On this language, why is it not that our college cannot get credit for teaching? The Shoshonees have accredited teachers up there that teach their classes in high school and everything, why can't we get that down here? MR. BURGESS: That's another question, longer explanation. MR. ASEPERMY: Good question, too. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: -- Mr. Redelk and probably the CBC members, is we have this Language Committee and they seem to be doing a good job from what he's talking about. And there's always two sides to everything. My question is: Where's our headquarters? Where do you go to visit with them, instead of just going to meetings here and there? Because I understand they have a lot of equipment that they purchase with their funding. Where do they keep it? Now, we have different departments in our Tribe. They have different buildings they have to go to -- and we know where to go because they give addresses, but the language committee, we don't know. I'd like to know that myself. MR. BURGESS: Yes, Thomas? MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Quick comment. MR. BURGESS: We're on break, but go ahead, Thomas. MR. THOMAS NARCOMEY: Okay. The CBC -- done a proposal and got 195,000 for Comanche Language. Okay. There should be a lot of money on those legislatures for education. And we could do a proposal and gear it towards the elementary, or whoever. But I know there's a lot of money there, so, now, we can do proposals and we -- we still might be at risk of being blacklisted, though, but we should try it anyway. MR. BURGESS: We're coming off of that. MR. NARCOMEY: -- wants to say something about the language. MR. BURGESS: Ruth, one of our Elders here, who does want to have some words to our community about our language. You all listen good. MS. SIMMONS: -- and I sit here, I try to make out what they're talking about. As the eldest, I'm glad for them, but I live in my own home. And I once went to NAHASDA, when they said there was 6,000 -- out for the Comanche Elders, I went. I fixed all the papers, went to -- my son took me. I haven't seen -- I didn't receive a -- not even a door knob today. So I don't know where he went to. Now, I'm not blaming all of them, that's when Eschiti was over the thing. Where did that 6,000 go? Nobody ever visit in my home. It's not that I don't want them to. I would like if we Elders -- see, I'm 95 now. The reason why, when my youngest daughter had me -- when I was really bad off, she had me in town in the little town where we live. When I was really bad off. Then I looked, I could see my house, the timber, everything, no, I want to go home. That's my home. I want to stay there until my time come. My great grandparents speak the way I will live there until -- that's the way I feel about my home. And I just want to know how come -- if we all talk about the Elders, y'all -- how come the Elders don't -- I never seen really -- I think I could have got help from some ladies, but I want to say, just because they're my -- somebody kin to me, that I would go to them first at the Housing, but I would got help. But, instead, you know, they put the other one over them just because they were -- and I just want to let you all know. But I think I do need a little help right along -- see, when I really got sick, and when I got my Medicare, I had both of them, and they said I couldn't have that where one medicine was $646, the other one was 200-something a month. Now, that's a month. He said, well, I want sent to a specialist, real specialist. And Marilyn from the Tribe will always stand by. She'll stand by, not only me, but all the Comanches. She'll make it go around, not just only one. If you do, somebody going to say that could -- to run, but she made me understand that she's going to make it share. So I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I try to live on what little I got, because I didn't have -- my great- grandmother raised me, so I didn't -- we didn't had too much education. And I raised my children, six of my niece, what I made while I was working. So I didn't have really much savings to share with -- but my son takes pretty good care of me. He does the work outside and, you know, cutting my wood and other things. So I guess I just want to let you all know, your Elder just be -- I can't just tell you what I want to say or anything, but I just -- the next time you going to make some speech, you want speech, come on out here, so you could -- everybody could know what you're talking about and hear your -- hear you better. That's the I think about it. And I don't know what I would want to know -- what to tell you. I am glad to see the people that's been through here, now. And because I really don't know what purpose that the lawyers got in this part. I really don't know. I can't say, because I have brought it up before, just among themselves, not with anybody. So we're Comanches and that's the Comanche -- that's the way you can. Because it's just hard for me to just say -- I never did come -- just once before I remember being to the meetings down there, but I just had to -- just to go. I just had to come. I just wonderer -- I often wonder where did the application that I filled, I must not filled it out, where did it go? I didn't receive -- at least, if somebody receive a doorknob, that's different. But today I have yet to receive a doorknob today. It's still the same way. Mr. Eschiti was -- when he took over, well, there was no papers showing nowhere that I ever filed paper. MR. BURGESS: That would be Housing. They wouldn't know either. MS. SIMMONS: Thank you for whatever I have to say. MR. NARCOMEY: We need to check into that. MS. SIMMONS: Comanche -- I hope you all always have that in mind. You're Comanches and you stay by each other and do what you can for each other. I have no complaints. The Lord has gave me many a good years and many God-fearing -- and I will -- when the time come, I still thank the Lord for my days that he gave me. (Applause.) MR. BURGESS: We're on break ladies and gentlemen. Take a 10, 15-minute break. (Break.) MR. BURGESS: We're going into executive session. Motion to go into executive session? MR. KOSECHEQUETAH: So moved. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Kosechequetah has made the motion. Second? Who made the second? MR. NARCOMEY: I'll second. MR. BURGESS: Mr. Narcomey made the second. All those in favor of going into executive session, please say "aye." (Aye.) MR. BURGESS: Ayes have it. We're in executive session. (Executive Session commenced at 12:58 p.m.) REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE STATE OF OKLAHOMA ) ) COUNTY OF OKLAHOMA ) I, Chrystal H. Vance, Certified Shorthand Reporter for the State of Oklahoma, certify that the above and foregoing meeting transcribed by me is a true and correct transcript of the meeting; that the meeting was held on January 9, 2010, in the State of Oklahoma; that I am not an attorney for nor a relative of any said parties, or otherwise interested in the event of said action. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and seal of office on this the 11th day of February, 2010. __________________________ Chrystal H. Vance Certified Shorthand Reporter for the State of Oklahoma S E C R E T A R Y ' S C E R T I F I C A T E I, Robert Tippeconnie, Secretary-Treasurer of the Commance Nation Business Committee, certify that the above is a true and correct transcript of a meeting of CBC Members held at 10:00 a.m. On January 9, 2010, and that the meeting was called and held in all respects in accordance with the charters and bylaws of the Comanche Nation and that a quorum was present. I further certify that the votes and resolutions of the CBC Members of Comanche Nation at the meeting are operative and in full force and effect and have not been annulled or modified by any vote or resolution passed or adopted by the CBC since that meeting. Signed:______________________ Date: ___________________ Robert Tippeconnie Secretary-Treasurer 2