WEBVTT

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Good morning, good morning, good
morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.

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It's timing now for community connection right
here on K one, the one

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you trusted on the telephone with me, we have West no Fire who is

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running for Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation. West. Good to have you on

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board today. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing well. Appreciate

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it to appreciate you having me on
the line today. And sorry I couldn't

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be there in person. You know
how much I love to come up to

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the radio station and see everybody there. Oh, I do. But a

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lot of things going on with Memorial
Day and family and I understand that,

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and that's cool. Hey, you're
running for Principal Chief. You're You're already

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on the on the board, aren't
you? Are you not? Yeah,

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sting on the council. You've got
elected in twenty nineteen, had a front

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row seat to see all of them
misuses of power that we have our current

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administration and going just really in the
direction that a lot of people don't agree

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with. And so that's what obviously
led me to run for chief is having

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the firsthand knowledge and experiences of what
I've witnessed and the changes that we need

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to make and what changes would those
be, sir. Mainly, it's just

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starting off with the treatment of people. We have a real big issue of

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concern with citizens not being treated fairly
when they come in to get services.

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You know, they're just not treated
overall dignity with respect to our employees.

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There's a lot of financial transparency or
like thereof not given to the citizens.

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So you know, that's mainly what
we want to do is start treating everybody

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with dignity and respect that they all
equally deserve. And then having a government

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that's really just transparent, showing the
citizens what we have but we don't have,

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and really just speaking volumes to the
truth of who we are as a

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government that's supposed to be reflective of
the wishes of the people. And the

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way we can do that is making
sure that we disclose all of our capabilities

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as a tribe for them. And
how long have you been on the council

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now? Just about three or four
years now? Yep, you guys started

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serving in twenty and nineteen, and
I consider that there was a long enough

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time to know that the changes from
the top down, it's not from the

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bottom up. We'd like to try
to change it from the bottom up.

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But we know that the change of
treatment in the way that this government has

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ran largely in part because see the
principal chief, he's the majority shareholder of

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Cherokee Nations businesses, which is that's
where we hear about all the billions of

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dollars that are being expended, and
a lot of that being expended without the

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citizens well being thought or concern or
involvement. You know, there's no involvement

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or participation by the citizens on where
we see the funds go, where they

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go and invested in as it's been
very loud, especially since we've seen things

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like the four hundred and fifty million
dollars Castino and Mississippi in which it doesn't

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employ any Cherokee's down there, and
so since they don't have a vote,

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that's what we're going to do.
We're gonna make sure it's the most inclusive,

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transparent government that we've ever had.
And it's gonna be a revolutionary it's

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gonna be huge. I mean,
people are just gonna they're just gonna be

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amazed at what we are able to
bring them. Whenever we really reformed the

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government, and we're talking with West
no fire. He is running for Principal

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Chief of Cherokee Nation West. Tell
folks a little bit about you, because

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you've got an interesting story. Yeah, you know, it's definitely a one

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that's just like every common walk of
life, is what I consider, though

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I've done those little things differently.
They grew up northeast Oklahoma between Taquon still

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all out in the middle of the
Styx, and we didn't have a whole

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lot to put together, but mom
and dad they worked a couple of jobs.

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And what it is that you're gonna
get rewarded in our slavery to a

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government, and that's what churching office
is within every individual aspect of businesses and

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government. And when we move back
home, all of those best practices were

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really not being implemented in my tribe. So that's what led me to run

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for office in twenty nineteen, and
trying to implement those best practices has been

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a real everyday battle with the current
administration, considering that they're really about politics

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and not about people. We're speaking
with West no fire, and West is

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running for Principal Chief of cheroe Kee
Nation West. You had to run earlier

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for a congressional district too for US
Congress. So being a council member and

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then running for a US office,
you kind of know how this plays out.

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You know the ropes of how elections
work and how they should work,

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and it's probably given you a little
good experience on campaigning, I imagine.

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Yeah. Absolutely. You know,
a churchy nation is known for its nefarisees

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within its own election commission, and
so whenever I ran in twenty nineteen,

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we stayed on top of it.
And then running for Congress, actually United

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States elections seem a little bit better
on the transparency and accountability aspect of it.

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And largely the reason why I ran
for that position is because the Churchy

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Nation and the federal government, specifically
the Administration of the United States, they

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are, best way putting it,
is in bed with each other. They

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use church Nation as a shell company
to do a lot of the federal contracts

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that you and I probably both don't
have to say we don't agree with the

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moral stances that the Administration of the
United States is taking, and maybe other

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listeners out there probably feeling that way
is really what I should say, that

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it really has become a transparent government. That's what letting me run for Congress

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to try to make more awareness that
now we got a good congressman in there

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with Joshua, he's trying to bring
that accountability back, and it put me

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in a position to where we all
knew it was probably going to go with

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me running for a principal chief to
try to make better accountability and better steps

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forward and start turning this large ship
of the government back in the direction it

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should be going. And you do
have a website and contact information for folks

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who might want to be interested in
knowing more about you. Imagine absolutely you

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can go to our website. It's
simple. It's west ws No fire nofire

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dot com. Phone numbers nine one
eight three four six zero one eight eight.

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That is a phone number I carry
around with me twenty four seven.

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Call it anytime you need something you
as questions that's concerned. I've always loved

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helping out our citizens and anybody that
might have an issue in life that we

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can help with. So it's always
been able to be easy to get a

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hold of. You can always check
me out on our Facebook account sending messages

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on matt If you don't have a
cell phone, make a phone call from

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So we're always trying to be the
best accessible leader that we can be.

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And of course, so we do
have the elections coming up. Let's remind

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it everybody when they are because I
know most Cherokees know, but just like

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everybody else, sometimes we get busy, pops. So especially in the summer,

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and it's on a Saturday. The
general elections on a Saturday, So

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make sure on Saturday before you pick
up your chores or when you finish your

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chores in stiff time and even from
seven am to seven pm on June Thursday,

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Saturday is a general election. If
you're gonna be out of town,

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you can go vote early Tomorrow,
Wednesday and Thursday down at the Tallet Call

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Election Commission. So if you can't
make it to the general election, go

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vote early. At the end of
the day, this controls the whole environment

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that you live in, and we
want to make sure that you have to

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say though and that your rights are
impelled. And that's what my administration going

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to do. Vote West No Far
June third, Wells, I tell you,

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it's it's always nice to talk to
you, and it's always good to

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hear from you. How's that family
of years getting along? Oh man?

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The family's doing great. You know, we've got to spend a little bit

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of time this weekend, the holiday
weekend together, but we know it's definitely

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important to get out there and continue
to see everybody. So our family typically

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goes with us when they can,
and we just like being a part of

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the community and spending time with everybody. And you know, busy itinerary,

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not only with the Memorial Day,
but also getting around and making sure that

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you're reminding folks to vote. Imagine
you're wearing out the shoe leather as they

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say, true leather, pocket book
for gas, and tires on the front

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shrub. So, oh my goodness
sake. You know, folks when they

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realize that, you know, Cherikee
Nation, it does cover quite a few

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miles and it does represent a whole
lot of people. I think they're a

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little bit surprised by it. Yeah, you know, it's fourteen counties the

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northeast part of Oklahoma, and now
with the mcgart decision, it's considered a

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reservation and because of that, it
gives the Turkey Nation way more power than

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they've ever been had before. And
so making sure we manage and delegate that

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power properly to protect people to also
make sure that there's transparency and accountability.

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It's a lot of responsibility, and
that responsibility also goes back to where it

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originates, which is with the people. The people create it, that people

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control it, and those that control
the flow of money control the government.

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And so we want to make sure
we give you the people that control the

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flow of the money, not business
enterprise. It's controlled by one man.

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And so since it did so large, and it's such a big issue of

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concern, take that responsibility and go
vote very good West No Fire. Hey,

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thank you very much for spending time
with us today. Shate it.

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Appreciate you, Tom, appreciate it. One of the station, all right,

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thank you. That is West No
Firing and he is running for Principal

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Chief of Cherokee Nation. And you've
been listening to our community connection right here

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on K one, the one you
trust