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Letter - Brenda Edwards

This letter came in todays mail. Think most of you know my feelings on what the Chair has and has not done. Most certainly did not need her trash talk coming to my house.

June 24, 2013

Greetings,

First, I want to thank our Caddo people for allowing me to represent them for the past four years. It has been a privilege to be elected Chairman of the Caddo Nation and it is an honor I have never taken for granted. I also give thanks to our ancestors who were the truly great leaders. Because of them, we can be called Caddo today.

I have recently filed for re-election and am once again writing to ask for your support on this endeavor. For those of you who do not know me, I am Brenda Shemayme Edwards, a full blood Caddo. I am the daughter of the late Roscoe and Etta (Whitebead) Shemayme. My late grandparents are John and Jenny Shemayme and Joseph and Maud (Miller) Whitebead, all original Caddo allottees.

I was raised in Lookeba, Oklahoma and within the tradition of our Caddo people. I was raised to respect my elders, know my relatives, respect our native church, our traditions, and take pride in being Caddo.

In my 2009 campaign I wrote to the Membership: "I have been on the Tribal Council since 2005. During that time I have demonstrated a strong work ethic and backbone, trustworthiness, dependability and honesty. These qualities are vial when selecting a leader".

Now, in 2013, I want to elaborate on those qualities:

Strong Work Ethic:

As Chief Executive Officer, I don't expect anything from our employees that I don't expect from myself. If they can do it, I can do it. I'm not above working, whether it be in my office or filling in wherever I am needed.

Backbone

As for backbone, it's only gotten stronger.

My oath of office states:

"I solemnly affirm that I will carry out faithfully and impartially all duties of my office to the best of my ability and will promote and protect the best interest of the Caddo Indian Tribe in accordance with the tribal Constitution and bylaws".

The past two years have been riddled with adversity, and this adversity has been the constant within our tribe for decades. Thwarting the efforts of disgruntled tribal members who crave control and feed off of disruption has been time-consuming, but successful. In my four years as Chairman of the Caddo Nation, I have known no greater enemy to the Caddo Nation than these select few tribal members. I have stood my ground against these enemies, and I have been grateful for the support of our Membership and the Tribal Council members who are currently seated. We have fought off those members that want to retrocede our programs, freeze our bank accounts, and bring disgrace to the Caddo Nation. Together we have prevailed and I hope we can continue to move forward together in the future.

Trustworthiness, Dependability, and Honesty:

That's the least I can offer you as a leader and you deserve nothing less. You can trust that I will do the job that I am elected to do. I am dependable and have been told many times by members that they are surprised to see that I'm actually in office. I am visable and transparent. I have an open door policy and I welcome your visits, questions, and concers. I know no better way than to answer your queries truthfully and honestly.

Representation:

I believe that we have a strong nation (5116 members), a strong government, and strong leadership. I want to praise the Caddo Nation staff whose primary responsibility is to provide services to the Caddo nation Membership
Because of these dedicated employees, our programs are recognized as some of the best-run programs, not just locally but also regionally and nationally.

I have witnessed our Firefighter Program, HRT Program, Injury Prevention Program, NAGPRA/Historic Preservation Program, and Transportation Office receive national recognition for their successes. Several of our employees sit on local and nation boards for their respective programs.

As your tribal leader, I have developed strong working relationships with Federal, State and local governments. I have also developed strong working relationships with other tribes, locally and nationally. As Chairman of the Caddo nation, I was selected to serve on local and national advisory boards and committees. It has been my honor to represent the Caddo people's as Chairman of the tribe here, at the state and national levels as your Sovereign representative.

In 2010 I had the privilege of being 1 of 12 tribal leaders selected to represent all tribal nations at the first Tribal Leaders Meeting held with President Barack Obama. We can truly say that on that historic date, the Caddo Nation truly met Government to Government.

Growth:

During my four year term, I have witnessed many successes, some bigger than others, but all successful in my eyes. I have seen our Housing Program be revamped in order to be able to provide the following:

Re: Letter - Brenda Edwards

Trustworthiness: does not describe her, of course this is her blowing her own horn.
Dependable: Yes, to mess things up and to ride the wave of the deeds of others.
Honest: Please, a snake is more straight .
Backbone, only in a crowd and when she can hide behind the door of her office and have people stand there.
Represent: I know others who attended the meeting with the President and stated a potato sack would have represented the Caddo Nation more as she didn't utter a single word.
Now lets talk about your so called accomplishments: blah blah blah blah. We are done as far as that goes.
Oath of Office: Now that one is funny. The closest the Chairman has come to the oath since she took it, is this letter. Once she solemnly affirmed the oath, it went bye bye see ya later.
As far as people being an enemy of the Caddo Nation, look in the mirror and you will see the greatest of them all Chairman. There is no greater enemy than one who trashes our Constitution and By-Laws, knowingly. You know you do not have a legal council but yet continue to act like you do, but enough said, the only way you will win this election is your committee to hand it to you on an election board platter.

Re: Letter - Brenda Edwards

I found no part of this letter to be true.

Ms. Edwards, deceits started when she was still Vice Chair under LaRue Parker. She met with us (who were working to get LaRue out of office) numerous times at the Cherokee on I-40, east of Biscuit Hill. At that point she repeatedly said that both Gina Sage and Rick Grellner were calling her letting her know what was going on, rather than contacting Ms. Parker. LITTLE DID WE KNOW THAT LaRUE PARKER WAS AN ANGEL COMPARED TO WHAT WE HAVE NOW. At the very least she cared about the Caddo people and she would talk to you when you came to the office, not lock the doors or lock you out.

That being said, she has no work ethics, for a good part of the time she is not there. If she attends a meeting, she generally does not know what it is about or doesn't bring anything back to the Tribe. When she is not at a meeting she is either out of the office, sick, as I understand, or for some other reason. Especially if she knows there is gonna be questions asked of her on something. This is where her, across the Red River, Diana Woodward and Gina Sage come in, they cover for her.

Then at meetings, they have those two and Carla Guy, who is illegal as the day is long, 24 hours a day, and appears to know absolutely nothing other than to cause all the crap she can to hide behind. People it is pathetic.

Backbone, agree with the other poster. There is none. She absolutely hides behind her security guards, Gina Sage and the Red River person, Diana Woodward. She can never, ever, take care of business, even when it is setting in front of her. She does not seem to understand, whether it be in writing or verbal. This is not a put down, this seems to be the facts as I have seen them.

Trustworthiness, Dependability and Honesty

Read the paragraph about the meetings held at the Cherokee Trading Post, whatever. There is absolutely nothing about Ms. Edwards I trust.

What Ms. Edwards needs to know is that Finance will provide documentation, checks, etc., for all monies spent, from Burial, Higher Education, Election Board, Housing, etc. Those things without a doubt will be looked at and whomever held accountable.

And Honesty, Ms. Edwards, you are the Chair of WCD Enterprises, are we missing about $120,000 - $140,000? Was this not also under your watch to make sure the three Tribes and their members know what the money was spent for and how much was collected. Understand you told a Council Member when asked about this, I can't say its under investigation. Whatever. That was part of your Chair of the Caddo Nation to protect "our", the Caddo Memberships interest and money. Wanna answer this.

Representation: Believe you lucked out on the Obama meeting, again understand you set with your head down for the most part, no questions, no suggestions, etc. That is your makeup. Do not, my opinion based on the years I have known you, have no idea what to do at any point except to fight to keep the Chair position because it pays you $20.00 an hour whether you are there or not. And you have no working relationships with other tribes as far as I have heard, they simply say you are simply there and Gina Sage and Diana Woodward run the Caddo Tribe AND LOOK WHERE WE ARE AT.

No doubt, even with the Election Board helping you, you will be gone, as will those who have abused the Caddo Nation and its people.

Will speak on Growth on the Con't page of this letter.

Enough for this page.

Re: Letter - Brenda Edwards

Hilarious but so true! You pinned the tail on the donkey with that post.