Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome. It's timing now for community connection right here on K one, the one you trusted on the telephone with me, we have West no Fire who is running for Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation. West. Good to have you on board today. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing well. Appreciate it to appreciate you having me on the line today. And sorry I couldn't be there in person. You know how much I love to come up to
the radio station and see everybody there. Oh, I do. But a lot of things going on with Memorial Day and family and I understand that, and that's cool. Hey, you're running for Principal Chief. You're You're already on the on the board, aren't you? Are you not? Yeah, sting on the council. You've got elected in twenty nineteen, had a front row seat to see all of them misuses of power that we have our current administration and going just really in the direction that a lot of people don't agree
with. And so that's what obviously led me to run for chief is having the firsthand knowledge and experiences of what I've witnessed and the changes that we need to make and what changes would those be, sir. Mainly, it's just starting off with the treatment of people. We have a real big issue of concern with citizens not being treated fairly when they come in to get services. You know, they're just not treated overall dignity with respect to our employees.
There's a lot of financial transparency or like thereof not given to the citizens. So you know, that's mainly what we want to do is start treating everybody with dignity and respect that they all equally deserve. And then having a government that's really just transparent, showing the citizens what we have but we don't have, and really just speaking volumes to the truth of who we are as a
government that's supposed to be reflective of the wishes of the people. And the way we can do that is making sure that we disclose all of our capabilities as a tribe for them. And how long have you been on the council now? Just about three or four years now? Yep, you guys started serving in twenty and nineteen, and I consider that there was a long enough time to know that the changes from the top down, it's not from the bottom up. We'd like to try to change it from the bottom up.
But we know that the change of treatment in the way that this government has ran largely in part because see the principal chief, he's the majority shareholder of Cherokee Nations businesses, which is that's where we hear about all the billions of dollars that are being expended, and a lot of that being expended without the
citizens well being thought or concern or involvement. You know, there's no involvement or participation by the citizens on where we see the funds go, where they go and invested in as it's been very loud, especially since we've seen things like the four hundred and fifty million dollars Castino and Mississippi in which it doesn't employ any Cherokee's down there, and so since they don't have a vote, that's what we're going to do. We're gonna make sure it's the most inclusive,
transparent government that we've ever had. And it's gonna be a revolutionary it's gonna be huge. I mean, people are just gonna they're just gonna be amazed at what we are able to bring them. Whenever we really reformed the government, and we're talking with West no fire. He is running for Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation West. Tell folks a little bit about you, because
you've got an interesting story. Yeah, you know, it's definitely a one that's just like every common walk of life, is what I consider, though I've done those little things differently. They grew up northeast Oklahoma between Taquon still all out in the middle of the Styx, and we didn't have a whole lot to put together, but mom and dad they worked a couple of jobs.
And what it is that you're gonna get rewarded in our slavery to a government, and that's what churching office is within every individual aspect of businesses and government. And when we move back home, all of those best practices were really not being implemented in my tribe. So that's what led me to run for office in twenty nineteen, and trying to implement those best practices has been a real everyday battle with the current administration, considering that they're really about politics
and not about people. We're speaking with West no fire, and West is running for Principal Chief of cheroe Kee Nation West. You had to run earlier for a congressional district too for US Congress. So being a council member and then running for a US office, you kind of know how this plays out. You know the ropes of how elections work and how they should work, and it's probably given you a little good experience on campaigning, I imagine.
Yeah. Absolutely. You know, a churchy nation is known for its nefarisees within its own election commission, and so whenever I ran in twenty nineteen, we stayed on top of it. And then running for Congress, actually United States elections seem a little bit better on the transparency and accountability aspect of it. And largely the reason why I ran for that position is because the Churchy Nation and the federal government, specifically the Administration of the United States, they
are, best way putting it, is in bed with each other. They use church Nation as a shell company to do a lot of the federal contracts that you and I probably both don't have to say we don't agree with the moral stances that the Administration of the United States is taking, and maybe other listeners out there probably feeling that way is really what I should say, that
it really has become a transparent government. That's what letting me run for Congress to try to make more awareness that now we got a good congressman in there with Joshua, he's trying to bring that accountability back, and it put me in a position to where we all knew it was probably going to go with me running for a principal chief to try to make better accountability and better steps forward and start turning this large ship of the government back in the direction it
should be going. And you do have a website and contact information for folks who might want to be interested in knowing more about you. Imagine absolutely you can go to our website. It's simple. It's west ws No fire nofire dot com. Phone numbers nine one eight three four six zero one eight eight. That is a phone number I carry around with me twenty four seven.
Call it anytime you need something you as questions that's concerned. I've always loved helping out our citizens and anybody that might have an issue in life that we can help with. So it's always been able to be easy to get a hold of. You can always check me out on our Facebook account sending messages on matt If you don't have a cell phone, make a phone call from So we're always trying to be the best accessible leader that we can be.
And of course, so we do have the elections coming up. Let's remind it everybody when they are because I know most Cherokees know, but just like everybody else, sometimes we get busy, pops. So especially in the summer, and it's on a Saturday. The general elections on a Saturday, So make sure on Saturday before you pick up your chores or when you finish your chores in stiff time and even from seven am to seven pm on June Thursday,
Saturday is a general election. If you're gonna be out of town, you can go vote early Tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday down at the Tallet Call Election Commission. So if you can't make it to the general election, go vote early. At the end of the day, this controls the whole environment that you live in, and we want to make sure that you have to say though and that your rights are impelled. And that's what my administration going
to do. Vote West No Far June third, Wells, I tell you, it's it's always nice to talk to you, and it's always good to hear from you. How's that family of years getting along? Oh man? The family's doing great. You know, we've got to spend a little bit of time this weekend, the holiday weekend together, but we know it's definitely important to get out there and continue to see everybody. So our family typically goes with us when they can, and we just like being a part of
the community and spending time with everybody. And you know, busy itinerary, not only with the Memorial Day, but also getting around and making sure that you're reminding folks to vote. Imagine you're wearing out the shoe leather as they say, true leather, pocket book for gas, and tires on the front shrub. So, oh my goodness sake. You know, folks when they realize that, you know, Cherikee Nation, it does cover quite a few miles and it does represent a whole lot of people. I think they're a
little bit surprised by it. Yeah, you know, it's fourteen counties the northeast part of Oklahoma, and now with the mcgart decision, it's considered a reservation and because of that, it gives the Turkey Nation way more power than they've ever been had before. And so making sure we manage and delegate that power properly to protect people to also make sure that there's transparency and accountability. It's a lot of responsibility, and that responsibility also goes back to where it
originates, which is with the people. The people create it, that people control it, and those that control the flow of money control the government. And so we want to make sure we give you the people that control the flow of the money, not business enterprise. It's controlled by one man. And so since it did so large, and it's such a big issue of concern, take that responsibility and go vote very good West No Fire. Hey, thank you very much for spending time with us today. Shate it.
Appreciate you, Tom, appreciate it. One of the station, all right, thank you. That is West No Firing and he is running for Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation. And you've been listening to our community connection right here on K one, the one you trust