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Alcohol vote shot down

By Rose Hooper

Cherokee Tribal Council shot down the alcohol vote. The council agreed on Dec. 2 to suspend the Jan. 13 referendum on whether to permit the sale of alcoholic beverages on the reservation.

Previously, council had set the election, including the date, after Patrick Lambert, head of the Tribal Gaming Commission, submitted a resolution calling for the referendum.

Lambert said the tribe was losing out in tourism to places like Gatlinburg, Tenn., where alcohol sales are allowed. The tribe should establish a central alcohol distribution center for the sale, distribution and control of alcohol, Lambert said.

But last Thursday, Big Cove representative Mary Ann Thompson introduced a resolution to rescind that referendum vote. By almost unanimous decision, council voted for Thompson's proposal. Painttown representative Tommye Saunooke said she was in favor or rescinding the referendum. "I don't support the sale of liquor," Saunooke said, "but the decision should be left to the enrolled members. And so many of them told me they were against selling alcohol in Cherokee."

Council member Alan "B." Ensley of the Yellowhill community concurred. "I didn't hear from anybody in my community who wanted it," he said.

Those who did want it said they felt the group Cherokee People Against Alcohol heavily influenced council's decision.

The last alcohol referendum held in Cherokee was voted down in 1980.

Back to Archive: 12-09-99.