Controversial & Running for CNO Council - Robin Mayes

Robin Carter Mayes is a Career and Technology Education instructor at Ryan High School in Denton Texas. He received both a BS and an MS degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, his birthplace and hometown. After working in the steel-construction industry for 15 years, Mayes began his teaching career in 1993.

Candidate for At-Large Council, Mayes has lived half his life inside the Cherokee Nation and half of it outside the historical boundaries, having alternated back and forth several times. He has lived in several other states, including Oregon, California, Louisiana, Florida, and now Texas.

“From the time I was a small child, my Cherokee family told me the stories about our ancestors who served the Nation and suffered injustice along with others in our tribe,” said Mayes, who is a direct descendant of Principal Chief John Ross.

Mayes has proven his commitment to the Nation through many years of activism and political participation. He has served as executive director of the WhitePath Foundation, chairman of the Cherokee National Party, political cartoonist for the Cherokee Observer newspaper, chairman of the Cherokee Nation of 1839 Board of Governors, was instrumental in the formation of the Cherokee Elders Council, and has brought legal actions in the Cherokee courts when he saw injustices that needed correction.

He states: “My goal for the office of At-Large Council is to close the gap between Cherokees who live outside the historical boundaries of the Nation and Cherokee citizens at home,” Mayes said. “There is often too much strife and distrust between us, and that is not right. We’re family.”

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