FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — The principal chief of the Cherokee Nation campaigned in Arkansas this week as an election for leader of the largest American Indian tribe draws closer.
Although the Cherokee Nation is wholly within the borders of Oklahoma, Bill John Baker campaigned in Fayetteville because about 1,700 of the tribe's 64,914 registered voters live in Arkansas— and many of them vote via absentee ballot.
The election is June 27.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports about 10,680 of the tribe's 315,000 citizens live in Arkansas, most of them in Benton, Crawford, Sebastian and Washington counties.
Baker has three challengers in the race. Chad Smith, who was principal chief from 1999-2011; Oklahoma state Rep. Will Fourkiller and Charlie Soap, the widower of former Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller.