[cars driving in the distance] [train whistle] [tractor motor] [indistinct chatter] [Woman] I live in Morris.

So I just have to get all my news from the paper.

[Woman] Well, it does keep us in touch with what the community is doing, what our chief is doing.

I would read it from front to back.

You know, my mother's the same way, you know?

And she said her dad, he would walk to town and buy a newspaper.

That's the only way a lot of people share their information.

[music] [birds chirping] [Gary] [speaking Muscogee] Welcome to Mvskoke Radio.

Our principal chief, James Floyd, is here today.

It looks like a heck of an election coming up.

Of course, we're gonna be watching it pretty closely.

To start off our discussion here, do you wanna kinda give us a state of the nation real quick?

Well, it's been a very busy, and I believe productive, year so far.

We're making, uh, progress.

We'r Uh, one little fly in the ointment that we, uh-- we picked up on the end of last week was a situation in Eufaula, where three top officials were, uh, arrested and charged with taking tribal funds.

The word "embezzlement" comes to mind, but I'm not seeing it in any of the court documents.

Our, uh, Facebook has over 20,000 hits on it, so people were-- I appreciate them having the interest in the-- in the business of the communities.

It's... You know, this case will work its way through the court system, I'll put it that way.

[Angel] What we cover is most important to Muscogee Creek people.

But here I am, reporting on news topics that... maybe don't show my tribe in the best light.

But you want a friend who will lie to you and leave you walking out the door with a booger hanging out your nose and, you know, toilet paper on your shoe?

Or do you want a friend that will stop you and say, hey, check your face?

That's how I view my job as a journalist.

But it's a very fragile system right now.

Even with the free press law, it's still fragile.

[music] [Jason] In the landscape of tribal media, a free press organization is the white buffalo.

Oh my gosh, it's so exotic!

You guys have free press!

You don't have to be worried about getting fired for asking a question.

[music] [Arielle] I just assumed, yes, we have free press, and so I was shocked to find out that we don't.

It's insane.

There should be more than five of us legislating free press, especially when so much of traditional Indigenous society is based on community consensus.

And if the vast majority of tribal papers don't have press freedoms, that' especially for a community that I would argue is among the most invisible and misunderstood in the country.

[Lenzy] Because we published the story, because we aired it, are they going to arrest us?

Are... You know, is this story even gonna get out?

It's not something that folks expect to hear about happening in the United States, but it does.

It happens in Indian Country.

[Lenzy] Codified press protections.

Navajo Nation, Cherokee Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, Osage Nation, and Muscogee Creek Nation.

Covering Indian Country, folks of Mvskoke Media, I'd say they're the frontrunner.

Yay, work.

I don't know if I can go backwards.

Can I go backwards?

[Angel laughs] Oh, ----.

[melodic electronic tones] [Angel] Oh, my Jesus.

[Jerrad] Mvskoke Media published an interview with National Council representative Dode Barnett alleging sexual harassment by speaker Lucian Tiger.

Mvskoke Media contacted the office of Principal Chief James Floyd and did not receive a response.

Boink!

Looking good.

Aw, what the ----?

Cancel.

Down here, a lot of people, publ they don't understand-- it's like, it's not a personal thing, you know, like I'm just doing my job type of thing.

I try to plan out for worst case scenarios.

We can get thrown out of here.

You can get arrested or whatever, you know?

And people are like, well, that's not gonna happen, Jerrad, you know?

You're imagining things that aren't gonna happen!

I'm like, they might-- it could happen.

It could happen.

And some of them are very drastic.

[music] to have qualified, hungry journalists snooping around and doing the news.

Regular day at work, I remember at the time.

8:06.

8:07.

I can remember that specifically, 'cause I was like, it's ------- D-Day, and, like, the ---- has hit the fan.

[Jason] Good morning, everyone.

There is legislation introduced tonight in an emergency session.

We just got word of it this morning.

Tonight, there will be a bill to repeal the historic Free Press Bill in its entirety.

This removes any kind of protection whatsoever for a free and independent press.

That's a little strange.

Why do they have to go so fast?

Why was there no public debate?

Why is this happening?

What's the benefit to this?

If this goes, then this tribe will never be served by a decent media ever again.

This precedes an election coming up next year.

The timing of it, you have to wonder.

All hands on deck.

Like, the submarine lights blaring, wah, wah.

[buzzer] [music] [mechanical whirring] [beeping] A law of the Muscogee Creek Nation repealing MCNCA, Title 49, entitled, "Mvskoke Media," and creating a new Chapter 11 under MCNCA, Title 16, entitled "Mvskoke Media."

Discus [Angel] The most pissed I've ever been in my life was to hear James Jennings talk about the bad news that's been in the paper.

Inside, I was just screaming, well, stop doing ------- bad things!

The principal chief is the head of the Muscogee Creek Nation execut The National Council is the legislative branch.

The speaker has the ability to call an emergency session at his discretion.

We couldn't figure out why it was deemed an emergency.

There was no indication that Mvskoke Media was in jeopardy.

None at all.

Roll call vote, please.

-James Jennings?

-Yes.

-Thomasene Yahola-Osborn?

-No.

-Darrell Proctor?

-Yes.

-Rufus Scott?

-Yes.

-Travis Scott?

-No.

-Del Beaver?

-No.

-Pete Beaver?

-Yes.

-Patrick Freeman?

-No.

-Joyce Deere?

-Yes.

-Johnnie Greene?

-Yes.

-David Hill?

-No.

-Robert Hufft?

-No.

Speaker, you have six in favor, six against.

Six in favor, six against.

Speak Speaker, you have seven in favor, six against.

Seven in favor, six against.

Tha Hello, everyone.

Jason Salsman here on your Mvskoke Vision YouTube channel.

I just wanna come on and let everyone out there know that's been following us all day the Free Press Bill, uh, created in 2015, created Mvskoke Media as a free and independent, uh, press, has been repealed.

The tie was broken with the seventh yes vote from Speaker Lucian Tiger.

And, uh, Jerrad, it puts us in a situation where, uh, we just really don't know what-- -what happens going forward.

-That's true.

And I think even the principal chief's comments tonight -echoed that a little bit.

-Yes.

When Chief Floyd did his interview and said that he hadn't signed the bill yet, well, he'd already signed it.

Lucian Tiger and Chief had a plan.

They knew what they were doing.

They were ready to sign on that night just like they did, and then they come out and do an interview to lie to the citizens, saying they're gonna review it before they sign it.

Well... We need your support.

If you believe in the free press or if you're a citizen and you wanna continue to see the truth, please call Chief.

Come on down here.

Man, that was a bad day.

That was a bad day.

[music] It's been the great privilege and honor of my life.

And, uh, I can-- I can walk away with-- with my head high and--and...proud, man.

Just so proud of what we've done.

[music] No other job that I've ever had in media has felt like I've made this much of a difference.

And so it was the reason I got up every day, is because people depend on it.

But in less than 12 hours, free press was gone.

[music] [Angel] Before Oklahoma was ever even a state, there was a Native American Creek citizen running a daily newspaper.

And he sees a need to have free, unimpeded information disseminated to Creek people.

When our tribe passed the Free Press Law, it was like that legacy was continuing.

But for our modern government, it's a topic that the tribe has never nailed down.

We're looking at the archives of the Muscogee News.

It's just a super high priority, here by the trashcans.

Let's look at April 1978.

So if you look at your front page, where you usually would see your most important news, "Med student hopes to serve Creeks in the future."

"Housing authority to build 75 units in Holdenville."

This tribe has always felt it's important to record its best foot forward.

[Claude] Our nation has rebuilt itself countless times.

One characteristic of our people is their will to rebuild.

[applause] [Angel] Throughout history, the Muscogee people were told that the Indian is too dumb and too insignificant to take care of themselves.

It's a fear for us that that stigma will be placed back on us.

And that's why we want to show the world how good we're doing, because this world is designed to tear us down.

[music] [Angel] When you think about our modern government, it is so new.

1979 is when we adopted our constitution that we're operating under today.

[Woman] The Creek Nation, under the leadership of Claude Cox, the progress here has been extraordinary.

[Angel] But if I look back at that newspaper from 30 years ago, I would think there's not been a problem at the tribe ever.

Let's skip ahead.

So we're still not a free press in 2000s.

You know, we still did our... happy joy joy stuff, of course.

We've got the royalty in the parade.

But we did something completely unprecedented in this tribe.

We started doing the news.

[music] [Angel] And by the time I wrote a story about 11 different counts of embezzlement, kind of blew people's minds that you could have the tribe be so candidly airing their dirty laundry.

The guys I was writing stories about, some of them were running for office.

I was told to be careful if I wanted to be able to keep my job.

But it seemed more honest to me, so I was ready to do it.

Because otherwise, what are we doing here?

We need to-- We need to call ourselves a public relations department if we're not doing the news.

[music] The system is so corrupt that people like my boss at that time could fire me, and that was okay.

They weren't done trying to ---- with my life yet.

Years down the road, George Tiger wrote a letter to my editor at a totally different newspaper and said, "Angel is a shirt-stirring -------, "and if you don't fire her now, we'll pull all of our advertising."

And I'm talking about a small newspaper that can't survive without the money of the tribe.

And when that happened, I was like, you know what?

I'm coming back.

[music] [Angel] My ancestors, I like to think that they didn't take this kind of ----, you know what I mean?

I'm taking a huge gamble with my reputation and my livelihood by staying in here and trying to fight this fight.

But it's all the Muscogee Creek people have as far as a source of news, and someone's gotta do it.

Or they're gonna win.

[music] [fire crackling] [Angel] So, if you look at this email from Eli McIntosh, telling me that he's added his comments in red, and recommended some changes for me to review.

"Thanks for covering the story."

How lovely.

What alarms me is how... a lot of people can be deceived.

If we're a tribe going out there and projecting that we're a sovereign nation and this is what we do, part of that responsibility is telling your bad business sometimes and owning your ----.

If it's a mistake, well, you've just put your dirty chonies on the line and you let 'em air out.

But these elected officials have a direct line into our department to put out polished turds every day.

Highly polished, beautiful, shiny turds.

And then guess what?

They have elections coming up.

And they do not need all of that dirty laundry out there on citizens' minds when they're trying to campaign.

The ultimate fate of freedom of the press is directly hinged on the outcome of this election.

David Hill has a grassroots campaign.

But he's demonstrated in his vote that he didn't want to repeal a free press.

Can't go without my head.

[chuckles] [Joe] Would you like to just, like, introduce yourself?

My name's David Hill.

I'm currently serving as second speaker.

And I'm from the Creek District.

came home to change, and getting ready to go file for the office of the principal chief today.

[dog barking] [music] [Angel] Some of the candidates that you see sit on the council, that's their job.

They are career politicians.

46, 48, 49, and 54.

55, 49.

[Angel] But David isn't.

He's a blue collar guy during the day.

And then he serves his tribe in addition to that.

A lot of people throughout the Muscogee Creek Nation know who he is and know what he stands for.

His demeanor and the way he shows respect to other people-- he exemplifies most of their values.

-Everything going all right?

-Yep, yep, going in smooth.

[David] The media bill that was repealed last year, I know we lost the trust of the citizens.

Holler at me if you need anything.

There's news, good or bad, and the citizens want to know.

And that's their right to know.

[Angel] David Hill, compared to, say, Lucian Tiger, I would call them polar opposites.

[phone ringing] [Lucian] This is Lucian.

[Liz] Hi, Lucian.

This is Liz Gray with Mvskoke Media.

[Lucian] Yes, ma'am, how are you this morning?

[Liz] I'm contacting you because a fellow council rep is alleging that they were sexually harassed by you.

[Lucian] I have no comment.

[Angel] Before they repealed free press, we had just done a story on him less than a year ago about sexual harassment allegations.

We've asked him, why did you repeal free press?

And he's not commented.

He literally voted yes, broke a tie, and has never spoke of it again.

And his connection to Chief is weird.

It's a very powerful alliance.

Like, that's something [Woman] Lucian Tiger scares me to be running for chief.

Our freedom of the press was taken.

That is directly our culture.

So I was livid.

Now I have to say something.

Again!

Again!

[Woman] I finally registered to vote at age 45.

'Cause I felt like maybe this time... And that's what you do.

You just hope that... whoever we get in there doesn't do too much damage.

[gavel banging] Call to order, Muscogee Creek National Council agenda.

Regular session, February 23, 2019.

The time is now 10:00 AM.

Next item on the agenda, NCA 19-031, entitled "Mvskoke Media" and creating a new law entitled "Shield Act."

Discussion.

[music] [Angel] So it says, "The Shield Act is hereby established "to affirm independence of a free media by providing protection of journalistic sources."

But not the journalist.

Your boss is still the chief, the same as the repeal.

But it repairs their reputation amongst the voters who care a lot about free press if they don't understand the law.

If the National Council passes the Shield Act, Lucian gets a clean slate on this.

Discussion.

Roll call vote, please.

[Rebecca laughs] [Mark] I'm not voting for any of this until I see the Mvskoke Media at the table.

'Cause one of the things I've seen sitting on council is when people become too personally involved, their loyalty is no longer to the people that they were elected to serve.

[music] [Mark] There's good news, and there's bad news.

But the news is the news.

I made a bad decision, and my intent was never to bring any shame to this nation.

I accept full responsibility for my decisions.

And any consequences that come to me, I-I accept.

And I understand that some folks will understand and some won't.

And I understand that also.

And so I just wanted to offer my deepest apologies, and thank you.

Thank you, Speaker.

Thank you, [unintelligible].

[Mark] The ability to inform citizens on all the news, I think that is a great sovereign right.

So I am authoring a bill for freedom of the press to go on to the ballot and become a constitutional amendment.

Whether we have freedom of press or we don't have freedom of press, the people will decide.

[music] [thunderclap] [raining] [thunderclap] [indistinct chatter] [Angel] I was getting to a pretty low point, and I didn't see anything changing.

I didn't see anything getting any momentum.

And so for this to come up is...it's huge.

[music] The bill's coming up in committe [Angel] When it's in committee, it's most vulnerable.

We need for people to see it.

We need them to see which of those leaders are denying them their right.

[music] [Mark] The worst case scenario is that they would kill the bill in committee, and we would not be able to proceed any further.

Angel Ellis is willing to go out that limb and speak on behalf of the bill.

I can't guarantee that she won't be retaliated against.

I wouldn't rule out nothin'.

[lively chatter] [Mark] Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Committee.

Our goal is to guarantee freedom of the press.

And for that to be guaranteed, I believe it's gonna have to be in the Constitution.

And, um, Ms.

Angel Ellis has firsthand knowledge.

As a reporter, she has some concerns.

She has some experiences.

And she's gonna share that with us.

One of the things that I think the major, key difference that we're gonna have to look at is that the Shield Act is not shielding journalists.

Since the repeal of free press, I have had my stories edited by members of the executive branch, and they are not editors.

But your Shield Act names them as that.

There is a specific line that says, "The Secretary of the Nation is now a journalist."

And it's a little crazy to think that.

And that gets pretty scary, folks, as a journalist, because it goes against every SPJ code of ethics I've ever seen.

And that's not fair.

It's not transparent.

And it's not objective, and our people shouldn't be subjected to that.

And we serve our people.

This is probably the first time since November 2018 that I've been completely transparent to the people I've served, and it's kind of disgusting.

A lot of belief in the system has been crushed.

I hope that we can get together on this as soon as possible and make it right, because more of us are looking really hard to get the heck out.

And that's really all I gotta say.

Okay.

Roll call for the vote, please.

-David Hill?

-Yes.

-Adam Jones?

-Yes.

-Pete Beaver?

-Yes.

-Travis Scott?

-Yes.

Chairman, you got four in favor and none against.

Four in favor, none against.

That's been approved.

[music] -Let's go, we'll talk.

-Okay.

-Let's go, [unintelligible].

-Okay.

[music] [insects chirping] [music] [Angel] Sterling, I am terrified.

[Angel] Yeah, he was.

And I said that I felt like without a constitutional amendme I feel like I can wake up at 8:30, and by 8:30 that night, have no bill protecting my job.

Jesus ------... I've never felt so much like I did in 2011, and I've never wanted a different outcome so bad than 2011.

Like, I do not want to walk out of this thing ------- pink slipped for some stupid -------- again, 'cause I think we could be an environment that is conducive to serving people and having the most transparent possible, you know, avenue to go through, and not sweating every damn day if you're gonna lose your house, your mortgage, your car, your -------...marriage.

----.

Tonight, they get it.

Because of you, this is how ------- ugly it is if it ain't strong enough.

And you're still in there to ------- tell the truth and show them exactly what we're talking about.

That's what they needed.

[Angel] To have the citizens reaching out-- people I don't know are friend requesting me, people who I haven't ever really spoke to are giving me pats on the back-- It's... It's probably the most connected I've felt to people here at the tribe ever.

Like, it's... It's a big deal, I guess, just even personally.

It's tremendously humbling.

I can say that.

And they've been just massively supportive.

I don't feel like I've ever had that option before to explain the things that go wrong.

And I actually feel now, like, we can make a difference, whereas I've never felt that way before.

Like... [sniffs] I don't even know how to describe that.

It's just amazing.

[up tempo drumming] [Woman] Three shots for 5 dollars!

We've got our speaker Lucian Tiger in the tank.

♪ Mamma mia, mamma mia ♪ ♪ Mamma mia, let me go ♪ Young man, that's where the girls throw from.

You gotta get back there and throw from where the men do.

[shouting] [laughs] Don't listen to 'em!

[Angel] This election year's pretty unusual because we have so many candidates.

Many of them have a question mark as to what they really support.

And now all these candidates are campaigning with free press as a hot issue.

Ladies and gentlemen, a free press is paramount to a free government.

I believe freedom of the press is a basic human right.

Well, that's Amendment One.

Absolutely I support that.

Yes.

Yes, I do.

I'm a very strong proponent.

I was appalled and disgusted with the repeal of this legislation and the flimsy excuses and reasoning put forth by elected officials.

I would encourage all citizens to go online for the National Council website and look at NCA 19-031.

It was a new law entitled Shield Act.

And in my opinion, the Shield Act does give the Mvskoke Media a free press.

[Angel] With 10 candidates, this is a giant nebulous of crazy going on.

Chips fall where they may.

Let's hope that they're free press chips, man.

[music] [shouting] [Angel] Sam has served on the National Council before.

I call him Salty Sam.

Actually, I knew Jimmy Buffett back in the '80s.

And I won't get into that.

[Angel] George Tiger has served as chief before.

He served one term.

If George is speaking to you, I would advise you to check your wallet, 'cause he may already have it in his hand.

He's been indicted on federal charges of bribery.

Steve Bruner also has pending felony charges.

And there's a lot of questions around those charges.

Are they valid?

Are they not?

Unfortunately, I'm not able to, uh, speak about the case.

But I can tell you sure as you're sitting here I am not guilty of anything that I was charged with two year-- two years ago.

And that's all I can say.

Muscogee Creek Nation Lighthorse Police raided the Embers Grille property just hours ago.

[Man] Mr.

Bruner's been arrested for possession of unlicensed gambling devices.

[Angel] The chief gets to determine who the attorney general is.

If he were to win, he could appoint an attorney general who would drop the charges on him.

Maybe this is inspiring him that our justice system needs some work.

I don't know.

But you could take every single one of these other chief candidates, add up all their money, and it still wouldn't equal what Steve has to spend.

Bruner's got it all.

[indistinct chatter] Vote for David!

[birds chirping] [Shannon] Not all tribal leaders are tyrants.

But you could have one.

And when you do, it's not pretty.

And the only defense people have to help against someone like that is the press.

[music] [Arielle] For all five of the nations that have enacted free press legislation, all of those protections were preceded by some abuse of power.

Our leaders aren't just tribal leaders.

They're members of our community.

But if that trust is disproven, oftentimes citizens respond by pushing for more legislative protections.

[Bryan] Most of the time, we really focus on legislation.

But if you really want to understand what the value of press freedom is in Indian Country, you need to look at the foundational documents of many of the tribes.

[Man] The Creek Constitution begins with a preamble resembling the United States Constitution.

Then the document goes on to define the Creek Nation and the terms of citizenship.

[Man] The council has the power to legislate on all matters important to the Creek people, as long as there is no conflict with the United States Constitut [Bryan] Many modern constitutions are saying that they're not going to outlaw an independent tribal media operation.

Well, when the tribal media operation is behaving, the purse strings are open.

If they're doing something the government doesn't like, the purse strings can be closed.

So having that constitutional language as a backstop is essential.

If the Muscogee Creek Nation puts free press in their constitution, the Muscogee Creeks will be the role model for all tribal media in Indian Country.

If you can see into the future how that's gonna benefit so many tribes, that will be momentous.

[flags flapping] [indistinct chatter] [gavel banging] [Lucian] Call to order, Muscogee Creek National Council.

Agenda, regular session.

Next item on the agenda, NCA 19-121-- a law of the Muscogee Creek Nation to amend the Constitution of the Muscogee Creek Nation to add Article 14, "Independent Free Press," sponsored by Mark Randolph.

Seconded by Representative Travis Scott.

[Travis] Thank you, Speaker.

I just wanna clarify that the main intent of this bill is to get this to the vote of the people.

I think that, uh, we also want t we don't want this change at a stroke of a pen like it was the last time.

So I hope everybody supports it.

This will require a two-thirds vote, which will be 11.

[Lucian] Thank you, Representative Travis Scott.

Roll call vote, please.

-Mark Randolph?

-Yes.

-Rufus Scott?

-Yes.

-Travis Scott?

-Yes.

-Del Beaver?

-Yes.

-Pete Beaver?

-No.

-Patrick Freeman?

-Yes.

-Joyce Deere?

-No.

-Johnnie Greene?

-No.

-James Jennings?

-No.

-David Hill?

-Yes.

-Robert Hufft?

-Yes.

-Randall Hicks?

-Yes.

-Adam Jones?

-No.

-Thomasene Yahola-Osborn?

-Yes.

-Darrell Proctor?

-No.

Nine in favor, six against.

That motion failed.

[gavel banging] [Lucian] Meeting adjourned.

[birds chirping] Um, like dog ----.

[indistinct chatter] [Angel] That block that voted no is pretty much the same block that repealed it.

[indistinct chatter] [Angel] I don't think it would've ever got approved by the chief.

[indistinct chatter] [Angel] If this process is ever gonna work... ...we just need to wait for a new administration that can take office.

[harmonica music] Hey guys, welcome to the Mvskoke Media primary election livestream.

We're gonna have Medicine Pony in tonight.

We're still waiting on the results from the election board that will appear there on the side of the screen.

Mvto for tuning in.

All right, it ain't Free Bird, but it's Lynrd Skynrd.

Anytime, 7:06.

[Kalyn] We have results!

[cheers and applause] Checotah, 34 out of 77 for David Hill.

[cheering] That first number is supposed to be absentees.

There's no way that's absentees.

[Man] That can't be it.

♪ You know a man ♪ ♪ With a gun in his hand ♪ ♪ And he was looking for you know who ♪ ♪ [unintelligible singing] ♪ ♪ Whatcha tryin' to prove?

♪ [Kalyn] Oh, god damn it.

We came in fourth in Tulsa.

Dana, get ready to write, okay.

Bruner, 29.

David Hill, 50.

Lucian Tiger, 44.

[electric guitar] Oh, baby!

[lively chatter] [David] What's gonna make a big difference, I believe, is gonna be the absentee votes.

Still waiting on that.

11:25--it never took this long.

God, it's never been like this.

No updates.

[cheers and applause] What's going on downstairs?

-[lively chatter] -Absentee got kicked!

-Here we go!

-Wait, what?

-There you go.

-Oh my god.

Absentee, man.

Holy smokes.

What was that margin?

[Jerrad] Bruner is over Speaker.

[Lenzy] By 12 votes.

[Jerrad] Wow!

He's still in this, dog!

Adios Lucian!

Oh my god!

That's straight money votes right there.

[laughs] This is unbelievable.

[cheering] [Kalyn] David Hill is gonna think because he's on top, that he's gonna win.

But I would rather be in a runoff with David Hill than Lucian Tiger.

[music] [birds chirping] [Angel] Yeah, I just went over to the election board.

Nelson just told me that Lucian filed both a petition to recount and a petition for fraud and irregularity.

And the district court has the filings, and they've already set a hearing date.

We're gonna go get the paperwork and find out what the basis is for his accusations of fraud.

We might've just had a total ------- botched election.

Just maybe.

Nobody... Maybe nobody's votes count.

[Steve] The election board didn't quite, uh, do the, uh, quality job that we were hoping they would do, and the Supreme Court overruled the election.

[Man] Steve Bruner finished second in the race for primary chief.

If the election held up, he would've advanced to the runoff election.

Now he has to fight for those votes again.

Others, like Lucian Tiger III, says this is their shot to make the cut.

[Lucian] That's gonna be the main obstacle, to get them to go out and vote again.

We don't want them to lose confidence in our election board and our leadership at the Muscogee Creek Nation.

Angel Ellis, Mvskoke Media.

Can I help you?

[Jerrad] October 28th, the Carter Center announced that they would be observers to the Muscogee Creek Nation primary and general elections.

Mvskoke Media interviewed Brett Lacy about what the process entails and what the Carter Center's goals are for the observation.

So we're a nonprofit organization conducting what we call international election observation missions in places that were coming out of conflict, or countries that are having... maybe their first election at the end of a civil war, these kinds of really difficult contexts.

[Angel] Carter Center observes some of the most fragile emerging democracies in the world.

Places that can be stifled for their exercising of free speech get you on this list with the Carter Center.

[music] [Brett] Our role is to provide some transparency to the process to help the people really have a credible source of information about what is and isn't happening during an electoral process.

Breaking some new territory for us.

-[Brett] We'll see you around.

-[Jerrad] Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

I'll see you this weekend.

[Angel] Good morning.

It's Angel Ellis with Mvskoke Media, and we are starting our live feed, giving everyone an insight into for our election.

[Angel] We're putting a camera in a place where it's never been before.

And the great thing about showing people something once is that they try to do an election again without us there, someone's gonna be like, what the hell you trying to hide?

[music] [birds chirping] [Woman] We have asked for a fair election, Lord, for the Muscogee Creek people.

They deserve good leadership, Lord.

They deserve to have a leader who believes in transparency and will protect their best interests and put the interests of his people above his self-interest, Lord.

[indistinct chatter] [cheers and applause] [whistling] [sighs] [Man] Yes.

[laughter] [laughs] [cheers and applause] [David] I love each and every one of you.

And I feel that we've lost the trust with all the citizens.

I have to build that trust back.

I'm gonna have to hit the ground running.

But this was never about me.

It was always about the citizens.

[Man] Amen!

[applause] [cheering] I was about to be-- [Angel] The Carter Center released their final report on the Muscogee Creek Nation's elections.

In-di-spensable!

"The Carter Center recommends that there be "a constitutional amendment guaranteeing free press, "adopted with the support of the people, would reduce the frequency of legislative changes."

Amen.

Hallelujah.

-Congratulations on your win.

-Mvto, mvto.

[Angel] David Hill seems to be an advocate of free press.

-Hey, man!

-Congratulations, man.

[Angel] But I still have 16 people on the council that approve my budget.

Just because he was elected doesn't mean you're out of the woods.

[bell rings] [music] [singing in Muscogee] [Angel] Imagine you were one of the people who got to sit down and write the constitution that you live under.

That's a democracy boner if I've ever heard one.

Man, like, that's big-- that's big stuff.

[music] [Angel] But what's really playing out The citizens, they don't understand how fragile it really is.

[Shelly] And where's that paper?

Where is that freedom of press paper?

They haven't covered crap.

What's going on in the Nation right now?

Print it.

[Jerrad] When the press got repealed, news coverage suffered, so trust and everything that we had built up with the citizens got destroyed.

We don't have any idea really until after Saturday how big the number of citizens is that are willing to support this.

That has to be two-thirds vote, but who knows?

It's not business as usual.

Now I'm worried about the election process.

[Dierdra] This amendment that is on the ballot needs to be trashed.

This is all about the financial of them always getting their budget approved.

A lot of people were making huge salaries in there doing absolutely nothing.

So don't get confused when they say, oh, well freedom of press, freedom of press.

Really what this amendment is protecting is their budget.

[Angel] We've seen so much disinformation out there, so we've decided to participate in this video and hopefully explain the ballot question to voters.

No councilperson should be able to say, "I demand you do this or else I will vote a certain way on your budget."

That's what it would protect.

There's a lot of gravity here that could affect, really, the future of the tribe.

[Angel] We got this yesterday through the Attorney General's Office.

"Your participation in this discussion "constituted political activity "and went far beyond exercising your right as a citizen "to report on election activities and to vote.

"This letter shall serve as notice to you "to immediately cease and desist from all political activity "involving free press constitutional amendment.

"You are also directed to immediately "and without delay remove the September 10 panel discussion from Mvskoke Media's website."

In two days, we're finding out whether we have a free press, and we're being censored again.

Chief Hill, he was this champion of free press.

But, you know, now, whenever we need him, it's like, nothing.

Nothing.

They were trying to sway voters to enrich their selves.

Mvskoke Media is not the same as it used to be.

And most of the time, I'll honestly say, I won't even read it.

I just throw it in the trash.

[Angel] It hurts when you've put so much of yourself into something and you don't see the support in the community.

If the citizens vote it down, I'm done.

I feel like I would be too out of touch with what the people want to just keep going at it.

[geese honking] [birds chirping] Oh, boy.

[music] [creepy electronic music] We're gonna give 18 to 19 updates throughout the night.

[Sterling] What, what, what?

Did it drop?

Did it drop?

Where this-- oh, come on, phone service.

Oh, dang it.

[Liz] "We have unofficial result [Sterling] Oh, ----.

Oh ------- ----.

[Jerrad] Going back in?

[Jerrad] The results are on... Where are we at here?

We are at... I can't read it!

[Sterling] I'm going to my Faceb 100 percent reporting.

76.25 to 23 percent!

We ------- did that ----!

Oh my god!

We good, we good.

Oh my god.

We blowed it out of the water, d ---- yes!

[Jerrad] We went way over.

We went way over.

[Angel cries] [music] [Jerrad] I'm from the other universe, where, like, the constitutional amendment's an impossibility you know... I didn't know which way it was gonna go, so I gotta give props to the people, man!

[Sterling] I definitely didn't think three quarters, that's for damn sure.

[Jerrad] Oh, I didn't think... [Angel] My god.

[Jerrad] Let me go do it on my computer.

I don't know what I'm gonna do Monday now.

How am I gonna top that?

[Sterling laughs] Hey, pace yourself, yo!

[laughs] [Sterling] Yeah, man.

----.

[Sterling] Yeah, you ------- did [music] [Angel] Man, this is my favorite piece of paper and chart I've ever read in my life.

[Jerrad] No, I'm with you 100 percent on that.

We just, like-- We just ------ up free press in Indian Country.

[Liz] Cititzens showed up for us [Angel] Dude, we're gonna, like, ------- show up for them.

[Angel] ---- yes!

[music] [whirring] [music] [clicking] [music] [music] [whirring] [music] [whirring] [music] [whirring] [music] [Angel] We've got a rainbow!

The ancestors are proud, y'all!

I'm kind of losing it now.

My name's Angel, and there's a rainbow.

[laughs] [music]