For a man who has conversed with leaders as renowned as Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, Jefferson Keel is anything but vain. As both the Lieutenant Governor of the Chickasaw Nation and the President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), Keel is both a humble and self-aware leader who is extraordinarily dedicated to his work and to the service of the Chickasaw Nation and all Native American peoples.

Keel’s story is simple, but his achievements are anything but. “I’ve been a Chickasaw all my life, but I haven’t been in politics for very long,” jested Keel while remembering his beginnings as a politician. Keel “went into the Army when [he] was a youngster” in which he accumulated over twenty years of active duty service, and after he retired from the Army he went to work for the Chickasaws. In 1999 a man by the name of Bill
Anoatubby was in need of a Lieutenant Governor and asked Keel to run with him. After their election to office in ’99, Keel started attending NCAI meetings, and eventually was elected as the Area Vice President of the organization in 2000. In 2005 he was elected the First Vice President, and just last year he was the first tribal leader from Oklahoma to be elected President. This is no small accomplishment considering the NCAI is one of the most important Indian organizations in the world. Currently comprised of about 250 tribes in twelve different regions, it is the oldest and largest tribal organization in the world. Established in 1944 it has been on the forefront of halting termination legislation to end tribal governance and has played a large role in allowing greater Indian participation in the federal government’s decision-making process. With all of this history and influence the job as President can be a daunting task. “To look back
at all of those great tribal leaders who have gone before me as the president of NCAI… it’s a tremendous honor, but there is a lot of pressure involved in it too.”

Even with all of the pressure, as President, Keel has continued in the manner of those who have gone before him in working with “other tribal leaders around the country regarding budget reformation, sovereignty issues, and Supreme Court issues.” Keel, through the NCAI, has now achieved what he calls “true consultation” with the federal government. “Some government officials believe that a phone-call equals true consultation, but tribal leaders need to sit down with their federal counterparts and come up with real solutions,” and in November the NCAI achieved that true consultation with President Obama.

“President Obama is now reaching out to tribes, asking for our input on federal rules and regulations. We now have a place in those consultation meetings and now we feel our voices are truly being heard. We have two wars going on and an economy that is falling apart and the fact that he took that day in November to listen to tribal leaders and to have each of his secretaries sit down and listen and talk with the tribes is unheard of. There are things that are happening now in terms of true progress that I believe are enormous.”

Even as enormous as his job as President of NCAI is, Keel humbly states, “the job as Lieutenant Governor of the Chickasaws is my primary role and it is what I’m dedicated to— this is my day-job. The Chickasaw people come first and foremost in everything that Governor Anoatubby and I do. The needs of our citizens need to be paramount in everything that we do.” This self-awareness and dedication has served Keel well in his three terms as Lieutenant Governor. “I recognize that if I don’t take care of business here at home, there’s no need to go outside. I feel lucky to work for such a great organization as the Chickasaws. We’re really fortunate to have stable leadership and to have such successful businesses. If that were not the case I might not be involved in national politics.”

Being afforded the chance to see first-hand all the “tribes around the country that are less fortunate; tribes that are struggling with their economy, with citizen needs, with payroll to keep their doors open, and with threats to their environment, it makes you realize that sometimes you have to step back and say, ‘It could be a lot worse—we need to count our blessings.’ We complain about the unemployment here being eight to nine percent when other tribes will tell you that they would love to get down to fifty percent because there simply are no jobs to be had.” While Keel hopes to continue playing a role in letting Indian voices be heard through the NCAI, he is truly dedicated to his work here at home. “I hope to see that our people continue to thrive, that we one day become one-hundred percent self-sufficient and independent of the federal government, and that our young people will continue to strive towards education and above all to always remember that they are Chickasaw.”

By Josh Forrester