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Mother's guidance leads Payne to community advisor role
Melissa Payne is a community advisor for the Cherokee Nation. Her role on the Executive Staff allows her the opportunity
to meet with tribal administrators.
TAHLEQUAH It was during a time of loss and heartbreak that Melissa Payne realized her calling.
That calling? To follow the footsteps of her mother, Rodslen Brown, and be the most dedicated activist, voice and champion
of the Cherokee Freedmen that she could be.
"My mother was a bright light in this world who fought much of her life for the equality and inclusion of the Cherokee
Freedmen",Payne said of Brown, who died at age 59 in 2020.
In her final days, she expressed to me that she wanted me to continue her efforts. "Those words have stuck with me
ever since, and I've made it my mission to be the same caliber of ambassador for the Cherokee Freedmen that she proved to
be".
Flash forward to today and Payne has the same title and duties formerly held by her mother. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin
Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner appointed Payne as a community advisor for the Cherokee Nation in 2022, giving her the opportunity
to meet with tribal administrators on a regular basis to serve as a line of communication between Cherokee Freedmen and tribal
leaders.
"Melissa has proven to be an exceptional fit for us as a friend, ally and advocate. We are communicating more and
being more active with the Freedmen community than ever before",Hoskin said "We are a better and more just nation
when we honor and respect the rights stipulated in our treaty agreement, and that includes citizenship and all that it entails
to the eligible Freedmen community members. Cherokee Nation can be stronger if we move forward as citizens together and on
an equal basis".
Payne said her main objective as community advisor is to ensure the equality of not just Cherokee Nation Freedmen, but
all tribal citizens. She also operates as a primary contact in the community for individuals who seek to learn more about
tribal programs, projects, resources and more.
"I realize now more than ever that becoming a community advisor was a great thing for me to do",Payne said.
Immediately after I took that position, people were approaching me and asking for assistance, asking for direction. There
are so many things that people in the community do not know. Many don't even know where to start and don't know how many programs
the Cherokee Nation has. I've always been a voice and advocate for those people throughout my life, and it was a beautiful
thing to take that to the next step".
In her role as a community liaison, Payne not only works to support engagement with Freedmen communities, but also to
ensure compliance with Chief Hoskin's historic Executive Order on Equality. That 2020 order prohibits discrimination and requires
government departments to increase their outreach to historically disenfranchised communities.
Payne, born and raised in Fort Gibson before her family moved to Muskogee when she was a teenager, has been heavily involved
with the Project A Association, a nonprofit organization founded by her mother in partnership with the Oklahoma Health Care
Authority in 2000.
Cherokee Nation collaborated with Payne within the past year to create the 'We Are Cherokee: Cherokee Freedmen and the
Right to Citizenship' currently on exhibit at the Cherokee National History Museum.
The exhibit was created as part of the Cherokee Freedmen Art and History Project with the purpose of broadening Cherokee
Nation citizens understanding of the Cherokee Freedmen experience through the Freedmen perspective. That perspective is shared
from the earliest known participation of chattel slavery in the 18th century and through various historical milestones in
the decades that followed, including the adoption of plantation-style slavery among Cherokees, Indian Removal to the West
and the American Civil War.
"The ultimate goal for me as the community advisor is equality. And not only equality, but embracement from both
parties, the Freedmen citizens and native Cherokee citizens",Payne said. "I would love for more involvement and
inclusion, because we're all family. The inclusion, acceptance and growth of the Cherokee Freedmen will only create a better
and stronger Cherokee Nation".
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