Joe Coon has announced his candidacy for the office of Assistant Chief of the Seminole Nation. His submitted press release appears below.

Estonko, my name is Joe Coon and I am running for the office of Assistant Chief of the Seminole Nation. My mother was Ella Coon, my father was Bennie Coon, both deceased. I am about 80% fluent in our Mvskoke Language. I am 69 years old, I have been married for 48 years and my wife and I have 4 children and 6 grandchildren. I am a member of the Ocese band.

I worked for Southwestern Bell for 30 years and retired from there in 2002. My job title was Customer Services Technician, but I had a number of job functions including Cable Repairman, Fiber Optic Repairman, Special Services Installer and Repair which included High Capacity Digital Services, Cable Splicer, Payphone Installer and coin collector and Telephone Repair and Installation.

After retiring from Southwestern Bell, I joined the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Team. We had multiple functions at different trouble spots. We prepared meals for the Red Cross and other groups to distribute to hurricane victims in New Orleans, but on another tour of that same hurricane damage, we did chain-saw work clearing trees off of homes. We were again sent to the Galveston area to remove dry-wall so that we could disinfect the framework of homes to prevent mold and mildew caused by the flooding.

We went to several cities in Oklahoma during the ice storms to remove trees that had fallen on homes. When not with the disaster relief team, I was with a volunteer group that repaired church roofs, porches, and whatever else that needed to be done.

Here at home, I helped some churches with their bathrooms and fellowship hall. I volunteered to help other elders with things around their homes.

After having a heart defect repaired, I went to college in 2008 and in 2012, at the age of 60 years old, I received my Bachelors of Science (Education) degree to become a certified teacher for public school. I am certified to teach Middle and High School Mathematics, Physical Education (coaching), and Mvskoke/Seminole language.

I have taught our language in Konawa Elementary and High School, Wewoka Elementary, Middle School, and High School, and at Seminole High School. I also taught Native Hymns/language in Oklahoma City for about 2 years. I also held community language classes in Konawa thanks in part to the Yellowfish family for providing meals and location for our classes. I was also the former Seminole Language Director for about a year and a half. Although I resigned from that position, I am still actively involved with our language program.

My life has been centered around being a servant to peoples needs. One of my goals is to make the Seminole Nation administration more open to the needs of our tribal elders and citizens. The other is to make our nation more determined to retain our Seminole language. My other goal is to try to develop more opportunities for our tribal member students. The other things I would like to do is develop programs to help our citizens improve their job skills so they can get better paying jobs.

I ask you to vote for me in my bid to obtain the office of Assistant Chief. I will do my very best to be open to help and assist our tribal members and be the kind of leader you desire for our Nation.