A Few Words About Muscogee (Creek) Citizens Coalition Inc.

By Edward F. Mouss II

As the Muscogee (Creek) Citizens Coalition (M(C)CC) inches towards 501(c)3 tax exempt status, the time seems right to explain in a little more detail about the vision of M(C)CC and what the organization hopes to accomplish. A good place to start would be from the M(C)CC’s inception.

Concept

The concept for the M(C)CC was conceived on July 25, 2008, at approximately 2:08pm. The idea behind calling the organization a coalition is symbolic and stems from Wikipedia’s explanation of what a coalition is. According to Wikipedia, “A coalition is a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience.“ Although Wikipedia is not an accepted research source throughout academia, it was their description of what a coalition is that influenced the organization\’s name.

Raising Awareness

The original purpose of the Coalition was to raise awareness about the political activities that were taking place within the Muscogee Nation’s government. More specifically, it was the Constitutional Convention of 2008 and it’s commission that prompted the creation of the M(C)CC since virtually no information was being broadcast to the citizens of the Muscogee nation about this critical event in the tribe’s history. Needless to say, there were very few members of the voting Creek public that knew what the Constitutional Convention was much less when it was supposed to take place. The small amount of information that was being disseminated to the citizens was lacking, to say the least.

At that time, there were two main sources of Creek media that were being relied upon for news specifically about the Muscogee government. One source was the government-run news agency operated by the tribe’s communication department which is also under the administration of the Nation’s Executive Branch. News coming from the government was consistently two weeks to a month old by the time it reached it’s audience. More importantly, history has shown that you can’t always trust the information that a government wants you to believe.

The other media source was an anonymously created web forum that appeared to be in the business of using disinformation to propagate a negative stereotype about the National Council. Although there were various news organizations reporting on some Creek news, there were no other news sources dedicated to a focus on the Muscogee Nation. Regardless of which source it was coming from, a lot of the time the information was seen as questionable by many discerning citizens.

M(C)CC on the Web

So with no financial resources and little technical know-how the M(C)CC’s quest began by turning to the Internet and some of the free alternatives available to establish a web presence. The M(C)CC’S first web presence was a webpage created at MySpace.com. This webpage still exists but has been inactive for some time now. Several months later, a switch was made to the Facebook platform which provides more suitable features that better help us meet our current goals. Most notably, the ability to post links to other sites around the web. This feature allows us to easily centralize news and media related to issues concerning the Muscogee Nation in one convenient location. Facebook is also the home of the M(C)CC\’s virtual community and provides valuable feedback from the public.

Most recently, the M(C)CC established the web blog Tribal Town Radio which you’re reading right now. Tribal Town Radio serves as a transitional site that will help us develop our final web product.

Scope / Goals / Vision

During the last three years, the scope of the M(C)CC has been refined numerous times in effort to determine the main purpose of the organization. Our goal is to paint a clearer picture of the state that the Muscogee Nation is in while increasing public awareness and effectively monitoring the Muscogee government. In general, the Coalition’s primary function will be to maintain a website which will provide information focused on the issues facing the Muscogee Nation, it’s citizens and neighbors. The website will also emphasize technical aspects on the use of technologies such as computers and the Internet.

The vision of the Coalition is to help build stronger communities through the sharing of information and the use of technology.