by Karen Hardin

For the last year and a half, the Oklahoma GOP members have been subjected to attacks and rants in the form of emails from a mysterious three-some who call themselves Chickasaw Warrior (CW), Cherokee Maiden (CM) and Seminole Chief (SC).

If you haven’t received one of their missives, you aren’t missing much. Don’t receive them? They have slowly deleted many grassroots patriots from their recipient list. Many grassroots patriots have also unsubscribed. It’s clear their group of “supporters” grows smaller each month as their attacks grow more blatant against those they deem deplorable “action figures.”  

These rants aren’t new. Oklahoma Republican members have been subjected to their vitriol for over two years. They first started as attacks against political opponents running for office in the Tulsa County GOP. That’s certainly one clue as to identity of this cowardly team that is too afraid to publish their real names. Another clue was that some of the initial emails pinged back to the computer IP address/phone number of former State GOP Chair, A.J. Ferate.

October 2023, after months of waiting for Chairman Nathan Dahm to renounce the ongoing email assaults on members, the State Committee members took action and overwhelmingly passed a resolution to censure Chickasaw Warrior. Chairman Dahm refused to publish that resolution, along with six other resolutions passed in that October meeting and the minutes. He also refused to publish the nine resolutions passed in the January State Committee meeting and their minutes—although it is his job to do so. Thankfully that was rectified at the State Convention this past weekend, when the State Committee voted to accept and approve the minutes from both meetings. The resolutions were already valid—but now can no longer be ignored.

SEE ALSO: What Happened at the OK GOP State Convention?

So who are the writers behind Chickasaw Warrior/Cherokee Maiden and Seminole Chief?

While CW/CM/SC continue to hide behind their pseudonym, yet they have certainly left clues, such as letting us know they are either working in the State GOP office or directly with those at the office.

Last month, I sent an email to the Front Desk at the office alerting them that I had not received my email to register for the State Convention. That email received a response from Wagoner County Chair Matt Vermillion, who has been responding to many of the Front Desk emails.

 In Vermillion’s reply to me, he cc’d: Chair Nathan Dahm, Exec Director Stan Stevens, and Ronda Vuillemont Smith. It seemed odd that such a benign email had all three copied in the reply. Noticeably missing was Vice Chair Wayne Hill—if Matt was attempting to include all authorities in the State office. After I asked why they were included, he explained he copied Nathan, Stan and Ronda on ALL emails he sent from the front desk. The latter because she was the State Convention Credentials Chair.

So you can imagine my concern when my private email to the State GOP Office, showed up the next day in yet another mocking email from Chickasaw Warrior/Cherokee Maiden:

“Our very good friend Karin Harding has reported to us that she has not received her registration email from the OKGOP for the convention registration. We also understand that Lynelle Medley also has not received her email, and even if we have no love for Lynelle, she is entitled to register. We wanted to check the facts on these allegations to try and figure out who was actually at fault for the issue, so we emailed the convention credentials team Ronda Smith and Matt Vermillion to see what we could find out.”

               How did they get my email? It should concern everyone that evidently any email sent to the State GOP office might be shared with this rogue group of writers. The CW response meant when I emailed the front desk of the State GOP I was actually corresponding to Chickasaw Warrior? Remember, the only people who knew of that email were: Matt Vermillion, Nathan Dahm, Stan Stevens and Ronda Vuillemont Smith.

               This is what we know from those individuals and their connection to CW:

  • NATHAN DAHM:
    In a conversation I had with Chairman Dahm in December I asked him why he had refused to publish the resolution censuring Chickasaw Warrior to which he responded that a censure really holds no weight. “Well especially when you don’t publish it or stand behind it,” I told him. “Why do you refuse to take action as the Chair?” I asked.

“I don’t know who it is,” he replied.

“That’s funny,” I responded. “They say they talk to you all the time.” Nathan didn’t respond to that, but now we know CW is in the State GOP office and privy to our private emails sent there.

  • MATT VERMILLION:

Matt evidently serves in the dual role of State GOP front desk communications director and the Wagoner County GOP Chair (and is the individual posting scriptures to the State GOP website rather than news updates.)

When I called Matt to ask why my private email showed up with Chickasaw Warrior, he texted to say he would call me later in the day. He didn’t. Then he texted to say he would call the next day. Again, he didn’t. That was over three weeks ago. Multiple emails and text messages to him asking for information have been ignored.

When I saw him at the State Convention, I went to talk to him, glad to know that he was alive and not in the hospital—which could be assumed with the long lack of response. “Who told you that!” he demanded. “Well, you didn’t respond and it’s been almost three weeks,” I told him. He then raised his voice, “Get out of his face” he declared, “I’m not talking to you!”

“You’re my Wagoner County Chair, Matt,” I reminded him. “You have to talk to me.”

“You threatened me! Get out of my face!”

I was standing beside him at a normal distance—hardly in his face, especially considering he was sitting and I was standing. I was simply trying to have a normal conversation which he didn’t want to have.

“I never threatened you,” I responded.

“Yes you did! You threatened me with a lawsuit,” he claimed.

“No, after repeatedly not returning my calls or emails, I texted you repeatedly asking you to call me. Finally on one of them I said I was talking to my lawyer about you. That’s not a threat.”

(That text thread is available for anyone who wants to see it! Obviously, a threat would be, “I’m suing you for releasing my private email.” Whereas, “I’m talking to my lawyer about you,” is a statement of fact.)

SECURITY!!! SECURITY!!! Matt started to scream, obviously uncomfortable that he was faced with the prospect of having to talk about what he had done.

The fact is Matt was the first and only person to receive my email—and then included Stan Stevens, Nathan Dahm and Ronda V Smith into his reply.

What we know is Matt clearly isn’t against Chickasaw Warrior as he was furious when the group was censured in the October State Committee meeting. But it was also clear he didn’t seem to understand the difference between censor and censure.

  • STAN STEVENS:

When Matt didn’t immediately return my calls, I called the State GOP office again to find anyone willing to talk to me about how my private correspondence wound up in the hands of CW. I was told to talk with Stan Stevens. He called me later that day. In that conversation, he said he disagreed with how CW/CM/SC have been allowed to send out their messages. It’s interesting to note that of the four people who had my email, he is the ONLY one who I have heard renounce Chickasaw Warrior.

  • RONDA VUILLEMONT-SMITH:

She has made it abundantly clear on multiple Facebook posts that she is a huge fan of the sarcastic/hateful attacks made by CW against other members of the Republican Party. So much so, that she and Tulsa County State Committee Member, Charity Marcus, put together a website to publish all the CW emails and promotes them each time a new one is published.

My question is who paid for that website? Did the Tulsa County GOP members, who were charged $30 each to attend their County Convention, the ones that unwillingly paid for that website? Who approved that expenditure?

What is at the top will always filter down. Meaning, whoever is in leadership, the rest of the organization will take on those same characteristics. That was clearly seen at the State Convention when a request to count the number of people actually at the Convention on Saturday, to make sure the number stated actually had people there to match, was met with catcalls, name-calling, and mocking, led by Ronda, from a small faction in Tulsa County. Dana Prieto told me I had to leave the Tulsa County section, when I and a few others stood quietly to count heads. As the Sergeant-at-Arms at our District Convention, he also tried multiple times to make me leave my county section (and my seat near a microphone). He insisted I was in the wrong section.

Considering what we have experienced since the 2020 election, why would anyone object to a head count to ensure the number of people present matches the number of votes cast? My request and our counting didn’t delay any of the proceedings. Why would verification make people angry? It obviously made Ronda angry as she insisted her numbers were legitimate. But the fear on her face after the Convention Chair stated that the doors would be closed just before a vote and people had to be in their seats, really told the story.

Plus, the fact that one of the votes after the doors were secured was at least 30 ballots less than the number on the previous vote for Tulsa county.

Additionally, watchers at the Tulsa County table noted that during one vote, buckets of ballots were discovered that hadn’t been counted from a previous vote. Once discovered, Ronda took the bucket and turned her back on the counters. They saw her scoop up the ballots from the buckets, and walk off with them even as several counters asked her to show them the ballots. She evidently took them to Gaylene Stupic and discussed them, but no public accounting was ever made of those mysterious uncounted ballots, who they were for and if it would have changed the outcome of the election.

In another count, ballots were found, from a previous election already called, stuck to the bottom of buckets. These were ballots also never counted.

Nefarious or just inept…either way, Tulsa County votes and numbers were not accurate. The bigger concern was Ronda was the Credentials Chair for the entire convention. If she couldn’t get it together in her own county, how are we supposed to think she had it together for the entire Convention with so many mishaps?

Or what about the people denied entrance to the Convention by Ronda’s credentialling team? We learned there was no appeals board in place where people could appeal their decision. We also learned that there were some people who didn’t attend their precinct or county meeting, qualifying them as delegates, were allowed to be delegates with voting rights. These things should not be happening.

Also, as you may have heard, Ronda announced on May 4 that she was suddenly running for National Committeewoman. Thankfully, Cheryl Williams cautioned her that it wasn’t fair for her to run for a position after she had been passing out ballots all day and in charge of counts. Thankfully, with that word of warning, Ronda agreed and stepped out of the race.

Election integrity should be an issue in which we are all on the same side.

SEE ALSO: Are Our Elections in Oklahoma Safe?

So should protection over resolutions that have been voted in and protection over the privacy of our correspondence to the Oklahoma State GOP office.

The fact that members are being harassed and attacked by nameless entities and then openly applauded by some in leadership, even at our State GOP office, should concern everyone.

Who are the people behind Chickasaw Warrior/Cherokee Maiden and Seminole Chief? There are other clues, and others suspected in the involvement of those emails that we won’t share for now. But the question remains, with the censure in place, will anything be said from our Chair to put a stop to it? He has certainly been quick to email about things he didn’t agree with in the past. Silence seems to signal his agreement.

Will CW/CM/SM have the courage to reveal themselves? Highly doubtful since bullies have no courage—but the truth, and their identities are coming out. And when it does, those holding elected positions need to resign immediately.