Phillip Martin
Encyclopedia : P : PH : PHI : Phillip Martin
Phillip Martin is the democratically elected Tribal Chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, a federally-recognized American Indian tribe of 8,300 enrolled members living on or near 30,000 acres (120 km²) of reservation land in east central Mississippi. Martin has a 40 year record of service to the Tribal government, including 25 years as the Tribe's principal elected official. Martin is currently serving his sixth consecutive four-year term as Tribal Chief. His date of birth is March 13, 1926.
Nationally, Martin has served as president of the National Tribal Chairmen's Association, and president of United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. (USET), an association of the 23 federally-recognized tribes in the eastern portion of the U.S. Martin founded the USET organization in 1969. He was the first president of the Board of Regents of Haskell Indian Junior College, between 1970 and 1976 (now Haskell Indian Nations University). In that period, Martin worked with other tribal leaders to acquire and maintain accreditation for Haskell, and to improve campus facilities, including construction of dormitories, a cafeteria, resource center, and field house. In 1992, Martin founded the United South and Eastern Tribes Gaming Association. He currently presides over that organization.
Locally, Chief Martin serves the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians on numerous Boards of Directorship. During his tenure as Tribal Chief, Martin has established the following Tribal businesses and service operations on the Choctaw Indian Reservation:
- Choctaw Resort Development Enterprise (est. 1999)
- Choctaw Housing Development Enterprise (est. 1995)
- Choctaw Golf Enterprise (est. 1995)
- Silver Star Resort and Casino (est. 1994)
- First American Plastic Molding Enterprise (est. 1993)
- Choctaw Construction Enterprise (est. 1993)
- First American Printing & Direct Mail Enterp (est. 1990)
- Choctaw Shopping Center (est. 1988)
- Choctaw Residential Center (est. 1988)
- Choctaw Manufacturing Enterprise (est. 1986)
- Chata Enterprise (est. 1979)
- Choctaw Development Enterprise (est. 1969)
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.