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Ross O. Swimmer
Ross O. Swimmer is a native of Oklahoma City and for the past 36 years has resided in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was graduated from the University of Okla- homa in 1965 with a BA Degree and Juris Doctor in 1967. He practiced law in Oklahoma City for five years before becoming the General Counsel of the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma in 1974. He was then elect- ed Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1975 where he served for 10
years before resigning to accept a presidential appointment from President Reagan to be the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior. From 1973 to 1984 he served as president of First National Bank of Tahlequah and later president of the First State Bank of Hulbert, Oklahoma. After re- turning from Washington, D.C. he joined the law firm of Hall Estill as “of counsel” in Tulsa. In 2001, he was called to Washington with the Bush Administration and was appointed by the President in 2003 to serve as Special Trustee for American Indians.
He currently serves on the board of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, the First National Bank and Trust of Shawnee, Oklahoma, a Pottawatomi Tribal bank, the First National Bank of Vinita, Oklaho- ma, and the National Archives Foundation Board in Washington, D.C. . He is a registered investment advisor with Native American Fund Advisors, LLC, in Tulsa and partner in the Cherokee Group, LLC, a tribal consulting business. He has been awarded the Distinguished Service Citation from the University of Oklahoma, the Crystal Crown Award from the city of Birmingham, Alabama, and numerous other civic and state recognitions.
Ross and his late wife Margaret were married 52 years and he has one son, residing in Washington, D.C.