Meet Captain Sharon Wright, one of NAWLEE’s newer members and the first from a Native American police organization.

Captain Wright started out as a part time tax enforcement officer with the Cherokee Nation Tax Commission. After graduating in the top 5% of her academy class in 1994, Captain Wright was put on full time and transferred to the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service. The Nation had started casino operations and with her double college degree in finance and accounting, she was the perfect choice to be assigned to white collar crimes.

The Cherokee Nation is the second largest tribe in the United States. The tribes’ lands are checker boarded throughout Oklahoma, covering 14 counties, and there are no set reservation boundaries. To add to this difficulty, the Marshal Service has only 31 sworn officers to cover 7,000 square miles. You can imagine the jurisdictional nightmare that creates.

And each tribe will have its own constitution and set of laws. Enforcing the correct law for the area and populace can be confusing to say the least.

Because of this, the Cherokee Nation enters into cross-deputation agreements with other tribes and state, county and municipal agencies to not only provide better service to the Indian (38 different tribes all together) and non-Indian populations but to protect all officers from jurisdictional liability problems. Captain Wright is both state and federally certified to cover all bases.

A woman of many talents, Captain Wright has a Dive Masters’ certification and is a member of her agency’s dive team. Although Oklahoma is land locked, the team is responsible for several lakes and many rivers within its jurisdiction.

Captain Wright is also a trained negotiator with the Special Operations Team which consists of 4 negotiators, 18 tactical members and 4 snipers.

The Cherokee Marshal Service has 31 sworn officers; 4 in the Narcotics Unit, 3 in Criminal Investigations, 3 in Special Investigations (which covers the casinos) and 19 officers in patrol. Captain Wright supervises Criminal Investigations and Patrol and has been with the Marshal Service for 15 years.

Captain Wright comes from a law enforcement family. Her great grandfather was a deputy marshal in Indian Territory and her father was an officer in Stilwell, Oklahoma. She has two daughters and five grandchildren and they attend Stomp (an Indian custom, dance ritual) in Vian, Oklahoma.