Clay Mayes (Cherokee and Chickasaw), the Haskell Indian Nations University cross-country coach who was fired in April 2022, formally sent a letter Sunday evening seeking reinstatement to coach the team.
In his letter to Anthony Dearman, the director of the Bureau of Indian Education, Mayes described being “smeared by what became a mountain of false accusations and a long list of fabricated charges” that began after he reported alleged theft and sexual misconduct in the Haskell athletic department. Mayes was suspended shortly after reporting the theft, and was terminated one day after he reported the sexual misconduct (which he was required to do under a federal law called Title IX).
We have been unable to independently reach the parties at the center of Mayes’ reports, and as such are not describing the specific details in this piece.
“It would stink not getting reinstatement,” Mayes said in an interview. “But my expectation is for them to remove these predators off campus where there is evidence to remove them. I think the only way that happens is if [BIE] brings in non-biased officials and they give those reports to the FBI.”
“They [BIE] never in any circumstance have jurisdiction over that stuff. My expectation would be for those crimes to be handed off to the proper people,” Mayes continued. “I would like to get back to coaching and recruiting Natives after this environment gets directed in the right direction.”
It’s time for his reinstatement to be handled, Mayes said, and even if he isn’t reinstated, he wants to know a reason why. Especially because he was under the impression he would be reinstated last July due to comments a BIE official made at an event in Oklahoma. But that reinstatement never came.
Mayes’ letter also demands the release of two federal investigations into Mayes and other conduct at Haskell — one by the United States Postal Service’s investigative unit, and one by the BIE. Mayes said he has been told by people close to the investigations that both clear him of any wrongdoing and clearly show he was retaliated against for making reports against Haskell officials.
Related post:
Haskell coach barred from team for 5 months, then fired after requesting administrative hearing
Haskell cross-country coach Clay Mayes has been unable to lead practices for five months, he said, pending an investigation into complaints made by a few students. Days after his lawyer made a formal request for an administrative hearing, Mayes’ contract with the university was terminated.
Transparency, and shining a light in places people in power don’t want it, is the only path forward Mayes said he sees.
“It’s the only way these issues get handled. The only way they get handled is for open transparency and accountability. Everyone that’s done wrong needs to be held accountable. Everyone outside of Indian Country gets held accountable; why is Indian Country not doing this?” Mayes said. “Until they start fixing the leadership and there’s actually a process to get what’s going on at these schools to the proper authorities … this isn’t going to be handled.
“If this happened at Lawrence High School or Free State … the person’s head would be on a stake if they knew that was happening there,” Mayes said. “For some reason, that’s not the case at a BIE. And a lot of that is retaliation for reporting. I never thought in a million years [this] would have happened.”
In June 2022, we filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for any records of federal investigations at Haskell over the last five years. In January, the BIE said no such records existed. However, Mayes provided a copy of a 2019 BIE investigation that had previously been the subject of media reports, proving that at least one investigation had taken place.
We followed up with the BIE last week to address why the reports haven’t been turned over but have not received a response.
“They never have supplied the information. I can’t get anything of anything relating to my situation, let alone the reports that have been made,” Mayes said. “BIE has ignored everything. My lawyer was never able to get a response, they completely ignored him.”
“By law, they have to tell you what you did wrong. They have to give you that information. And BIE has not followed that,” he continued. “They’ve been completely rogue, they’ve done their own thing, and they legally have no jurisdiction over such matters.”
This story will be updated if and when BIE responds to our request for comment.
Here’s Mayes’ full petition to Dearman (redactions added):
ReinstatementPetitionMayestoDearman1-1_RedactedIf our local journalism matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
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Conner Mitchell (he/him), reporter, can be reached at cmitchell (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com or 785-435-9264. If you have sensitive information to send Conner, please email connermitchell (at) protonmail (dot) com. Read more of his work for the Times here.
