Tulsa World: Iraq casualty lauded as superb law enforcer

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Iraq casualty lauded as superb law enforcer

By ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
Published: 8/25/2005 5:08 AM
Last Modified: 5/21/2008 10:58 AM

The former Cherokee marshal was in the country as a contract police trainer.

TAHLEQUAH -- A former Cherokee Nation marshal killed by a suicide bomber Tuesday in Iraq was the kind of law enforcer who never backed down from dangerous conflicts, friends said Wednesday.

Mike Dawes of Stilwell was killed in downtown Baqubah in the Diyala province north of Baghdad, reports say. He was in the dining area of police headquarters when the bomber walked in and detonated the explosives.

Dawes was working as a privately contracted police liaison officer for DynCorp International of Irving, Texas, reports say.

Braving such violent hot spots was nothing new for Dawes. In addition to his career with the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service, he worked in Kosovo several years ago as a peacekeeper under a United Nations contract.

He also served in Vietnam as a member of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, authorities said.

"He was the kind of guy that when you went on a call you did not have to look around," said Pat Ragsdale, a former head of the tribal marshal service and now the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. "He was going to be there."

Funeral services are pending under the direction of Reed-Culver Funeral Home in Tahlequah. Dawes is survived by his wife and four children.

Dawes was a Tahlequah police officer until Ragsdale hired him for the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service

in the early 1990s. He held the job for several years, including the turbulent 1997.

That was the year when marshals raided then-Cherokee Chief Joe Byrd's headquarters, investigating allegations of misuse of funds, according to reports.

Byrd fired the marshals, instigated an impeachment of tribal justices and took control of the Cherokee Nation Courthouse.

Dawes was with Ragsdale and others when they tried to storm the building in an Aug. 13, 1997, melee. Three people were arrested.

The marshals were later reinstated, and Ragsdale never forgot Dawes' loyalty.

"He was loyal to the Cherokee Nation and loyal to the Constitution," the BIA director said from Washington, D.C. "He never complained and he never wavered.

"Mike was a steady, steady person."

Dawes received the tribe's Medal of Patriotism in 2003 "in recognition of his service to the Cherokee Nation and his efforts to uphold the Cherokee Constitu tion," according to a statement by Chief Chad Smith.

"He devoted his entire life to protecting people," Smith said. "It is numbing when we lose someone of his stature in the service of our country."

Dawes' portrait was included in a Cherokee photographic exhibit shown in 2001 at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

Cherokee County Sheriff Norman Fisher, who was the Tahlequah police chief during Dawes' time on the force, said he was not surprised to see Dawes in such tricky war zones as Kosovo and Iraq.

"He was a good police officer," Fisher said. "Knowing Mike like I did, he didn't shirk his duties. He wouldn't back off any task."

Dawes was honored several times during his 18-month stint in Kosovo, reports say. He served with an elite United Nations special operations unit, a tribal report said.

He once helped arrest an Albanian caught with a hand grenade but moments later was protecting the Albanian from a mob of angry Serbs, reports say.

"Their commitment to their prisoner was beyond expectations while foregoing their own safety," United Nations Deputy Station Commander Clinton Park said in commending Dawes and other officers at the time.

"The dangers they faced were clear and their bravery was admirable," Park added.

Dawes worked for DynCorp helping to train Iraqis as police officers, according to reports. The company is working under a contract with the Department of State.

Seven other people were killed in the Baqubah bombing. A U.S. soldier and five Iraqis -- four center employees and a police officer -- also died in the strike on the Diyala Provincial Joint Coordination Center, according to news reports.

Rod Walton 581-8457
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com

By ROD WALTON World Staff Writer

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