Board of Directors

STEVE CARDWELL

Founder and Chairman of the Board
Tribal Affiliation: Cheyenne
scardwell@nativerevision.org

A proud member of the Cheyenne Tribe of Oklahoma, Steve Cardwell was born and raised in western Oklahoma and began a career in the oil fields at the young age of 15. At 19, Steve was promoted to drilling foreman, a dangerous position in which he supervised a five-man crew and had full charge of an  $8,000,000 drilling rig and its operations. In 1987, Steve left small-town life for Dallas, TX, where he created his own business doing home remodeling and selling firewood. In 2001, he formed Brenco Industrial Services LLC– providing unique commercial and industrial construction services.  Brenco successfully competes with contractors nationwide and has completed projects for Siemens Transportation, Air Liquid, Texas A & M University, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and the US Department of the Navy, among many others.  Because of his business achievements, his intuitive relations with Native American businesses and governments, and his ability to work in both the private and public sectors, he was honored with the North Texas Minority Business of the Year award from the Dallas Business Journal, 2009, the Native American Small Business of the Year RES2010 award and, most recently, the Minority Small Business award. Steve loves community involvement and contributes to his heritage by sharing what he has earned and learned with others. A strong supporter of the Dallas Inter-tribal Center’s Back to School Fair for many years, Steve supplies backpacks and school supplies to over 300 Native students annually. He is also a supporter of the Native American 5K Run in Albuquerque, the Native All-Star Football Classic, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the Murrow Home for Children, and many more. In 2010, with a desire to inspire Native American youth to become leaders in their communities, Steve founded Native ReVision.

CHEROKEE BELL

Vice-Chairman of the Board
Tribal Affiliation: Cherokee
info@nativerevision.org

Cherokee Jewel Bell is the Vice-Chair for Native Re-vision a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to mentor and empowers Native youth to excel. This is what she has been doing for years. Since the summer of 2010, she has been instrumental in launching Native ReVision. One of her primary roles is an event planner. She is the former Director of Tourism and Recreation of Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the fourth-largest American Indian government in America. She believes tourism is a creative approach to educate everyone about the truth of American Indians.
From 2007 to 2011 she broke each year’s MCN Annual Festival attendance record from 8,000 to 20,000 and generated revenue! She administered the total renovation of the Claude Cox Omniplex softball fields. This attracted and brought in the men’s and women’s All Indian State Finals Fast-pitch Softball games to Okmulgee, OK for the first time. Her vision has paid huge dividends for the Tribe by transforming the Omniplex grounds into a functional major event site. With the request of the late Second Chief Berryhill, she got a statue of Major League Hall of Famer, Allie Reynolds erected to inspire others! She planned, designed, and supervised the construction of a 3,800 sq. ft. annex facility that houses showers, restrooms, and a gift shop — a fast track construction project that was recently featured in Indian Country Today. Concurrently, she was responsible for managing the construction of a 4,000 sq. ft. arts pavilion using the design/build approach. All these construction and renovation undertakings met her tight schedules!
In 2008 she listened to the citizens’ request to bring back the All Indian Rodeo. After several weekend meetings with Oklahoma area Indian rodeo members, and with the Indian National Finals Rodeo Assc., the Region 8 Bob Arrington and Clem McSpadden Rodeo Assc. was resurrected. While this was reforming, she earned the International Professional Rodeo Assc.’s “Best New Rodeo of the Year” award for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in 2009. The IPRA had 44 new rodeos that year out of Canada and the U.S.A., with 2,400 voting members! In 2010 citizens got what they had been waiting for. The All Indian Tour Rodeo came back to town, resulting in another record attendance of 3,000.
She is an enthusiast for entertainment. Under her direction, well known musical artists such as Brandy, Temptations, Randy Houser, Jaspa Kings, and others have performed at the Omniplex.
Cherokee graduated from Northeastern State University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Her professional energy reaches out to serving Native people. Her enthusiasm for education and athletics is contagious. She is a supporter and participant of the Jim Thorpe 5K Run in Albuquerque. Through a partnership with the University of North Texas and Native Re-vision, she is responsible for planning the Jim Thorpe Native All-Stars Football game in Denton, TX.

LES D. RIDING-IN

Dr. Les D. Riding-In (Pawnee/Osage) is the lead advisor for the UT Arlington’s Native American Student Association. NASA strives to serve the greater community through responsible and innovative native-themed programming including the Annual UT Arlington Benefit Powwow, now one of the largest Native gatherings in the DFW metroplex. Through our students’ dedicated work, NASA won the UT Arlington 2011-2012 Service to the Community Award.
Dr. Riding-In currently serves as Assistant Dean and Director of Graduate Studies for the College of Liberal Arts at UT Arlington. His experiences in higher education include graduate enrollment management, university housing, and honors education, among others. He earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education with a minor in Public Administration from the University of North Texas and a Master of Human Relations along with a Bachelor of Business Administration Finance from the University of Oklahoma. His dissertation was titled “From Mission Statements to Curriculum: How 31 Tribal Colleges Address Five Educational Indicators.”
Dr. Riding-In is chair of the National Association of Academic Advisors (NACADA) American and Tribal College Interest Group and is appointed to the Emerging Leaders Advisory Board.  He is the lead writer for a chapter on Native American student engagement in the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) publication titled Building Bridges, Re-visioning Community: Multicultural Student Services on Campus, and has co-authored two articles for Academic Advising Today.  Most recently, he served on the American Indian Heritage Month Core Committee under chair Peggy Larney.
Growing up, Les spent his entire summers on his great Aunt’s farm in rural Southeast Oklahoma, a Comanche allotment.  His great Aunt Julia Mahseet was a founding officer for the North American Indian Women’s Association and presented twice in front of Congress on Indian soil conservation. For nearly twenty years, Les was by her side as she traveled to conferences and Washington, DC. Today, his involvement is in honor of his Aunt Julia.

SUSAN SCHMIDT

Tribal Affiliation: Choctaw

Bio Coming Soon

ERIC WOLFGANG

Treasurer
Tribal Affiliation: Friend
eric@nativerevision.org

Eric Wolfgang is a Business and Corporate Lawyer whose practice focuses on business and commercial litigation with an emphasis on cases involving shareholder. and employment disputes, executive compensation and/or disloyalty claims, covenants not to compete, personal injury, premises liability, and matters involving trade secrets, business torts, and/or breach of contract. His clients are very diverse and include small and medium-size businesses such as solvent and chemical distributors, beauty product manufacturers, oil supply services companies, antique dealers, trucking and transportation companies, restaurants, and various other individuals and entities doing business in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex, across Texas, nationally and around the world.
Eric served an intern clerkship with Justice John Cornyn, Supreme Court of Texas, during the 1994 term. He worked at large Dallas law firms until 1999 and was a sole practitioner until joining White & Co in May 2008.
Eric has extensive trial experience in both state and federal courts He also has a flourishing business consulting practice, advising business owners and entrepreneurs in areas of business growth and expansion planning, mergers and acquisitions, business and asset sales and purchases with associated agreements, executive and management issues, entity formation, conversion, and other complex business transactions.
He enjoys a life-long interest in the Native American experience and is a student of its history and photographs. As a founding member of the DFW Native American Chamber of Commerce, Eric advised and represented Native American business owners in varying matters from idea inception to complex marketing and legal strategies, including certification and agency approvals for Minority Business Enterprise and Historically Underutilized Business Zone status, Small Business Administration 8(a) Program qualification and participation, and other matters. Eric was a Board Member of DFWNACC from 2002-2008 and served as the President of the Board from 2008-2009. During his board leadership, the Chamber realized a significant increase in membership, chamber events, budget, and scholarship funds paid. Eric left the Chamber in July 2009 to pursue Native Youth Re-vision’s plans to hold large scale programs and events benefitting the Native American Youth in areas of educational (scholarship) support, athletics, economic development, and professional success.
Eric is a partner in White & Co. and lives with his wife and sons in Dallas, Texas. He plays Left and Center Back for Northside Arsenal FC, of Dallas, Texas, and also enjoys music, art, sports, and reading.

MONICA LUNA

Secretary
Tribal Affiliation:
mluna@nativerevision.org

Monica is “chief Steve wrangler” at Brenco Industrial, overseeing the details of the day-to-day operations of a large successful Dallas-area construction services business. She also spends countless hours every year helping Steve produce the Native All-Star Football Classic. If a job needs doing, Monica can and will get it done.

JD SANDERS

Member
Tribal Affiliation: Cherokee
jd.sanders@VYPE.com

Bio Coming Soon

STEVE MAIZE

Member
Tribal Affiliation: Chinook
maize@nativerevision.org

Steve Maize was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest on the coast of Oregon. He is a proud member of the Chinook Indian Nation and a direct descendant of Chief Comcomly, a prestigious figure who received a medal from Lewis and Clark for overseeing their safety. After graduating from high school with All-American honors in golf, Steve attended college in Arizona on a full-ride golf scholarship. He then graduated from college with a degree in Business Marketing before becoming a golf professional. As the owner of the Maize Golf Academy, Steve played in hundreds of professional golf events and taught over 50,000 golf lessons. He represented the Gila River Indian Community at the PGA Tours Gila River Classic. He was also the men¹s golf coach at Central Arizona College for three years. He has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for several charitable organizations. Some of these include The Susan G. Komen foundation, HOPE Scholarship fund, Lions Club, March of Dimes, Boys and Girls Club, and The Make a Wish Foundation. After retiring from Golf in 2009, he started American Nations Resources, a consulting firm helping Native American communities across the country with renewable energy issues. Steve has been married for over thirty years to wife Connie, with whom he has three children. Thomas works in retirement with Edward Jones. Ciara is an environmental analyst for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. Steve Jr. attends Arizona State and works as a pharmacy technician.