The Luck of the Draw
By Bob A. Smith

I do not gamble or understand how the games are played. I have a great appreciation for those who visit our tribal casinos and bring money into our treasury. This money benefits our tribal members. I do not believe in luck and yet my life has been directed by the luck of the draw (LOTD). I grew up poor in southeastern Oklahoma and never believed that I could afford to advance my education beyond high school.

LOTD stepped in. I received a small scholarship, and with a cardboard box containing my worldly possessions, I was off to one of our state universities. After two years with a global conflict raging, I left school and moved to Texas, where I worked for two years. I was then drafted into the U.S. Army. Completing basic training in Virginia, I was prepared to deploy to the war zone. LOTD again stepped in, and I was assigned to duty in France.

After 21 months of service and touring the continent, I received an early out and returned to the university courtesy of the GI Bill. I graduated, and since I had benefits remaining, I entered law school. At the same time, I got a civil service job with the federal government. On the first day of my discharge from the Army, still in uniform I applied for a loan at a credit union to purchase an automobile. The woman who managed the credit union and processed my loan became my wife two years later. By the time I graduated from law school and passed the bar, we had two children. We later had two additional children.

My first appearance in court was representing a man in a divorce. His wife had retained a well-known divorce attorney, and my client had been advised to retain someone of equal stature. He kept me as his counsel, and we appeared in court. The judge, a stickler for protocol, began. I knew enough to rise when addressing the court while opposing counsel remained seated. “Mr. X,” the judge said, “stand when addressing the court.” I thought, I have this sucker won. Mr. X asked the judge, “What about my fee?” The judge replied, “She retained you, she pays you.”

My client was a mail clerk in the facility where I worked. One day he brought me an announce-

ment showing that the government would select 20 employees throughout the country for five years and send them to an eastern university for graduate-level training. Those selected must change geographic locations and field of employment. The idea was to make specialists into generalists. I applied, was investigated for security purposes by the FBI — but not selected.

The next year LOTD appeared, and I was selected. Soon my family and I began our travel to Washington, D.C. for orientation and then to upstate New York for entry into the graduate school. Following graduation I was employed in Washington, D.C., back to Oklahoma City and then to Seattle.

Wherever we lived, our children had this great love for the state of Oklahoma. One Christmas we traveled from Seattle to Oklahoma. At 2 a.m. outside of Minco we had a flat tire. Our oldest son and I unloaded the luggage and Christmas gifts from the car, retrieved the spare tire, jacked up the car — which immediately fell into the sand. There was no traffic and then LOTD brought the only vehicle of the morning over the hill. It was a truck with a wench on the front. The truck driver raised our car while we put on the spare, reloaded and were soon on our way to grandmother’s home. LOTD can be pretty amazing.

Mr. Smith is chief judge of the trial court for the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.