Sovereignty Speaks #18
Sovereignty Exercised through American Indian Engineers
Mr. Neal McCaleb
Ambassador-at-Large, The Chickasaw Nation
Chairman, Board of Directors, Chickasaw Nation Industries
Mr. McCaleb has served on the CNI Board of Directors since 2003, and as its Chairman since March of 2007. Mr. McCaleb was named Chickasaw Ambassador-at-Large in early 2013 and was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2014. He was appointed by President George W. Bush as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs. His public service includes ten years as Secretary of Transportation for the State of Oklahoma.
Mr. McCaleb also served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives for eight years, and he served as Republican Floor Leader for four of those years. Mr. McCaleb led the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority during two major expansion programs. He was in private practice as a Civil Engineer for 30 yearsa nd is a licensed Professional Engineer and Land Surveyor. A 1957 graduate of Oklahoma State University with a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering he has been inducted into the Chickasaw Nation Hall of Fame as well as the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Mr. McCaleb is founding mentor of the OSU Center for Sovereign Nations.
Mr. Jackson Steele Chaney P.E.
Retired Project Engineer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Retired Roads Engineer for the Muscogee Creek Nation
Mr. Chaney worked as lead engineer on the landmark Arkansas Riverbed Supreme Court Decision for thirty years as the Project Engineer at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Following his retirement from the BIA, Mr. Chaney served for ten years as the Roads Engineer for the Muscogee Creek Nation, where he built over 100 miles of roads and bridges, oversaw construction of dozens of buildings and structures, and was involved in the design and construction of Phases I and II of the Muscogee Nation River Spirit Casino.
Mr. Chaney pracitced as a Civil Engineer for nearly fifty years, and is a Licensed Professional Engineer and Land Surveyor. Prior to his work with the BIA and Muscogee Nation, MR. Chaney worked on numerous major projects across the state of Oklahoma, including design and construction of the Hissom Memorial Center and the Muskogee Turnpike, and major portions of Interstate 40, the Indian Nations Turnpike , the Mountain Fork Reservoir, and the Millwood Dam.
Mr. Chaney is a 1961 graduate of Oklahoma State University, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. Since retiring in 2009, he remains active in the Oklahoma Society of Professional Engineers, and has delivered lectures to a number of classes in the American Indian Studies program at OSU.