Gary Batton

Gary Dale Batton (born December 15, 1966) is a tribal administrator and politician, the current and 47th Chief of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. It is the third-largest federally recognized tribe and second-largest reservation in total area. Batton was appointed as Chief on April 28, 2014, upon Chief Gregory E. Pyle's retirement. He was elected as Chief in his own right in a general election on July 11, 2015, with 86.5% of the vote. In 2019, Batton was unopposed in seeking a second full term. Early life and career Batton was born on December 15, 1966, in Wichita, Kansas. His mother was a full-blood Choctaw, and his father was from West Virginia. His family moved to Oklahoma, where he graduated from Clayton High School in Clayton, Oklahoma in 1985. He attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University, graduating in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in Business Management. Batton had begun working for the Choctaw Nation in 1987 as a clerk in the Purchasing Department. Upon graduating from SOSU, he was selected for the position of deputy director of the Choctaw Nation Housing Authority.