Two of three Tribal Council incumbents to seek re-election

By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor

Tribal Council incumbents Denise Harvey and Kathleen George are in while Jack Giffen Jr. is out.

Giffen, one of the Tribe’s longest-serving Tribal Council members, will not be seeking re-election during the 2022 campaign, ensuring at least one new member on the Tribe’s governing board.

“I am not planning to run,” he said in an e-mail to Smoke Signals on Tuesday, April 19.

Giffen, 70, served two terms from 2003 to 2009 and was then re-elected in 2010 and has served since then. Come September, he will have served six terms, or 18 years, on Tribal Council.

Giffen will retire as the third longest serving Tribal Council member ever behind current Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy, 23 years, and former Tribal Council Chairman Reyn Leno, 21 years.

Denise Harvey, who was first elected to Tribal Council in 2013 after five unsuccessful campaigns, confirmed to Smoke Signals that she will seek her fourth consecutive three-year term.

Harvey, 59, finished first in 2013 and 2019 and third in 2016. She has accumulated 2,981 votes in her eight runs for Tribal Council.

George, 50, will be seeking her third consecutive term on Tribal Council. She served as director of Spirit Mountain Community Fund beginning in 2011 and finished first in the 2016 Tribal Council election. She secured another council term in 2019 with a second-place finish behind Harvey.

“We have a lot of important progress underway, and I want to see this through to completion,” George said in a text to Smoke Signals.

Tribal Council nominations will occur during a special General Council meeting to be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, June 26. This year’s Tribal Council election will be held on Saturday, Sept. 10.