Tribal Council approves moving forward with constitutional amendment election

By Danielle Harrison and Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff

Tribal Council is moving forward with the process of removing the Bureau of Indian Affairs from its elections.

The council voted six to two to approve a resolution requesting the BIA conduct an election to amend the Tribal Constitution to remove the federal agency from the constitutional amendment process.

Tribal Council Vice Chair Chris Mercier and Tribal Council member Denise Harvey cast the opposing votes. Mercier said in response to an audience question that he believes “I feel like the timing isn’t good. We’ve got a lot going on.”

The last time the question of removing the federal government from the amendment process was put before Tribal voters was March 2015. The proposal was defeated by a vote of 381 to 230.

During a Tuesday, March 25, Legislative Action Committee meeting, Tribal Council member Tonya Gleason-Shepek said she was in favor of the proposal.

“I support passing this amendment,” she said. “If (Tribal members) have any questions, feel free to contact me. I definitely think that the BIA is a hinderance in our elections and honestly jeopardizes the integrity a lot of times in our elections. I believe that our Tribal Election Board is fully capable of running much better elections, so just reach out (to me) if you have any questions.”

Currently, the BIA election process requires that all eligible Tribal members register to vote ahead of the election. If passed, the amendment would remove that requirement. Having a two-thirds majority approval with at least 30 percent of eligible voters casting ballots would remain the same.

The Tribe is planning an educational meeting for the membership to learn more about the amendment. The meeting date will be set after BIA schedules the election date and the Tribal Election Board meets to set the timeline.

In prior meetings, it was stated that the Tribe is moving forward with the amendment process now in order to avoid having conflict with Tribal Council elections in September.

Tribal members have only agreed in sufficient numbers to four other proposals to change the constitution: The 1999 enrollment amendment, in 2008 when they increased the relinquishment of membership from another Tribe from one to five years, in 2022 when they agreed to ban disenrollment actions unless fraud or dual enrollment can be proven, and when the lineal descendent amendment was approved in December 2024.