On the tails of the one-year anniversary of a highly-contested Nooksack tribal council action that sought to strip more than 300 people of tribal membership, voters on both sides of the issue came out to show their support for candidates for four council positions in the Feb. 15 primary election.
Candidates vied for the positions of chairman and secretary, as well as two general positions on the eight-member governing council.
Among other issues, the candidates for each position stand divided over a contested effort to strip 306 Nooksacks of their tribal membership. The three incumbents and Roy Bailey, who was recently appointed to the council, generally support the process, while the other four candidates advancing to the general election are members of a coalition that hopes to stop the disenrollment, chairman candidate George Adams said.
"We don't want a name," Adams said of the coalition, "other than we're tribal members trying to do the right thing. I think the coalition stands for righting the wrongs and going forward with healing."
Only three votes separated current Chairman Bob Kelly from challenger Adams.
Kelly is among those who support the disenrollment process. Adams is not one of the 306 facing disenrollment, but has rallied with the group against the effort, calling himself "307."
"We want to be unified as a people," Adams said.
Kelly declined to comment on the election.
The disenrollment process is currently on hold while the Nooksack Court of Appeals reviews legal issues raised by the group's lawyer.
Secretary candidate Bailey, enrollment officer for the 2,000-member tribe, trailed opponent Nadene Rapada by 66 votes.
A month before the primary election, council members Michelle Roberts and Rudy St. Germain were ousted from the council under a provision that allows the removal of council members who miss more than three meetings in a row without an excuse, according to an email message Chairman Kelly sent The Bellingham Herald at the time. The council then named Bailey to replace St. Germain as secretary and David Williams to replace Roberts.
Roberts and St. Germain are among the 306 Nooksacks facing disenrollment.
The two council members running for reelection, Robert Solomon (Position A) and Agripina Johnson (Position B) trailed their top vote-getting opponents, Felisisimo Johnny and Carmen Tageant.
3 comments:
If anyone is interested, tonight at 19 pm, Kusi's Turko files is going to talk about the fence that smith and nieto had put up at Warner Springs.
Thats tonight Feb 17 @ 10 pm
WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG with you people! This is wrong, I don't care that you hate one another, disenrolling families that have been members for generations is just plain Wrong!
Tribes are not called a Band for nothing, your are supposed to be banded together as one Unit, one people one Tribe.
The greed that has wormed it's way into our Tribes is nothing short of EVIL.
Please STOP all this nonsense and band together again for the common goal of the Tribes very existence and well being.
We don't have to love one another, but lets please stop this tearing apart of our Tribes. Work with each other towards the common good of the continuance of the Tribes existance.
It seems that Smith and Nieto are at it again. According to the KUSI
news report,(TURKO FILES)Mr Turko
said that the "TRIBE" wants to meet privately with county officals concerning the fence dispute at Warners.
The "TRIBE" was not aware of the fence that smith and nieto had put up and smith and nieto should be held accountable for their actions.
And also the media needs to understand,Robert Smith and Theresa Nieto, are "NOT THE TRIBE"
and should not be quoted as being the TRIBE. The Tribe is the "PALA
BAND OF MISSION INDIANS",and not
Smith Nieto Band of MISSION INDIANS.
They,RS and TN have done the same thing at Pala by putting the the pump ststion om private property.
They seem to have a pattern of doing what they want, when they want, where ever they want.
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