Hearing set in challenge to Rocky Boy ruling

Chippewa Cree tribal council member-elect Jody LaMere and the Chippewa Cree Election Committee are appealing a tribal court ruling that bars the swearing-in of three new tribal council members elected in the Nov. 4 election.

A hearing will be held at 1 p.m., Tuesday, in tribal court at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.

LaMere and two other new members were elected to the Chippewa Cree Business Committee, but Judge Melody Whitford issued an injunction based on a complaint from State Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, one of the losing candidates. Windy Boy, contends that a non-enrolled member, Father Pete Guthneck, an honorary member who has served Rocky Boy for two decades, voted in the election in violation of tribal law. Thus, he contends, the election ought to be held again.

Legal papers filed by LaMere’s attorneys, Fredericks, Peebles & Morgan of Louisville, Colorado, contends that tribal court “has usurped, intruded into, and unlawfully withheld her from her constitutional position as a Business Committee member.”

LaMere contends that Whitford should have recused herself because she is the niece of Rick Morsette and a sister-in-law of Ted Whitford and Gerald Small.

Morsette, the legal papers say, “is currently holding himself out as the Chairperson of the Chippewa Cree Tribe Business Committee.”

Ted Whitford and Gerald Small were defeated for re-election and will leave office when the new board is sworn in.

Chippewa Cree law requires that new board members be sworn in within 14 days of the election, the papers said.

The delay in the swearing-in violates several aspects of tribal law and ought to be dismissed immediately, LaMere’s attorneys contend.

Windy Boy lost by more than 100 votes, the attorneys said, thus the one disputed vote would have made no difference in the results.

They cited an appeals court ruling that Ken Blatt St. Marks was wrongly deprived of the right to assume office because seven votes were dispute although he won by more than 100.

Fredericks, Peebles & Morgan represented St. Marks in that case.

Election Committee’s brief made similar legal arguments, but made no comments about LaMere or Judge Whitford.

Windy Boy defended his actions and said he would file a motion to dismiss the motion to dismiss by the LaMere and the Elections Committee.

“The enrollment eligibility of a voter is very specific under the constitution and the election ordinance,” Windy Boy said.

“The original complaint I filed in the court was based on a voter in the tribal election on Nov. 4, 2014, (Father Pete Guthneck), voted in the tribal election,” he said. “He has 0 percent degree of Chippewa Cree Indian blood.”

Windy Boy said the question is not whether he lost by one vote or 111 votes, “it is the constitutional principle.”

“If we have another election, I may lose by more votes,” he said. “But I will be able to sleep because I did the right thing.”