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Ousted tribal leader will show up to work Monday

HELENA (AP) — The ousted president of Montana's Northern Cheyenne tribe says he will show up at a tribal council hearing Monday to challenge its decision to remove him from office while he was in a Billings hospital having surgery.

John Robinson was released from the Billings Clinic on Thursday after an emergency appendectomy, only to find that he had been voted out over his move to fire the head of a center for neglected and abused children who had been accused of child abuse.

Robinson was taken to the hospital by ambulance in the middle of a Wednesday council hearing on a wrongful-termination complaint by former Rosebud Lodge director Darlene Soldier Wolf, who claimed her due process rights were violated when Robinson fired her this year.

Tribal employees conducted the investigation into Soldier Wolf, concluding the allegations were substantiated, Robinson said. But the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which should have analyzed the report and forwarded it to the proper authorities, said it had no record of it, tribal spokesman John Youngbear said.

No police investigation has been conducted and Soldier Wolf has not been charged with a crime.

Soldier Wolf then filed a complaint, saying Robinson violated her due process rights. She asked the tribal council to reinstate her with back pay and to remove Robinson.

While the president was having an appendectomy, the council voted 9-1 to oust him and reinstate Soldier Wolf as head of the children's center. The next day, the council named Winfield Russell, the council's vice president, as acting president, Youngbear said.

Robinson said he had asked the council to delay action until he could return to defend himself, but the members went ahead with the vote. He insisted that the findings of investigation into Soldier Wolf were valid, but he cannot release the report because it would violate the confidentiality of the witnesses, including two children, he said.

"They were so concerned about the due process of a person who committed child abuse, that they took my due process and threw it in the trash," Robinson said.

A number listed for Soldier Wolf rang unanswered.

The council meets again Monday to discuss a date for a special election for a new president, Youngbear said.

Robinson plans to attend that meeting to challenge the resolution removing him from office. He said he believes the decision was motivated by his political opponents and that personnel decisions are a matter for the courts, not the council.

Russell did not return a call for comment.

If the council won't let him speak at Monday's meeting, he plans to "take other avenues," he said.

Robinson can appeal to the tribe's constitutional court to determine whether the council action violated the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches of government, said Desi Small-Rodriguez, Robinson's adviser.

His supporters also are organizing a petition drive seeking his reinstatement, she said.

 

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