Election board kills St. Marks run for Rocky Boy chair

The Chippewa Cree Tribal Election Board of Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation has removed the former chair of the tribal council as a candidate for the chair, three days after it certified him as a candidate.

The Election Board issued a press release Thursday saying Ken Blatt St. Marks is ineligible as a candidate in the May 21 election being held to fill the spot, vacated when the other board members removed him from office.

He was listed as one of the certified candidates authorized by the board Monday.

The other candidates announced are acting chair Richard "Ricky" Morsette, Luanne Belcourt, Bert Corcoran, "Big Mike" Corcoran, Curtis A. Monteau Jr., and state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder.

St. Marks said this morning that he would leave any action up to the federal government.

"They're running scared, that's what it's about," he said. "This council does not want me there, because I'm there looking, and people are going to do things right."

St. Marks has said the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General is investigating his claims that the council removing him from office violates federal whistleblower protections.

An Office of the Inspector General representative told the Havre Daily News that it cannot confirm or deny whether investigations are ongoing.

Thursday's release says the board received a protest, with the filer not listed in the release, challenging St. Marks' eligibility due to his being removed from office in March.

The release cites a tribal ordinance that states "any person who has within two years preceding the election been removed from the Business Committee for neglect of duty, is deemed as being not qualified."

In a press release issued after it removed St. Marks March 25, the Business Committee said it removed the chair, who was elected last fall, due to "neglect of duty and gross misconduct." The Board alleged that St. Marks had harassed tribal employees, including instances of sexual harassment, had committed financial misconduct and illegal employment practices and had made unauthorized expenditures of tribal money.

St. Marks said this morning that the Election Committee went back to a 1966 ordinance to justify ruling him ineligible.

"It don't even exist in the books any more," he said.

St. Marks said he will leave any action on the committee declaring him ineligible to the U.S. government.

"I'm going to let them deal with it. They will deal with it," he said.

St. Marks has said from the start that the tribal council's actions — first suspending him from office in an unannounced meeting, then removing him from office for charges that the committee never presented to him before the meeting in which they removed him — are in retaliation for his investigating what he calls misuse of federal money and other problems at the reservation. He has said that, after he took office, he started finding problems with missing money in the water project and at the tribal health department and its casino, Northern Winz.

The tribal water project, being administered by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, also will serve a large number of Montana residents off the reservation.

The retaliation was for actions including cooperating with federal investigators looking into allegations at Rocky Boy, St. Marks said.

The Business Committee Monday issued a press release denying St. Marks allegations that money was missing, saying tribal officials and accounting staff "have worked with the Bureau of Reclamation to make certain that all paperwork is correct and in order."

The federal government has taken action on one issue St. Marks has raised.

Five people each entered not guilty pleas Tuesday to 17 charges that they had embezzled money provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the stimulus bill — to the Rocky Boy's/North Central Montana Regional Water System.

That system, which grew out of the water compact the Chippewa Cree Tribe negotiated with the Montana and U.S. governments in the 1990s, would provide water to people at Rocky Boy and off the reservation in an immense seven-county region. The system, when completed, would provide water to nearly 30,000 people.

The five who pleaded not guilty were Chippewa Cree Construction Corp. CEO Tony Belcourt, a former tribal council member and former state legislator; his wife, Hailey Belcourt; Mike and Tammy Leischner of Laurel; and Business Committee member, and former chair, John "Chance" Houle.

James Howard Eastlick also was charged with the 17 counts in the indictment. His arraignment is scheduled for May 14.

The Business Committee announced Wednesday it was suspending without pay all charged in the federal indictments.

Houle was one of the council members who voted to suspend St. Marks and then remove him from office.

St. Marks, while still serving as chair, had removed Tony Belcourt from his position with Chippewa Cree Construction. The other board members later reinstated Belcourt while St. Marks was out of the area.

St. Marks said this morning that he expects more federal charges will be filed addressing misconduct he alleges has happened in other tribal departments.