Raucus meeting at Rocky Boy, no action

Ken Blatt St. Marks, the elected chair of the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation Business Council Monday morning refused to enter closed-door session when defending himself against nine charges he may be facing.

A large crowd, mostly of St. Marks supporters, showed up for the hearing, and were vocal in their support of St. Marks, who has twice been removed as tribal chair.

Derek Hines, the attorney from Pepper Hamilton LLP, who was to read the charges, told St. Marks that the charges were personal, to which St. Marks replied “I have nothing to hide.”

The attorney began reading the charges despite the meeting not being moved to closed session, but was forced to quit after reading through a couple of the charges because the crowd was yelling at him and St. Marks wasn’t answering his questions.

“Go get me indicted,” St. Marks said repeatedly.

The closed meeting was to give St. Marks a chance to defend himself – on the record – about the allegations. St. Marks, after the attorneys and many of the councilmembers left, went through each of the charges himself and addressed them to the crowded room.

Much of the time afterward was used to try and get three of the four recently elected members of the business committee sworn in, but the chair of the election committee was not found. There were concerns about the swearing taking place while not in an actual business committee meeting. That prompted St. Marks to say he and his supporters would try to do it Thursday at 9 a.m.,when the monthly business committee meeting is held.

Read the full article in Tuesday’s issue of the Havre Daily News.