Tracking the timelines on the Chippewa Cree Business Committtee

The Chippewa Cree Business Committee on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation has been in some tumult in the last few years as people on it are investigated for corruption.

Ken Blatt St. Marks, the elected and impeached chairman of the committee, which is the most powerful governmental body on the reservation, has spent the majority of his term disallowed to work.

The end of the current chairman term is the end of this year, but the problems the Rocky Boy government is experiencing does not have an obvious end.

The beginning

St. Marks served on the committee from 1996 to 1998 as a council member.

In September 2004, St. Marks put his name in for council chair alongside 67 people, including John “Chance” Houle, to replace former chairman Alvin Windy Boy Sr, but he was not one of the final eight candidates for the position. Houle took that election.

After Houle stepped down in the midst of his term, Raymond “Jake” Parker Jr., took his place.

In 2008 St. Marks ran again and lost the primary election. This time, he filed a protest of the results, which only a losing candidate may do. The letter of protest had 28 unsuccessful candidate signatures and one successful candidate signature, all claiming there were improper procedures in conducting the elections. The election committee upheld the results, but the tribal judge overturned them in an appeal. The tribal appellate judge overturned the tribal judge’s decision.

In 2010, St. Marks ran for one of four council positions on the committee and was unable to get enough votes to make it to the general election. Current vice-chairman Ricky Morsette won one of the seats, and Gerald Small, Harlan Gopher Baker and Ted E. Whitford Sr. took the others.

In 2011, a special election was held after Parker stepped down after felony fraud charges were filed against him. Bruce Sunchild Sr., the vice-chair, was voted to take his place. This time, however, St. Marks was able to garner 38 percent of the votes, putting him in second place.

Current Term

In 2012, in the regular election for tribal chairman to replace Sunchild, St. Marks was able to win more votes than Ted Whitford Sr. and Sunchild, who came in third.

Alongside him in this election, four council members were voted onto the committee: Dustin J. Whitford, Teddy Russette III, Ted Demontiney and Houle, who was vice-chair.

In March 15, 2012, he was suspended from office and banned from tribal offices.

A restraining order was set against him so that he could not go to the offices that day, but on March 18, a judge removed it.

When he entered the building March 20, the council had him arrested for trespassing. He was released on a $300 bail.

Jan. 15, 2013, St. Marks was removed from office the first time, for accusations of neglect of duty and gross misconduct.

That day, he said that his opponents were trying to remove him due to his working with federal prosecutors since he became chairman. The day he was removed, there was a meeting where the council and more than more than 100 of his supporters met at the tribal offices.

Jan. 19, 2013, after a tribal judge lifted an injunction of St. Marks, the chairman was returned back to his office. He said that the return would be short-lived, however, as the council would try to remove him again, which he would challenge again.

In a statement from the council members, they denied that their actions were in retaliation to St. Marks working with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. They said he was guilty of many misdeeds and violations.

On Jan. 25, the council met behind closed doors to discuss the future of its chair. St. Marks refused to attend.

“Why should I attend my own hangin’?” he said that day.

The next day, Jan. 26, 2013, he was removed from office again after the committee unanimously voted against him.

Vice chairman Richard “Ricky” Morsette and committee members Ted Whitford, Ted Russette, Ted Demontiney, Harlan Baker, Gerald Small, and Houle signed a press release reiterating that they removed him for gross misconduct.

During this time, he was also facing civil charges in the Chippewa Cree courts for allegations of threats and intimidations.

A special election to replace St. Marks was scheduled for May 21, 2013, for which he submitted his name as a candidate, but the election board disallowed him to run. St. Marks asked tribal courts to rule on whether he could run or not.

The special election was delayed as St. Marks waited for the judge’s decision.

July 11, 2013, St. Marks was allowed to be put back on the ballot for the special election. The special election was then to be held July 30, 2013, with St. Marks, Luanne Belcourt, Bert Corcoran, Curtis A. Monteau Jr., vice-chair Morsette and Montana state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy.

St. Marks won the special election, and Morsette came in second, but his swearing in was delayed. Board members had 14 days after the election to swear him in.

Aug. 9, 2013, the election board overturned the results and ordered that another election should be held for tribal chair, because some people were allowed to vote with photocopied Certification of Indian Blood documents instead of laminated documents as required by a law that was passed by voters the November prior.

In Sept. 27, 2013, a tribal judge ruled that the 12 people who voted with the copies would not affect the outcome of the elections, so the results were valid.

Oct. 4, 2013, the council said they would remove St. Marks if he were sworn in again and that month, the election board appealed the judge’s decision.

For a year, the council offices were more or less quiet.

In Nov. 4, 2014, after the regular election of four new council members, the results were contested by Sen. Windy Boy.

Jody LaMere, Harlan Gopher Baker, Calvin Jilot and Beau Mitchell were the winners of the election and have not been sworn in yet. The results of the election were contested because one voter was an honorary member of the tribe and only true members may vote. The elections were overturned by a tribal judge, but the election board appealed this decision and the order of the appellate court is being awaited now.

In Nov. 20, 2014, the courts ruled in favor of St. Marks and the special election results were upheld. He was sworn into his position. Less than 10 days later, he was removed from office for 10 allegations of violations and wrongdoings.

In December, St. Marks refused to speak to attorneys representing the tribe and the council about the allegations.

A new special election was ordered to be held in January for the chairman position and the committee member position previously held by Houle.

For this election, St. Marks ran for his old position again alongside Windy Boy, Bert Corcoran and Dustin Whitford.

February 3, St. Marks won the third election of his term, including the first regular election.

Ted Whitford Sr. took the committee member position, a term which will be over in January 2016.

St. Marks was sworn in as tribal chair Feb. 16 and impeached again Feb. 24 with a list of now 15 allegations of violations and wrongdoings.

Now

The current chairman term will be up for regular election again in November 2016. In the four-year term St. Marks was originally elected to, he has not spent half a year in office.

The committee is still waiting not only for a chairman, but now for many committee members.

Dustin Whitford, Ted Demontiney, Ted Whitford and Ted Russette III are the only members of the nine-member board who are not impeached, awaiting swearing in, or in a lame duck status.

Gerald Small is serving as lame duck until he is replaced by one of the new members who were elected in 2014.

Harlan Gopher Baker is serving as lame duck to himself until he is sworn into the same position. Though he was re-elected, it is hypothetically possible that if the appellate judge rules in Windy Boy’s favor and demands another election for the four positions, he could lose.

The incumbents and lame ducks on the board currently are obligated by the Rocky Boy constitution to serve until they are replaced.

Baker, Calvin Jilot, Jody LaMere and Beau Mitchell do not have a 100-percent secure foothold in the positions they were elected into until the Windy Boy v. Chippewa Cree Election Board case is finished and the results of their elections are upheld.

Rick Morsette’s term was up in 2014, but has not been removed from the government because he is vice chair and there is no chair to replace him.

The committee needs at least five votes to pass resolutions, and in a Feb. 23 document, six names were available to sign: Rick Morsette, Ted Whitford, Red Russette III, Gerald Small, Harlan Baker, Dustin Whitford and Ted Demontiney.

Once the elections for the 2016-2020 chairman term comes around, St. Marks is constitutionally allowed to run in those elections as well, if he chooses.