Posted: Dec 30, 2009 4:59 PM by Kay Rossi
Updated: Dec 30, 2009 4:59 PM
Some frustrated members of the Little Shell Tribe are banding together to make some changes, and a meeting of the Little Shell Chippewa Alliance was held on Saturday morning to address those changes.
The Alliance was formed after members say current tribal leadership mishandled the groups finances and unnecessarily postponed tribal elections for five months.
The group met to discuss a possible amendment to the tribe's constitution; the amendment would include a new judicial system to add tribal courts, as well as putting a monitoring system in place for tribal elections.
John Gilbert, Little Shell Chippewa Alliance Chair, noted, "We're here because we're concerned and we want to make changes and as a matter of fact we will make changes because we're going to go forward with this."
Members passed the amendment this afternoon.
They will send out 3,100 letters to members asking for permission to amend the constitution and to hold another tribal election to be run by an unbiased third party.
Tribal President John Sinclair says he hasn't seen the amendment yet, so he can't comment on it, but he did note that he believes this movement to have another election is nothing more than a few people who cannot accept election losses and are trying to bypass tribal leadership.
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