Election may amend CSKT constitution
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PABLO — Members of The People’s Voice, Inc., were out in force on Sept. 27 as their attorney Howard Toole filed papers at Confederated Salish and Kootenai court to begin the process of a secretarial election.
The election will decide if Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal members want to amend the CSKT Constitution.
The People’s Voice filed a petition with the Flathead Indian Agency on Aug. 20, and the group just received word from Northwest Regional Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs,
that the petition has been approved.
“We are so excited,” said Sharon Rosenbaum, president of The People’s Voice.
The proposal would amend Article V, vacancies and removal from office by adding section 3 to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Constitution and Bylaws. The proposed amendment would allow the membership to file a petition of at least one-third of the eligible voters of the Flathead Reservation, to recall any tribal councilperson from office for malfeasance, or any part of the CSKT’s Constitution and By-Laws.
There are 3,839 eligible voters on the reservation. To present the petition, The People’s Voice needed one third of the eligible voters signatures, 1,280 voters, on the Flathead Reservation to sign. When the Bureau of Indian Affairs Northwest Regional Office reviewed the petition, there were 1,395 individual signatures on 174 petition pages. After disallowing signatures from 32 tribal members who lived off the reservation, 10 signed twice and 18 printed signatures, the People’s Voice had 1,335 signatures.
“The vote will take place in the near future,” according to the letter from the BIA. The Flathead Agency’s Administrative Assistant, Cheryl Finley, will chair the CSKT election committee and that committee will conduct the election.
Some members of the People’s Voice decided to no longer be a part of the group at a board meeting on Sept. 27.
