Incumbent Rodney Bordeaux, left, is the unofficial top vote-getter for the office of president in the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s primary election, which was held Thursday, July 26. Bordeaux, who has served as tribal president since 2005, received 787 votes, while his closest contender, Cyril “Whitey” Scott, right, received 593 votes.
Bordeaux, Scott advance
RST General Election August 23
By Jesse Abernathy
Native Sun News Editor ROSEBUD –– The Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s unofficial primary election results are in. In what has now become an annual affair, the Sicangu (Burnt Thigh) Lakota held their primary election – this year for three-year tribal council seats – on Thursday, July 26, with well less than half of the tribe’s registered voters turning out: Of the 6,665 enrolled tribal members 18 years and older registered to vote on the Rosebud Reservation, 2,269 of them showed up at the polls, according to tribal election officials. This figure translates to a mere 34 percent of voters. All of the 2,269 constituents cast ballots for the governmental offices of president and vice president as well as for representatives of the reservation’s 10 geopolitical districts of Antelope, Bull Creek, Corn Creek, He Dog, Horse Creek, Ring Thunder, Rosebud, St. Francis, Swift Bear and Upper Cut Meat. The 10 districts are further subdivided into the 11 voting communities of Black Pipe, Butte Creek, Grass Mountain, Ideal North, Ideal South, Milk’s Camp, Okreek, Parmelee, Soldier Creek, Spring Creek and Two Strike. A single tribal council representative from each of the 10 geopolitical districts will eventually be voted into office. Each of the 21 communities reported solid numbers for voter-turnout rates. The top two overall vote-getters for each political office will move on to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s general election, which is set for Thursday, Aug. 23, barring any formal challenges to the unofficial primary election results by any registered voter, including candidates not among the top two in each respective political race. A total of 70 tribal members filed candidacy petitions with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Election Board between May 1 and May 31. For the presidential primary election, the top two contenders are incumbent Rodney Bordeaux, with 787 votes, and Cyril “Whitey” Scott, with 593 votes. Including Scott, eight tribal members challenged Bordeaux for the seat he has held since 2005. Scott, who ran for president and lost in 2009, is an outspoken critic of Bordeaux’s administration, which has been under continual fire by other tribal members as well. In early 2011, Scott along with several other tribal members unsuccessfully circulated a petition to have Bordeaux recalled from office in advance of the expiration of his three-year term this year for what the dissident group deemed to be “gross misconduct,” as reported by Rosebud Reservation newspaper, the Sicangu Sun Times. Additionally, other critics from the Rosebud Reservation claimed at the time Bordeaux conspired with other tribal members to ensure he would get to run for a three-year term by manipulating language in a constitutional amendment, according to the Sicangu Sun Times. Also, a complaint filed against Bordeaux in RST Court after the 2009 election failed to return a favorable ruling, the newspaper reported. Lenard “Shadow” Wright, the Rosebud District’s current tribal council representative and one of the challengers unofficially shut out for the presidency, is also among Bordeaux’s critics. Wright filed a term-limit challenge July 30 with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Election Board against President Bordeaux, as well as term-limit challenges against Vice President William “Willie” Kindle and Antelope District representative Scott Herman. In this year’s election, Wright opted to file the petition seeking presidential office instead of re-election as a representative. For the office of vice president, incumbent Kindle received 1,477 votes, while Oliver J. “OJ” Semans Sr. trailed with 358 votes. A total of five enrolled members filed petitions for the vice presidency. For the Bull Creek District, incumbent representative Todd Bear Shield went unchallenged for his seat, while in the Corn Creek District, only one candidate, Brian Hart, filed a petition to challenge current representative Arlene (Old Lodge) Black Bear. The breakdown for the top two vote-getters in each of the remaining eight reservation districts, and their respective total number of votes, according to the RST Election Board’s unofficial primary election figures, is as follows: Antelope: Scott Herman, incumbent, 545; Calvin “Hawkeye” Waln Jr., 487
He Dog: Mary Waln, 905; Royal Yellow Hawk, incumbent, 800
Horse Creek: Webster Two Hawk Sr., incumbent, 1,019; Fremont Fallis, 467
Ring Thunder: Patricia “Patty” Douville, incumbent, 681; Rose Stenstrom, 601
Rosebud: Richard “Tuffy” Lunderman, 432; Stephanie Sully, 430
St. Francis: John Swift, incumbent, 441; Patsy Valandra, 392
Swift Bear: Alvin Bettelyoun Sr., 900; Delano Clairmont, incumbent, 656
Upper Cut Meat: Kathleen High Pipe, incumbent, 778; Philimon Two Eagle, 686 As stipulated by the election board, Friday, Aug. 3, at 1 p.m. CDT is the deadline for any qualified voter to challenge the voting results for any candidate. If no challenges are filed by the deadline, the top two contenders for each office are officially declared as such by public notice and certified by the board to advance to the tribe’s general election on Thursday, Aug. 23. Tribal members looking to vote in the general election have until Thursday, Aug. 9, to register. Sitting on the tribe’s election board are Sam High Crane, chairman; Rhonda McKenzie, vice chairwoman; Ronald Valandra, treasurer; Patricia “Patti” Romero, secretary; and Cecelia Fast Horse, sergeant-at-arms. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe has a total of 31,476 enrolled members, according to current official tribal Enrollment Department figures, with 26,755 members living on-reservation and 4,721 members living off-reservation. The tribe has an allocated land base in south-central South Dakota of almost 900,000 acres, or close to 2,000 square miles. It is just over half the size of its western neighbor, the Pine Ridge Reservation. (Contact Jesse Abernathy at editor@nsweekly.com) Copyright permission by Native Sun News www.nsweekly.com
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