After having a term-limit challenge filed against him, Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Rodney Bordeaux will remain in the running for the tribe’s general election slated for Aug. 23. Bordeaux has held the top spot since 2005. Vice President William “Willie” Kindle and Antelope District tribal council representative Scott Herman also had term-limit challenges filed against them. Kindle will move on, while Herman has officially withdrawn from the race. COURTESY/QUOTESTEMPLE.COM
Rosebud leaders challenged
Tribe’s election board dismisses term-limit requests
By Jesse Abernathy
Native Sun News Editor ROSEBUD – Challenges to the terms of three of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s leaders, including the president and vice president, were heard here last week. The tribe’s election board held individual public hearings Aug. 14 for President Rodney Bordeaux, Vice President William “Willie” Kindle and Antelope District representative Scott Herman. Lenard “Shadow” Wright, the Rosebud District’s current tribal council representative who made an unsuccessful bid for the office of president last month in the tribe’s primary election, filed term-limit challenges with the board July 30 against the three tribal council members. In accordance with a 2007 amendment to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Constitution that limits elected leaders to serving two consecutive terms, Wright claimed Bordeaux, Kindle and Herman were ineligible to run for their respective seats as they had each already served at least two consecutive terms. RST Election Board officials disagreed with Wright’s claims, however. The five-member board upheld a 2011 ruling handed down by the tribe’s Supreme Court which said the 2007 term-limit amendment was not legally in effect until the tribe’s 2009 election, said Cecelia Fast Horse, election board sergeant-at-arms. The high court’s decision was based on the Russell Eagle Bear case, Fast Horse explained. Eagle Bear was up for a third term as a tribal council representative in 2011 and had a term-limit challenged filed against him. “But the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Supreme Court said the 2007 amendment could not be declared retroactive to go back before 2009, so the term limit didn’t apply to Eagle Bear until 2009,” she said. This ruling effectively made Eagle Bear’s third run for tribal council in 2011 only his second go-around. When the term-limits were added to the Constitution in 2007, the tribe “forgot to also say that each district should have only one representative” on the council, Fast Horse noted. “So in 2011 that was changed to only one representative from each district instead of three or four, and the term-limit amendment was declared effective with the 2009 election,” she said. Fast Horse said the election board decided to let Bordeaux, Kindle and Herman run in the tribe’s general election, which is scheduled for Aug. 23. “We just had the hearings as a due process,” she added. Falling under Article III – Governing Body of the RST Constitution, which is publicly accessible on the tribe’s website, the Section 2 amendment dated Sept. 20, 2007, states: “The offices of the President, Vice President, Council Representatives, Secretary, and Treasurer shall be subject to limits of two consecutive terms.” Bordeaux has served as tribal president continuously since 2005. 2007, the year the Constitution was amended to limit council terms, saw Bordeaux elected to a second term, while 2009 saw him win a third term. If voted back into office Aug. 23, the incumbent will begin an unprecedented fourth term. Under the tribal Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling, however, a win this year would legally mark the beginning of Bordeaux’s second term. Kindle has held the position of vice president since 2007. In 2009, he was re-elected to a second term. Kindle is looking to begin a third consecutive vice presidential term on Aug. 23. Under the law, though, another win would give Kindle a tenure of two terms. Herman, who voluntarily withdrew from the running as Antelope District representative following his hearing, according to Fast Horse, has served three consecutive terms; this election year would have marked the beginning of his fourth. For the Antelope District, this leaves only Calvin “Hawkeye” Waln on the ballot for the general election, said Fast Horse. Waln received 487 votes to incumbent Herman’s 545 votes in the July 26 primary election. But, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe has “nothing in our election code that says what to do when someone withdraws” from the election, she said. So the election board “decided to have another, special election just for the Antelope District on September 20.” There were 10 members of the tribe who ran for the Antelope District seat, including Herman and Waln, Fast Horse said, and, with the exception of Herman, they will all be put back on the ballot on Sept. 9. The offices of president, vice president and district representative are all three-year terms. In addition to Fast Horse, the tribe’s election board includes Sam High Crane, chairman; Rhonda McKenzie, vice chairwoman; Ronald Valandra, treasurer; and Patricia “Patti” Romero, secretary. (Contact Jesse Abernathy at editor@nsweekly.com)
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