Micmacs petition for a new election

By Gale Courey Toensing

Story Published: Jun 1, 2009

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Members of the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians are circulating a petition for new elections.

Blanche Jewell, a former 14-year council member, started the petition after finding out recently that her granddaughter, who has four small children, couldn’t access her Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program fuel assistance all winter. According to Jewell, the seated tribal government did not release the program until early May.

“She had to skimp. She couldn’t heat during the day; she had to save it for night when it got cold.”

Jewell said heating oil from CITGO wasn’t distributed either, because members have to use the LIHEAP oil first.

Jewell said Keel encouraged her to circulate the election petition. The petitioners will gather as many signatures as possible quickly and submit the petition to Victoria Higgins, the unelected seated chief, with a copy faxed to Keel.

The petition drive is the latest action in a simmering two-year controversy that has come to a boil since the release last month of an Interior Department Inspector General investigation report of a complaint concerning the May 2007 elections.

Marilyn Carlton, who won the election for chief over Higgins, filed the complaint. Carlton and her council were never seated because an “Elders Council” invalidated the election and kept Higgins and the incumbent 2005 council in power. Higgins, who has never been elected chief by the membership, was appointed by a former chief and reappointed by the 2005 council.

The IG report said the Elders Council members were “100 percent conflicted.” Four of the eight members had just been defeated in the election, two were their relations, one publicly disliked Carlton, and the other said she signed the invalidation under false pretenses.

The investigation found an allegation that attorney Doug Luckerman, who represents Higgins and the seated council, had improperly influenced Keel to support the invalidation of the election baseless.

Keel, however, did write an “Opinion Letter” saying that the BIA would recognize the defeated 2005 council until July 2007 when new elections were supposed to take place. Elections did not take place then or since. Keel said he was unaware of the Elders Council conflict of interest until the IG’s report was released.

Luckerman told IG investigators that, although he has represented the tribe since 2000, he did not read the tribe’s bylaws until the election dispute erupted in the spring of 2007.

“Luckerman stated that he now acknowledges the legal advice he provided to the Micmacs in the past without consulting the bylaws, was ‘the wrong thing to do,’” the report said.

The investigators told Luckerman that five of the nine council members who won the May 2007 election plus Chief-elect Carlton, had a signed petition with 68 signatures a year earlier to fire him.

“And therefore there was an appearance that Luckerman had an interest in invalidating the 2007 election inasmuch as he knew that he would be terminated as the tribe’s tribal counsel if the tribal council members elected in the May 2007 election assumed control of the government. Luckerman acknowledged that he would ‘be out of a job’ if (they) were to control the tribal government,” the report said.

Luckerman then told investigators that “the money does not matter to him, but rather he represents the Micmacs, and other tribes, because he ‘believes in this stuff’ and wants to help the tribes,” the report states.

The new petition drive is the third attempt in two months to hold elections. An April 5 nominations meeting failed for a lack of a quorum. Jewell and others said that the Higgins government didn’t notify all tribal members of the meeting, but only those who supported the seated government.

Higgins has denied that claim.

In an April 17 letter to members, Higgins said the council rejected an April 5 petition seeking another nominations meeting, and decided instead to stay in office “until the next election cycle in 2011.”

Jewell said Higgins’s claim that the bylaws do not allow a second nomination meeting is contradicted by the fact that additional meetings have occurred in the past, even following the May 2007 elections dispute.

Higgins could not be reached for additional comment.

Tribal council member Lesa Bennett commented by e-mail.

Council members Margaret Johnson, Catherine Sabine and Vickie Zetterman did not return calls seeking comments. Council members Sue Blanchard, Fred Peter Paul and Mary Sanipass could not be reached by phone.

Tribal members have asked Keel to rescind his “Opinion Letter,” but that can’t happen without a run through the BIA’s bureaucratic maze.

“That would require a review of all the circumstances surrounding it, and it would have to be after further discussion with the assistant secretary for Indian affairs and the director,” Keel, Choctaw-Chickasaw, said. “But my bottom line is I encourage elections. I’ve always done that in my conversations and my letters to the tribe and with my discussions with any tribal members. They’ve got to have an election.”

The BIA is now aware that Higgins and the seated council rejected the April petition for a new nomination meeting, blocking members’ ability to move an election forward.

“It is a dilemma and from our point of view that’s something I’ll have to discuss with the assistant secretary. But every tribal member is just going to have to push for an election and that means across the board, no matter who they support. They’ve got to have it if they’re going to exercise and develop their sovereignty. They’ve got to do it themselves. That’s the best way,” Keel said.

The IG’s office did not investigate an allegation that various tribal governments since 2000 have misappropriated funds. Keel said such allegations are common during disputes.

“I tell them, ‘here’s the IG’s number. It’s an 800 number. ((800) 424-5081).’ That’s really the only venue and we encourage people who have well-founded allegations to contact the IG.”

Rick Getchell, a former chief, is among those who continue to allege the misuse of funds. He said everything was in good fiscal order when he left office in 1999. He said tribal members need their rights back so they can move forward.

“The community needs to have the right to go to their meetings and take care of their business. The attorney needs to be out of the situation – what business does he have at all in anything?” Getchell said, reiterating several members’ remarks that Luckerman maintains a stranglehold of control over Higgins and the council.

The BIA could play a helpful role “by picking someone who’s unbiased from a different department, like the Department of Justice, and have them oversee our electoral process. Let them send out the nomination notice, set the date, open and chair the meeting – our bylaws allow anyone in the world to chair a meeting – and when the vote comes in, count the ballots with two sheriffs and coordinate that using our governing documents. That would take away any allegations of wrong doing and end all of this,” Getchell said.

In another development, Paul Bisulca, Penobscot, the chairman of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, has offered to facilitate a meeting between Higgins and Carlton for a discussion to reach resolution of the May 2007 Micmac election dispute.

“I also offered to assist in finding someone else if they chose not to accept my offer. I am doing this outreach as an individual and not in my capacity as chair of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission. Unfortunately, I cannot discuss the details of our conversations.”

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