Smoke signals., August 01, 2024, Page 7, Image 7

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AUGUST 1, 2024
7
Candidates forum attracts several attendees
By Nicole Montesano
Smoke Signals staff writer
Approximately 30 people turned
out in person on Thursday, July 25,
to hear candidates for Tribal Coun-
cil discuss their vision for the Tribe,
with another 50 watching on Zoom.
Finance Officer Chris Leno mod-
erated the forum at the request of
General Manager Angie Blackwell,
who is related to one of the candi-
dates.
Leno said recordings of the event
will be made available by request
but won’t be posted online. Cop-
ies may be requested from Tribal
Council Chief of Staff Stacia Her-
nandez.
Seven candidates are vying for
three council seats. Incumbents
Cheryle A. Kennedy, Jon A. George
and Michael Cherry are facing
challengers Valeria Atanacio,
Pamala Warren-Chase, Tonya
Gleason-Shepek and Andy Jenness.
Jenness currently sits on the
Smoke Signals Editorial Board, but
under the Tribal Free Press Ordi-
nance amendment that received its
first reading before Tribal Council
on July 24, he would be required to
resign from the Editorial Board if
he were elected to Tribal Council,
as the ordinance amendment pro-
hibits serving on both at the same
time.
Questions were submitted by
Tribal members ahead of the fo-
rum and covered a range of topics,
including candidates’ stance on
changing enrollment requirements
to lineal descent, recording cere-
monies, how they might strike a
balance between providing more
Tribal programs and providing the
per capita payments, whether they
support a free and independent
Tribal media, and whether they
would pledge to create more posi-
tions to represent the two-spirit/
Native LGBTQIA community.
The acronym stands for lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/
questioning, intersex and asexual/
aromantic/agender.
Altogether, eight questions were
asked and three candidates re-
sponded to each. A few took their
next opportunity to speak, or their
closing statement time, to address
questions they hadn’t had the op-
portunity to answer.
Kennedy has served on the Tribal
Council for 25 years, 18 of them as
chairwoman.
“We’ve endured so much and it’s
up to all of us,” she said, referring
to the Tribe’s treaty rights.
George has served on the Council
for 12 years. He said that he has
learned to “have a strong voice and
stand strong.”
Cherry, who serves as Tribal
Council Secretary, was elected in
2021. She told the audience, “we
have much to celebrate but we also
have much work to do.”
Gleason-Shepek served on council
from 2014 to 2017, then worked
for the state child welfare system,
retiring about a year ago. She said
she wants to improve, “open and
honest communication” between
the council and Tribal members.
Atanacio is a first-time candidate
and said she is seeking to bring the
energy of a younger generation to
the council.
“I feel a calling and inspiration to
start moving into leadership in the
Tribe,” Atanacio said.
Jenness said that he first served
on the council 30 years ago, and
voted on momentous decisions for
the Tribe including putting the en-
dowments into place and bringing
in Spirit Mountain Casino. While
those decisions brought benefits,
Jenness said, they also brought
division and he wants to work on
healing that divide.
“I want to see us restored to unity
and harmony, and to get along,”
he said.
Warren-Chase is running for
council for the second time and
has worked for the Tribe in various
capacities throughout the years.
“Every time I leave, I always
come back,” she said. “I realized
it’s the people. I need to be here. I
need to serve.”
One question was whether candi-
dates would be willing to commit to
creating more job positions in sup-
port of two-spirit/Native LGBTQIA
Tribal members and if not, what
they would do in lieu of that to
address needs of the community.
Candidates said they would do
whatever they could to support
that community. However, Jenness
said, “Creating positions is not in
the council’s scope of authority.”
He added that the council should
“set the tone” by showing “love for
all our people no matter what life-
style they choose.”
Warren-Chase said she’s unsure
what sort of position is being called
for, and that the council would need
to sit down and think about how to
meet the needs of that community.
“Discrimination is shameful,”
she said.
Cherry said the Tribe needs to
add more mental health services,
noting that the two-spirit/Native
LGBTQIA community is at ex-
tremely high risk for suicide.
“I can’t promise new positions,”
Cherry said, but she did promise
her support for improved services.
Changing Tribal enrollment
criteria to lineal descent also drew
promises of support from the can-
didates.
The question was answered by
George, Atanacio and Gleason-She-
pek, all of whom said the council
needs to respect the will of Tribal
members and move forward with
the change, although they also
indicated it will be “a lot of work.”
Gleason-Shepek suggested more
might be needed than simply
changing the criteria.
“I think our Tribe has a lot of
healing do around enrollment,
perhaps some type of healing cere-
mony,” she said.
The question of whether to allow
Tribal ceremonies to be recorded
or documented, and viewed by
non-Tribal members, drew more
varied responses, although candi-
dates’ general consensus was that
certain ceremonies should be kept
private and others allowed to be
recorded.
Kennedy said the “most sacred
are burials and they are open,” but
said she believes sweat and healing
ceremonies should be kept private.
Ceremonies around food, Kennedy
said, should be open for recording
and documenting.
“One of my goals is to restore
our culture to the greatest extent
possible,” Kennedy said. “I wish we
could offer more classes so people
could know we’re from an ancient
people, a spiritual people.”
Cherry said that seeing certain
things on video, such as prayer,
“hurts my heart.”
On the other hand, Cherry said,
“I don’t like exclusivity.”
She said the Tribe’s oral history
is for maintaining traditions involv-
ing sacred events and those should
not be recorded.
“I think about members who are
not near us and how they got there,”
Jenness said. “A lot were forced to
move.”
In some cases, he said, such as
the annual trip to honor Toma-
nowos at the American Museum of
Natural History in New York City,
it simply isn’t possible for the entire
Tribe to participate.
“Our members need to have ac-
cess to our ceremonies and what
those are and why so those can be
integrated into their lives as well,”
he said.
Warren-Chase said that some
ceremonies should be kept private,
but that “there’s a level of education
that we need to do,” with others.
Decisions about which ceremonies
should be recorded or kept private
should be made by the Tribe’s spir-
itual leaders, Warren-Chase said.
Another question asked candi-
dates’ thoughts on an independent
press. In addition, candidates were
emailed two questions, requested
by Smoke Signals Editorial Board
Chair Mia Prickett.
Four candidates, Cherry, War-
ren-Chase, Atanacio and Kennedy
responded before press time. Other
candidates’ answers will be added
to the online story if they reply.
The questions were:
• “In your opinion, what is the role
of Smoke Signals and what is
your stance on the Tribe having
an independent free press?”
• “What do you believe the differ-
ence is between the Smoke Sig-
nals as an independent free press
and the Tribe’s public relations
department? And how would you
as a council member help foster
an environment of interdepart-
mental collaboration?”
Jenness, who did not respond to
the emailed questions, said during
the forum, “I think an informed
citizenry is what it takes to live in
a democracy and to hold our leaders
accountable.”
He noted that there are approx-
imately 500 Tribes in the United
States and Smoke Signals is one
of five or six with an independent
press.
“So, we are trend setters, we are
leading the way in Indian Country,”
he said.
Cherry said, “I absolutely support
(the) independent press and would
continue to do so,” a comment she
reiterated in her emailed state-
ment.
George, who did not reply to the
emailed questions, said he wanted
to “honor Chris Mercier, whose idea
it was,” and noted the council had
amended its ordinance, “for the
hard work they do and wanting to
speak the truth,” to ensure there
would be “no repercussions for
speaking their truth.”
Atanacio did not have a chance
to answer the question during the
forum, but responded by email.
“I believe it is important to have
(an) independent free press to give
all sides to a story in order to al-
low people to form their individual
thoughts and opinions.”
Atanacio wrote that the differ-
ence between Smoke Signals and
the Tribe’s public relations de-
partment is that, “Public relations
is to really focus on the Tribe as a
government entity and the image of
our government business, whereas
Smoke Signals provides accurate
and neutral documentation of
events focused on both government,
community and individual Tribal
members.”
She said the two “definitely have
a responsibility in collaborating
and communicating with one an-
other and as a council person, I
would work to make this a prior-
ity by lobbying for support to the
Editorial Board and staff within
our public relations department
and Smoke Signals, in the form of
co-designing and building shared
goals for the work that intersects
across both areas.”
Warren-Chase, who responded
both in the forum and by email,
said, “I feel an independent free
press is vital to reporting and dis-
seminating news and events free of
undue bias and/or influence. A true
free press should not have any out-
side political or personal influence.”
She said she was unaware the
Tribe had a public relations de-
partment, but that “it would be a
priority to me to foster interdepart-
mental communication/collabora-
tion across the board.”
Kennedy wrote that she supports
Smoke Signals as a free press.
“I support Smoke Signals oper-
ating as an independent free press
because I’ve observed that Smoke
Signals operates in an ethical
manner,” she said. “I trust it will
continue operating in a responsible
and fair way.”
As to the question about in-
ter-department collaboration and
the difference between Smoke Sig-
nals and the public relations de-
partment, Kennedy said, “Smoke
Signals is a newspaper reporting
on general news, events, occur-
rences, culture, information, ser-
vices and notices of upcoming
events, while the public relations
department is an advocate for the
Tribe to promote good relations
with agencies, federal, state and
local governments and to promote
the goals of the Tribe.”
She continued, “Because the roles
between Smoke Signals and Public
Affairs are distinctly different, each
has an important role. It may be
beneficial to have a monthly joint
meeting but must be careful not to
duplicate work nor increase work-
load. I would seek opinions from
the professional staff who bear the
responsibility before an action is
taken.” n