Native American Press/Ojibwe News

Brun unseats Whitefeather with 57%, four new councilmen at Red Lake

By Clara NiiSka - July 19, 2002
After months of vigorous campaigning, the election season on Minnesota’s seven Ojibwe reservations ended with the Red Lake run-off elections on July 17th.

Former tribal chairman Gerald “Butch” Brun, who was narrowly beaten by Bobby Whitefeather eight years ago, reclaimed the chairmanship with a 462 vote margin. Brun prevailed in every district except for Whitefeather’s home district of Ponemah, where the only candidates on the ballot were those running for chairman.

Butch Brun told Press/ON, “I wish to thank all Red Lake Nation voters that supported me throughout the campaign. I stuck to the issues, and all my supporters stuck to the issues, and we prevailed.”

Lame duck chairman Whitefeather was quoted in a morning-after article in the Bemidji Pioneer as telling political editor Brad Swenson, “It’s hard to figure, but the financial situation of the tribe is one of the biggest issues. … In recent years, the tribe has undergone real rapid growth and that has not been really understood by the people. We are not really in financial stress.”

According to audits and other internal tribal documents examined by Press/ON, the Red Lake Band’s debt created by the “real rapid growth” described by Whitefeather is in excess of forty million dollars, and according to one informed source Red Lake “is probably closer to fifty million dollars” in debt. Almost all of this debt was incurred during Whitefeather’s second four-year term in office, and the financial arrangements underlying the debt are currently the subject of forensic audits.

The other two tribal council officers, incumbent secretary Judy Roy and treasurer Darrell Seki, who was appointed to fill former treasurer Dan King’s seat after he was removed from office by a recall vote, won with a majority of the vote in the May 15, 2002 election. Ponemah district rep Clifford Hardy also won by a majority vote in the May 15th general election. The only two council members who did not stand for re-election this year were Redby rep Al Pemberton, and Ponemah rep Rudy Johnson.

Roman “Ducker” Stately, Jr. won the run-off election for the Red Lake district representative 4-year term with 67% of the vote. The incumbent, Delores Lasley, lost in the May 15th election to Stately and Donald Desjarlait.

Jim White won the contest for the other Red Lake rep’s seat, and will fill out the two years left by the resignation Fabian “Nickel” Cook.

In Redby district, incumbent Julius “Toady” Thunder returned to his seat on the council with 51% of the votes tallied.

William “Billy” Greene ousted Little Rock hay entrepreneur Harlan Beaulieu with 54% of the vote, sweeping the last of former treasurer Dan King’s “fab four” out of office. Press/ON has heard rumors, from a number of sources, that Greene is being subjected to death threats in the wake of his electoral victory.

Richard Barrett, Sr., won by nearly 71% in the Little Rock 2-year term, left vacant by the death of Lawrence Bedeau.