Cheyenne & Arapaho faction still holding election

With more than 2,800 BIA employees placed on furlough status on Oct. 1, it is unclear whether any of the remaining employees will be available to monitor the ballot counting.

 

CONCHO, Okla. – Despite the federal government shutdown, at least one faction of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes is still planning on conducting its previously scheduled primary election Tuesday.

Thanks to an ongoing leadership dispute between Janice Prairie Chief-Boswell and Leslie Wandrie-Harjo, the Bureau of Indian Affairs agreed earlier this year to provide technical assistance to the tribes’ election commission. However, with more than 2,800 BIA employees placed on furlough status on Oct. 1, it is unclear whether any of the remaining employees will be available to monitor the ballot counting.

A spokeswoman for the Prairie Chief-Boswell administration confirmed Saturday that its commission will still conduct Tuesday’s election as scheduled. The offices of governor, lieutenant governor and four legislative seats are all slated to be on the ballot with the top two finishers advancing to the general election on Nov. 4.

As of Friday afternoon, the BIA still has not publicly disclosed which side it will be working with, prompting each claimant governments’ election commissions to distribute the other’s candidate lists in September.

Earlier this summer, representatives for both sides said a compromise was not an option, so the commission affiliated with the Prairie Chief-Boswell administration continues to work out of the tribes’ complex in Concho and the Wandrie-Harjo government’s commission keeps working out of Weatherford. A resolution to name a third election commission was voted down at a tribal council meeting Saturday morning.

Nedra Darling, spokeswoman for the BIA, and Fred Blackbear, chairman of the election commission affiliated with the Wandrie-Harjo administration, did not respond to requests for comment.