Joe Dupuis, who was sent - reportedly against his wishes - to a new job at the Kicking Horse Job Corps Center by the council starting Sept. 1, filed to run for a seat on the council that ousted him from his old job, in the Pablo District.
Dupuis, 61, had served as executive secretary since 1984 and has worked for the tribes for 37 years. He's one of 24 candidates in the primary election, which will winnow the field down to two candidates per district for the Dec. 15 general election.
There are 10 seats on the tribal council. Members serve four-year terms, and half the council seats are up for election every two years.
Dupuis joins Wesley W. Benn, Renee Camel Van Gunten and E.T. “Bud” Moran in challenging incumbent Lloyd D. Irvine for one of two spots on the general election ballot from the Pablo District.
According to court records, Benn, 31, was arrested and charged with felony sexual intercourse without consent and felony sexual assault on Oct. 11.
Also up for re-election is tribal chairman James H. Steele Jr., who is being challenged in the Arlee District by Jami Hawk-Hamel, Tom Haynes and Ron E. Couture.
The chairman is appointed by his or her fellow council members.
“I've obviously had a lifelong commitment to the people of these tribes,” Dupuis said of his decision to run. “I'm committed to the well-being and welfare of them and their children. I believe we need to restore honesty and integrity to the leadership of these tribes.”
Dupuis, who had been on medical leave prior to the decision, declined to comment on his reassignment from tribal headquarters to the Job Corps center.
But writers of letters to the editor in weekly newspapers in the Mission Valley have taken issue both with the decision, and with the way it was carried out. Marian Michel Andrew of Ronan alleged in a letter to the Valley Journal that Dupuis' wife was told if she didn't voluntarily leave an executive session of the tribal council she would be physically removed.
In a letter to the editor of the Lake County Leader, tribal member Loretta Stevens of Libby - who identified Dupuis as her brother - charged that the council kept tribal elders waiting 3 1/2 hours, then refused to let them speak at a meeting concerning the reassignment.
“This is a totally political issue and even appears to be somewhat personal,” Andrew wrote. “All I know is I have been physically ill since I witnessed our leaders in action.”
For his part Irvine, the incumbent, says Dupuis was reassigned because Kicking Horse had received a poor review from the Department of Labor and the council felt Dupuis could help straighten things out there.
“Joe worked there before, he knows it inside and out,” Irvine said. “He was scheduled to go back to work, and we thought he could help the staff get the Job Corps on an even-keel again. Plus, he'd had health problems, and we thought we'd take some of the stress off him. There was nothing more to it that I could see, but now it's this big, blown-up thing.”
Irvine, 63, has served on the tribal council for 20 years and helped establish cultural committees and Two Eagle River School. He was defeated in a re-election bid once, in the early 1990s, but reclaimed the seat in a special election after the person who beat him resigned.
“It's a seven-day-a-week job,” Irvine said. “We rarely find time for things like Mack Days (a tribe-sponsored fishing tournament). It's just the way it is. If you want to be on the council, you'd better not have another job, or you'll get fired. You can't do both.”
Many candidates mention health care for tribal members as a major issue.
“Every year it seems to get less and less. People say, ‘That's not right,' and it isn't,” said Victor Charlo, one of six candidates for a seat from the Dixon District currently held by Elmer “Sonny” Morigeau. “For me it's been really good, and I've been able to get what I needed. But you talk to others, and it's really difficult.”
“Our health care system is always an ongoing stymie because of declining federal funds,” Irvine said.
Efforts in Washington, D.C., to redefine Class 2 gaming that would threaten the slot machine-like, bingo-based games at the two casinos the tribes run on the Flathead Reservation is another potential problem, Irvine said.
“It's a lot of work trying to protect our sovereignty,” he said. “That's what it boils down to.”
“There isn't the possibility of relaxing,” Dupuis said. “There are challenges for us every day - challenges to our right to exist as a people, challenges to our right to choose to govern ourselves, challenges to our ownership of our resources.
“It's going to take strong leadership to carry on the traditions, the rights and sovereignty our ancestors were wise enough to gain for us. We've been handed an enormous responsibility, each and every one of us as a tribal people, and when we hand things off to the next generation, we'd need to be handing something better to them.”
Election results will be certified and announced next week.
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at (406) 319-2117 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.
Tribal council candidates
The top two vote-getters in each district in Saturday's primary election move on to the Dec. 15 general election.
Arlee District:
n James H. Steele Jr. (incumbent)
n Ron E. Couture
n Tom Haynes
n Jami Hawk-Hamel
Dixon District:
n Dee Dee Gingras
n Elmer “Sonny” Morigeau (incumbent)
n Martin G. Barnaby
n Anita L. (Orr) Matt
n Victor A. Charlo
n Terry Pitts
Hot Springs District:
n Nate Gray
n Mike L. Kenmille (incumbent)
n Leonard Deleware
n Michael H. Dolson
n Gene Lozeau
Pablo District:
n Lloyd D. Irvine (incumbent)
n E.T. “Bud” Moran
n Renee Camel Van Gunten
n Wesley W. Benn
n Joe Dupuis
St. Ignatius District:
n Michael McElderry
n Ron Trahan (incumbent)
n Charles L. “Charlie” Morigeau
n David Durgeloh Jr.
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