Blackfeet to hold June 27 vote on new constitution

In less than a week, members of the Blackfeet Nation will decide whether to adopt a new constitution to guide the tribal government, following several tumultous years for the governing council.

About 13,000 eligible Blackfeet members will be able to participate in the election, which is overseen by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. If a majority of members vote to adopt the proposed constitution, it would become effective once the election results are certified.

The tribe’s current constitution was adopted 82 years ago under the Indian Reorganization Act. Monte Mills, a tribal law professor at the University of Montana’s law school, said the tribal constitutions ratified under the 1934 law often fell short of reflecting the tribes’ unique cultural attitudes toward governance.

“Those constitutions were sort of boilerplate, prepared by federal agents to set up government structures that were kind of uniform and may or may not align with how the tribes had governed themselves, or what was working for that tribe,” Mills told the Daily Inter Lake last week.

He added that prominent in those “boilerplate” documents was a lack of institutional controls to keep the elected legislative branch separate from the judicial and executive branches.

Business council member Joe McKay, who spearheaded the effort over the past two years to re-write the constitution, said the new version wouldn create stronger separation of powers between the three branches of government. While he acknowledges that aspect shares similarities with the checks and balances of the U.S. Constitution, McKay said those provisions go further back than the federal government’s guiding document.

“The U.S. government is patterned off of Indian nations that were in existence at that time, which actually already had separation of powers,” he said. “All we’re really doing is returning to a form which was traditional in a sense of not embedding all power in a single person or a single entity, but really having that power divided.”

He also believes those changes will have a direct impact on the reservation’s private sector. With more assurances that the judiciary will act consistently and independently of elected leaders, he said, businesses will hopefully be more willing to provide much-needed investments in the tribe’s struggling economy.

“They want to know a court system is functioning and fair and if they invest in this reservation and economy and a dispute occurs, they’re going to have their rights protected,” McKay said.

While Native American tribes throughout the United States adopted Indian Reorganization Act constitutions in the years after the law’s passage, many have since enacted their own guiding documents. Mills noted that those tribal governments typically work to strengthen tribal sovereignty by removing requirements that the Bureau of Indian Affairs review each law passed by the legislative branch.

McKay said that’s another major component of the proposed Blackfeet constitution.

The constitutional reform effort has roots in a long history of efforts by tribal leaders to bring change to the government. But for Blackfeet Tribal Business Council Member Joe McKay, the collapse of the tribal government in 2012 was one of the defining periods that generated momentum behind the project.

“

McKay said the new constitution includes

Polls will open Tuesday, June 27, at 8 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Eligible voters are required to register for the federal election, and registration forms have been delivered to tribal members’ last known addresses.

Those Blackfeet Tribal members who have not received a registration packet in the mail can contact the Secretarial Election Board at the Blackfeet Agency in Browning by calling 406-338-7544.

The second historic vote of the Blackfeet People is now underway in the form of the Secretarial Election on the proposed new Constitution of the Blackfeet Nation. Because the Secretarial Election is a federal election, tribal members must register in order to vote. Considering the importance of this election to the Blackfeet People, everyone is encouraged to register and vote.

However, there is some confusion regarding the process. Voting in this election is both by absentee ballot and local polling places. Registration forms have already been sent out to the last known addresses of the 13,000 or so eligible tribal voters. According to the Secretarial Election Board, a number of registration forms have been returned as undeliverable.

At the request of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council there will also be local polling places on June 27, 2017. Tribal members who have not registered and voted by absentee ballot may present themselves at a polling place on the Reservation and register and vote on June 27. Prospective voters must present appropriate identification.

BLACKFEET NATION

P.O. BOX 850 BROWNING, MONTANA 59417

(406) 338-7521 FAX (406) 338-7530

For those registering and voting by mail, their Registration form must be received at the Blackfeet Agency by June 23, 2017. Tribal members are advised to return the Registration form well before that date if they want to get a ballot in time for the ballot to be mailed back and to arrive in Browning before 4:00 o’clock p.m. on June 27, 2017.

The deadline for returning mail ballots is 4:00 o’clock p.m. on June 27, 2017. If people are voting by mail, they should return their ballot well before June 27 in order for that ballot to be received on time and be counted.

As noted, there will be local polling places on June 27, 2017. The polling places will be open from 8:00 o’clock a.m. to 8:00 o’clock p.m. Those who did not register by mail will be allowed to register at the polling places on June 27, 2017. Local polling places will be set up at Blackfeet Community College, Starr School head start building, Babb head start building, Heart Butte head start building, Seville head start building, and the East Glacier head start building.

If a person requests and receives a mail ballot, that ballot can only be returned by U.S. mail; they will not be allowed to drop off the ballot at the polling places. However, if they do not vote their mail ballot, they can still show up at the polling place on the day of the election and vote in person.

All ballots are bar coded so that a person cannot vote twice.

Final counting of all the ballots and the announcement of the results will not take place until the close of polling places at 8:00 p.m. on June 27.

This Secretarial Election is the first time in the 82-year history of Blackfeet government that the Blackfeet People will be able to make a decision on a new form of government. This opportunity may not come around again, so everyone is encouraged to educate themselves and make an informed decision for future of the Blackfeet Nation.

/S/ Harry Barnes, Chairman

Blackfeet Tribal Business Council

Contact Information:

The Blackfeet Tribe

(406) 338-7521