3 candidates in race for Ute Mountain tribal chair

3 candidates in race for Ute Mountain tribal chair

October 2, 2001

By Jim Mimiaga
Journal Staff Writer

The Ute Mountain Ute tribe will hold elections for tribal chair and three council seats on Oct. 12.

Councilman Art Cuthair and former chair Judy Knight-Frank will challenge incumbent chairman Ernest House Sr. in the first three-way race for tribal leader in recent memory.

Three council seats of the seven total are also up for election, including one representing White Mesa, the satellite Ute community in southeast Utah.

Cuthair will leave his seat to run for chairman. Councilman Carl Knight and vice-chair Selwyn Whiteskunk are seeking re-election.

The seven candidates running for the two seats representing the Colorado portion of the tribe are: Derrick Clark, Harold Cuthair, Knight, Benjamin Lehi, Michael Mills, Kathryn Peabody, Lyndreth Wall Sr., Whiteskunk and Mark Wilson.

In White Mesa, Utah, councilman Eddie Dutchie Jr. is running for another three-year term. He is being challenged by Elayne Cantsee, Malcolm Lehi and Anna Lee Rabbit.

Under the general Ute election procedures, the two candidates with the most votes win open council seats. White Mesa voters elect only their representative, but also vote for chairperson. The chair and council seats are for three-year terms.

The Ute capitol of Towaoc is buzzing in anticipation of the election, tribal officials said Monday.

"We’re ready to go, and there seems to be a good amount of interest," said Eric White, a Ute election official. "Every year voter participation goes up, and this election we’re expecting that as well."

All Ute Mountain registered tribal members are eligible to vote if they are 18 or over, regardless of whether they live on the reservation. Absentee ballot requests are in the mail, White said, but the deadline to sign up for one has passed.

The campaign issues are varied but most often focus on education, said Norman Lopez, editor of the Weenuche Smoke Signals.

"I think to some extent people are wanting to see the tribe take a step in a more traditional direction," Lopez said. "It is a balance of staying modern while upholding and teaching our traditional ways, but interest in our history and language is less and less to the point we could lose it.

"So there is a feeling to reach back to our roots through education like developing an Indian school," he said.

The race for chair will likely boost participation, White said. House and Knight-Frank have traded off the chairmanship since 1985, with each typically serving two three-year terms. House was elected in 1998.

Politicking on the tight-knit Ute reservation does not usually involve a lot of heavy campaigning as it does with non-Indians, Lopez explained. There were no election forums held, for instance.

"We’re a very close tribe so campaigning takes place more by word of mouth with people deciding in their own way how well a candidate can do the job," Lopez said.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday Oct. 12. In Towaoc voting will take place at the Dining Hall. In White Mesa, polling will take place at the Red Barn.