Northern Arapaho Tribe’s primary election arrives as protests continue over Business Council

Northern Arapaho voters braved a rainstorm near Great Plains Hall in Arapahoe to select which candidates should move to the general election for the tribe’s Business Council.

The Northern Arapaho Business Council (NABC) is made up of six elected officials who handle the day-to-day operations of the tribe.

“I wanted to, like, try to find more funding for the youth to do after school stuff,” said Michael Yellowplume, a candidate in the primary who lives in Arapahoe. “And then [find more funding] for the senior centers too.”

Aloysius Bell, Sr. said he’s motivated to vote because he’d like to see an audit of the tribe’s finances, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Some of that money, I don’t think it was well spent or went to where it’s supposed to go,” said Bell.

Tensions between the Business Council and the tribe’s General Council have piqued recently.

The General Council is the tribe’s main governing body, made up of all adult tribal members who attend meetings. Tribal members can submit agenda items for consideration by the whole body. Members meet to discuss those items and can send resolutions directing the Business Council to act on a variety of issues.

Recently, the Business Council put out a statement saying it wouldn’t carry out two General Council resolutions directing the Business Council to fire the tribe’s in-house counsel, Clare Johnson, and the general manager of the Wind River Casino, Patrick Lekrone.

“While we deeply respect the opinions of the General Council, we cannot follow its recent recommendations for personnel action,” read the statement. It mentions federal secretarial procedures as the reason the resolutions weren’t implemented.

That led to public demonstrations outside the Wind River Casino and in Riverton City Park.

“The General Council is our supreme governing body, not the NABC,” said Nicole Wagon, a Northern Arapaho tribal member who’s attended several of the protests. “They work for us. The people have spoken.”

This week, Wagon said she hopes tribal members will “vote for better elected officials, transparency and integrity for our tribe.”

The 12 candidates for the NABC who receive the most votes will move forward to the general election on Nov. 21. Six will be elected to the Business Council.

This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.