Meskwaki vote could heal wounds from power struggle

TAMA - Eligible members of the Meskwaki nation will vote Feb. 1 on a proposal that could help heal deep wounds caused by the 2003 power struggle that closed the tribe's casino for seven months.

Voters will be asked to ratify or reject a Jan. 6 Tribal Council resolution to restore per capita

payments to 10 people who were either members of the tribal council deposed during the 2003 leadership crisis or associates of the deposed council.

Tribal Council Chairman Adrian Pushetonequa said the council passed the resolution in response to requests from tribal members who want to ease tensions between the two factions.

“We are all related to each other and, the thinking goes, we should try to mend some of the hard feelings,” he said.

Whether a majority of the voters will agree remains to be seen, Pushetonequa said.

“It's time to let bygones be bygones,” said Leodean Peters, the chairman of the tribal election committee that supported the deposed council led by Alex Walker Jr. during the 2003 dispute.

Peters praised the current Tribal Council as “a fair governing body that wants to do what's right for the people.”

Aaron Walker, a member of the deposed council, said it's hard to tell how much division remains. “There has been some healing, but a lot of people are still on one side or the other,” he said.

Walker said he thinks the payments should have been restored without submitting the resolution to a vote of the people. “The council took them away without a vote of the people,” he said.

The tribal council that prevailed in the power struggle, led by then Chairman Homer Bear Jr., ordered in 2005 that per capita payments be withheld from Peters, Alex Walker Jr., Lyle Walker, Aaron Walker, Frank Wanatee Jr., Donald Wanatee Sr., Priscilla Wanatee, Roberta Hale, Delores Troxell and Elizabeth Roberts.

The Bear-led council contended that the deposed council had misappropriated more than $700,000.

In an attempt to obtain information about the alleged missing money, the Tribal Council set quasi-judicial hearings and ordered Walker council members and associates to deliver pertinent documents. When they either refused to appear or failed to deliver the documents, they were found in contempt and fined $1,000 a day until they provided the requested information.

In lieu of payment of the fines, the council cut off their per-capita payments, which at the time were $2,000 per month. “If they had proof of the allegations, they would have charged us,” Aaron Walker said.

“The per capita payments never should have been taken away, and restoring them is the right thing to do,” said Des Moines attorney Fred Dorr, who once represented the 10 tribal members who stand to regain their monthly share of casino profits.

The loss of revenue during the seven-month closure began a downward spiral during which increased competition from state-licensed casinos and interest payments on the tribe's $111 million casino expansion collided with an economic recession to lower per capita payments to the current $600 per month.