Shelley Smithson

At the Fort Apache Reservation south of Show Low, two Tribal Council incumbents faced  defeat in yesterday’s primary.

The White Mountain Apache tribal election followed a raucous campaign season that culminated with a judge unsuccessfully trying to halt balloting.

Longtime Councilman Reno Johnson Sr. came in third in a field of three candidates, and won’t be able to compete in the general election in April.

The Election Commission barred Councilman Rubert Lupe Sr. from running because he did not meet the qualifications to run in his district.

Despite a tribal judge’s order to suspend the election, voting went forward Wednesday.

The reservation south of Show Low is embroiled in a political power play between long time chairman Ronnie Lupe and the Council.

The Council suspended 82-year-old Lupe in December. 

His critics claim he is trying to block opposition candidates from running in the Tribal Council election.

In January, Judge Reagan Armstrong ordered the tribe’s election office to reinstate the names of three candidates who were left off the ballot.

The Navajo Nation Council recently voted to oppose a land-swap bill that would allow copper mining in the Tonto National Forest.

The legislation, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Doney Park, would lift a decades-old mining ban on 2,600 acres of federal forest east of Phoenix. 

It would swap the land for 5,000 acres of private land.

Copper prices are at historic highs, and Gosar says a mine near Superior would create 3,700 jobs.

The Navajo Nation has joined the San Carlos Apache Tribe in opposing the bill.

The Hopi Tribe will appeal a recent ruling in favor of the City of Flagstaff’s plan to sell reclaimed wastewater to Arizona Snowbowl.

The Tribal Council recently told its lawyers to appeal the decision by the Coconino County Superior Court.

In his ruling in late December, Judge Joe Lodge said that the major issues in the case have already been decided in federal court.

The tribe’s latest suit claims that treated sewage water cannot be used for snowmaking because melted snow could flow into water basins outside of the ski resort.

A hearing is scheduled next month for the fifth Tuba City Chapter official facing ethics charges on the Navajo Nation.

Charlene Nez, the chapter’s secretary and treasurer, is accused of taking $26,000 in chapter funds.

Her hearing before the Navajo Office of Hearings and Appeals is scheduled for Feb. 7.

Four other chapter leaders were removed from office last fall.

The officials are accused of granting themselves excessive bonuses totaling $80,000.  

 More than 100 opponents of snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks marched to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco Monday.

That’s where attorneys for the Save the Peaks Coalition were appealing a lower court decision that allowed the U.S. Forest Service to grant a snowmaking permit for Arizona Snowbowl.

The coalition is made up of Native American tribes and environmental groups. The Peaks are sacred to 13 tribes.

The chairman of the Hopi Tribe says he will not fight a recent decision by the Tribal Council to strip him of administrative duties.

The Hopi Tribal Council voted unanimously Nov. 30 to take away Chairman Leroy Shingoitewa’s oversight of personnel.  

The Council also fired the lawyer that Shingoitewa had contracted to represent the tribe. Critics claim Robert Lyttle’s legal fees have exceeded $6 million.

Shingoitewa says the Council has since decided to rehire Lyttle.