Board: White Plume off ballot

By Mary Garrigan and Ryan Woodard, Journal Staff Writers | Tuesday, November 07, 2006

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Alex White Plume, the current president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, will not be on today’s ballot for that office, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Election Board confirmed Monday night.

The decision came after the election court of appeals overstepped its boundaries by trying to throw out the election entirely, according to board officials.

“Alex White Plume’s name will not be on the ballot tomorrow,” David Mills, office manager for the OST Election Board, said. “It will be John Yellow Bird Steele and Cecelia Fire Thunder running for president of this tribe.”

White Plume, the top vote getter in the Oct. 3 primary for the tribal presidency, appealed a Friday, Nov. 3, election-board decision that removed him from the Nov. 7 general election ballot. The election board cited a felony on his record that had not been previously revealed.

His appeal went to the court of election appeals, which, instead of deciding whether White Plume should be put back on the ballot, tried to take steps to have the election thrown out entirely, Mills said.

“The court of election appeals did not address the issue of putting Alex back on the ballot,” Mills said. “If they would have addressed the issue and they wanted to put Alex back on the ballot, the election board would have honored their decision and put him back on.”

He said that when the group met, “they did not discuss that issue at all. They sidetracked it and ordered a new election, general and primary, and that is out of their scope of jurisdiction. They’re only supposed to address challenges that are brought before them.”

Mills said that action violated tribal ordinance, and that the OST Council advised the board Monday evening to go on with the election as scheduled.

White Plume’s name was taken off the ballot Friday. Chairwoman Charlene Black Horse said that a federal background check had revealed an old felony charge that had not come to light in other background checks.

White Plume said the election board’s decision was based on erroneous information and that he has no felony conviction. Federal court documents show that White Plume was charged in 1982 with felony assault but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of assault by striking, beating or wounding, a crime punishable by a fine and not more than six months in jail.

The federal criminal codes under which White Plume pleaded guilty in 1982 have changed slightly. But his conviction, as defined by federal law today, would be a Class B misdemeanor, not a felony. He also maintained that under the terms of his guilty plea, the conviction was to be expunged from public record after successful completion of his probation.

White Plume has served as council president since Fire Thunder’s impeachment from that post in June. He garnered 610 votes in the primary. Steele was second with 521. Fire Thunder got 504 votes.

Tribal ordinance prohibits anyone who has been convicted of a felony from holding tribal office, a stricter qualification rule than either the South Dakota Legislature or the U.S. Congress maintains for its members. State lawmakers are disqualified from holding office if they have been convicted of “bribery, perjury or other infamous crimes” or of a crime that involves taking public money, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

By law, the U.S. Congress imposes only age, U.S. citizenship time limits and state residency requirements on its members.