By Nate Wisneski – Kalihwisaks
The Oneida Nation can move forward with constitutional amendments after a challenge to last year’s Secretarial Election was dismissed.
Shortly after the May 2, 2015 Secretarial Election an appeal was filed by Madelyn Genskow questioning the validity of the election. The Midwest Regional Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs dismissed Genskow’s challenge which triggered a Genskow appeal to the Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA) within the United States Department of Interior.
The IBIA released their decision to dismiss the appeal on February 11, 2016.
“We dismiss the appeal in part, for lack of standing, and affirm the decision in remaining part. Appellant (Genskow) lacks standing to challenge the substance of a constitutional amendment. And, to the extent that Appellant challenges the fairness and integrity of the Election itself, she has not provided substantiating evidence to support her claims. Nor has Appellant shown any error in the Regional Director’s determination that voter turnout was sufficient,” the ruling said.
The ruling also stated, “that Appellant lacks standing to challenge the Election because Appellant does not contend that she was confused and deterred from casting her vote in the Election by absentee ballot, Appellant cannot assert standing on behalf of other tribal members or the Tribe as a whole.”
Oneida Business Committee Secretary Lisa Summers was a core member of the Secretarial Election Board, which prepared tribal citizens for the election. She is pleased the amendments can move forward.
“I would like to acknowledge the work of all those who came before us and the efforts put into doing the research and outreach to the community, the Constitutional Review Committee and Business Committee’s of the past helped to pave the way for this change to happen. I would also like to thank the membership for their patience as we waited for this process to be completed and I am looking forward to the next steps, which is implementation of the amendments,” Summers said. “The OBC has agreed to have an acknowledgement of the amendments at the July GTC meeting and I look forward to celebrating this change with the GTC and community at that time.”
OBC Vice-Chairwoman Melinda Danforth reflected on the hard work put in to make the amendments possible.
“This election was historic as it had been 45 years since the Oneida Tribal Constitution was last amended. A tribal member exercised their right to appeal and now that the appeal has concluded, the Oneida people who voted in that election will now be able to see the full implementation of all five amendments,” said Danforth.
“The hard work of all those who worked on constitutional change for the past few decades has always been in the forefront of my mind. It is their work that laid the foundation for this to happen. Now, it is time to celebrate this historic event, as the doors to reorganizing our governance in a culturally sound structure have now been opened.”
1, 694 Oneida citizens registered to vote in the election that was overseen by Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. The five amendments that were approved by voters were:
Lowering the voting age from 21 to 18
Changing the tribe’s name from the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin to the Oneida Nation.
Removing the Secretary of Interior from an oversight role over the tribe.
Establish the Judiciary in the tribal constitution.
Remove the first Monday meeting requirement for the annual and semi-annual meetings.
Genskow has now focused her attention to military members who are unable to vote by absentee ballot.
“On May 2, 2015, the Oneida Tribal Constitution was changed with only 872 total ballots cast. This changed our constitution that covers over 17,000 members.
Most egregious was that it removed the right of our Oneida warriors who serve in the United States military, the right to vote by absentee ballot in the next change of our tribal constitution. That would be even if the membership rules would change and our soldiers’ would lose their tribal membership. I appealed the May 2nd, 2015, secretarial election. The appeal was denied,” Genskow said.
Though Genskow doesn’t plan to appeal to the United States District Courts she has put the call out for support.
“Tonight will start a national campaign to appeal to the VFW, the League of Women Voters, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the American Civil Liberties Union and anyone else who might join the battle to give our Oneida soldiers and all American Indian soldiers their American Civil Rights to vote by absentee ballot,” she said.
The constitutional amendments are effective immediately but the Oneida Business Committee will hold and acknowledgement of the passed amendments during the July Semi-Annual GTC meeting.
