Band of Ojibwe primary elections decided.
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe elected Arthur "Archie" LaRose as their new chairman today with 55.9 percent of the vote, beating incumbent George Goggleye Junior by 572 votes.
Although the election was a primary, the band's voting rules state that if a candidate gets more than half the votes there's no general election vote.
Unofficial results from the White Earth primaries show that the chairwoman of Band of Ojibwe handily won the primary vote.
Chairwoman Erma J. Vizenor received more than 66 percent of the votes Tuesday. Because she got more than 50 percent, she automatically retains her seat. She beat six challengers.
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Former tribal chairman Darrell "Chip" Wadena tried to run, but the White Earth Tribal Council did not certify him as a candidate because of his criminal history.
Among the other Leech Lake candidates for chairman, none got more than 6 percent of the vote. There will be votes in the general election on June 10 for secretary-treasurer and for the representative from district three, however.
In the District III race, Kenneth "Gus" Bevins and Ralph "Bucky" Goodman will advance to the general election June 10. They were the top vote getters of 12 candidates. The Leech Lake Reservation is located in Northern Minnesota from near Walker to Cass Lake.
The White Earth Reservation is in northwestern Minnesota, just north of Detroit Lakes.
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Information from: Brian Schultz/KKBJ-FM; Carol McCarthy/KDLM-AM; Jake Judd/KRCQ-FM
