White Earth, Mille Lacs, Leech Lake Tribes to Hold Primary Elections on April 2

Members of White Earth Nation, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe will head to the polls on Tuesday, April 2 for tribal council primary elections.

White Earth voters will narrow a field of our Tribal Chairman candidates down to two. The candidates include incumbent Michael Fairbanks, as well as Eugene “Umsy” Tibbetts, Donovan G. Burnette, and Karen Marie Manypenny. No primary is needed for the District 3 Representative seat because incumbent Cheryl “Annie” Jackson and challenger Laura Lee Erickson were the only two people to file in that election.

There will be two primaries for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. The Chief Executive race includes three candidates that will be narrowed down to two. With longtime incumbent Melanie Benjamin not seeking re-election, Samuel Archie Moose, Wallace Ervin St. John, and Virgil Otis Wind are the three candidates seeking to take over that position.

There is also a District I Representative primary slated for Mille Lacs, where a field of six candidates will be narrowed to two. Those candidates are Valerie Charissa Harrington-Wind, Megan Ann Ballinger, Melissa Marie Boyd, Carolyn Marie Beaulieu, Curtis LeRoy Kalk, and Billie Jo Boyd.

The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe also has two primaries scheduled. The Chairperson race right now has 10 candiates, including incumbent Faron Jackson Sr. The District III Committeeperson primary has 13 candidates. Both primaries will narrow the candidates down to two in each race.

The full list of candidates for Chairperson is as follows:

• Branden Bowstring
• Calvin Howard
• Faron Jackson Sr. (Incumbent)
• Michael Reyes
• Tami Jackson
• Gerald White
• Dawn Litzau-Staples
• Terri Finn-Goggleye
• Walter “Frank” Reese
• Raymond “Skip” Lyons

For District III Committeeperson, those candidates are:

• Kari Fisherman
• Leon Staples Jr.
• Delmar Jones III
• Jennie Reyes
• John Johnson
• Donald “Mick” Finn
• Herschel Ogema
• Diane Osceola
• Peter “Big Pete” Jackson
• Glen “Tuffy” Fisher
• Kyle Fairbanks Sr.
• Julian Molash
• Thomas Brown

The primary elections on Tuesday are for Minnesota Chippewa Tribe members. Red Lake Nation is not an MCT member, and their tribal election is scheduled for May 15.