Spry and Drost to contest for Grand Portage tribal chair

In the wake of Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribal Council Chair Norman Deschampe’s unexpected death on February 9, an election was held April 29 to determine who will move on to the special election to fill the opening. That election will be held July 1, 2019.

Deschampe served on the tribal council for 45 years, 27 of those as Tribal Council chairman.

Two seats were open on the Grand Portage Reservation Business Committee AKA Grand Portage Reservation Tribal Council, the Tribal Council chair and a committeeperson at large to fill the remainder of an unexpired four (4) year term.

Tribal council vice chair (Janice) Marie Spry has been serving as acting interim chair since Deschampe passed away. Marie resigned her seat on the council when she announced she will run to fill the remainder of the tribal chair term, which opened a committeeperson at large position.

Four candidates ran for tribal council chair: Spry, Beth Drost, Tony Swader and Donovan Dahmen. Spry garnered 132 votes (45.52 percent) while Drost picked up 115 votes, (39.66 percent). Both candidates now move on to the July 1 race.

Running to fill the vacancy created by Spry’s resignation were Rick Anderson, Rob Hull, Vallen Cook and Jason Burnett. Rick Anderson received 145 votes, just over 50.52 percent of the vote’s cast, with Hull picking up 62 votes, just over 21 percent of the ballots cast.

Anderson won the most votes but his election must first be filed with the Reservation Election Judge and Executive Director of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe before he can be sworn in.

The Election Ordinance (revised 12/14/2017) provides that if a candidate receives more than half of the votes cast for that position in the primary, that candidate is the winner and no further election is required for that position.

The Grand Portage Tribal Council is the governing body of the reservation and is a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT). The council is made up of a chairman, vice chairman, secretary/ treasurer, council man and council woman.