Snoqualmie Chief calls for tribal gathering, council recall
June 15, 2011 · 3:45 PM
Jerry Enick, chief of the Snoqualmie Tribe, has issued a call for a tribal gathering to recall seven sitting Tribal Council members.
Enick claims the sitting council has acted unconstitutionally and has been locked in political gridlock since last fall. He rented the longhouse at the Monroe State Fairgrounds for a meeting on Saturday, June 18, and is circulating a petition for the recall of council members Shelley Burch, Katherine Barker, Maryanne Hinzman, Robert Hinzman, Nina Repin, Frances De Los Angeles and Ray Mullen.
"The Snoqualmie Tribe and its people are currently without a government," Enick stated. "May is the traditional month for the elections, and the elections were postponed to an undetermined date in July by the Tribal Council... In the meantime, the Constitution wasn’t amended to extend the terms of the council seats that became vacant on June 1."
Tribal Chairwoman Shelley Burch, one of the seven named in Enick's petition, refutes the chief's political authority. She said the signatures won't mean anything until an enrollment audit, being conducted by a private party at the request of the council, confirms membership. Burch said a new election must also await the audit's findings.
"Until the audit is complete, we're not moving forward," she said.
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