U.P. Tribe Leaders Released From Jail

<p><em><a href="mailto:nwalton@nmu.edu">By Nicole Walton, WNMU</a></em></p> <p>Leaders of the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in the Upper Peninsula have been released from jail, on orders from an appellate judge. The tribal council was arrested in Iron County last Wednesday for not swearing in officers elected in June.  </p> <p>Councilors say reservation boundaries that determine candidate eligibility are wrong, and were misinterpreted by the tribal election board.  But last Tuesday, Judge Bradley Dakota held the council in contempt of court and ordered them to jail for not swearing in the new members. </p> <p>Council attorney Zeke Fletcher says the council members remained in jail two days after an appellate judge issued a stay of Dakota's order. The stay was issued Thursday, but the council remained in jail through Saturday night.</p> <p>"The bottom line is that the LVD Tribal Court, whether it was the Court Clerk or Judge Dakota, just said that they were not going to recognize that decision, and they did not distribute that order to anybody else," Fletcher says.</p> <p>Fletcher says council members are afraid to return home, because they worry Dakota will issue more arrest warrants.</p> <p>Neither Dakota nor the LVD court will comment on the case.  </p> <p>The tribe's constitution says new council members have to be sworn in at the first regularly scheduled meeting of the month, which would have been tomorrow. Fletcher says Judge Dakota knew that, but ordered the swearing-in a week earlier, anyway.  </p> <p>The council says it will abide by the appellate judge's final ruling.  </p>