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This has been an exciting
week. Since I'm knee deep in work on this computer I have been un able to
follow too closely the rift in the Ponca tribe. Today this came out in the
Oklahoma City Paper, The Oklahoman and I thought you might enjoy reading:
TRIBAL POLICE FOIL ARMED RAID.
Armed man found about five miles from headquarters
By Mae Bentley, Staff writer
White Eagle – A planned
early-morning, armed raid on the Ponca Tribe headquarters never got past the
staging area a tribal police chief said Saturday
LeRoy Enloe, chief of the
Otoe-Missouria police department, said his officers detained a man at 3 a.m.
Saturday at the Otoe =Missouria trading post which is about five miles south
of the Ponca Tribe headquarters.
Enloe said the man was
armed with fived loaded weapons - two 22 caliber pistols, a shotgun and two
semi automatic rifles.
The man told Enloe's
officers that he was the first to arrive of eight men hired to storm the
Police headquarters building.
The Ponca Tribe has been
split since the elections eight days ago.
Two former councilmen -
Chairman Bennett Arkeketa and Secretary/Treasurer Charlie Primeaux-lost
their seats. Along with former tribe executive director Cheryl Gonseth and
other supporters, they have refused to recognize the election results and
have occupied the Valdez (social services) Building next to tribal
headquarters.
Other tribal members and
officers, including five of the seven council members, have maintained 24
hour control of the tribal headquarters. About 20 people spent Friday night
and Saturday morning there, an oficial said.
Enloe said the detained
man was non-Indian and so was not arrested.
He was offered to the
Noble County Sheriff's, then turned over to Curtis Johnson, the former Ponca
Tribe police chief, with instructions to stay off Otoe-Missouria land, Enloe
said.
Enloe said the man told
him that he was hired by Johnson and Gonseth.]
“It was basically a
mercenary crew,” said Enloe, who believes the othe hired guns drove on past
the trading post when they saw police cars.
“We heard later a large
group had gathered at the Kay County/Noble County line, but they were gone
by the time officers got there.”
The detained man had a
military identification card and was CLEET (Council of Law Enforcement
Education and Training) certified. Enloe said the man said he was operating
on his own accord and not as a representative of any state or military
police unit, in which case he “wouldn't have faced any trouble with me.”
His military unit,
apparently Reserve or Nataional Guard, was contacted and had no knowledge of
his actions, Enloe said.
“This probably cost him
his job,” Enloe said.
The Otoe-Missouria have a
cross deputization agreement with the Ponca Tribe and three other Indian
tribes in the area, Enloe said.
Arkeketa, Primeaux,
Gonseth and Johnson were not available for comment, a woman at the Valdez
Building told. The Oklahoman. Arkeketa and Primeaux were “working on some
business right now,” she said.
Casey Camp-Horinek,
tribal election chairman, said about 20 people spent Friday night in the
tribal headquarters and about 40 or 50 show up for evening meals. Nearly 30
spend the night in the Valdez building, a woman said by telephone.
A tribal official who
asked to remain anonymous said there is nothing in the Valdez Building that
is useful to the Arkeketa group and their occupation is symbolic at best.
Eh-bah-deb-bah-deb-bah-deb,
bah and that's all folks. ;-)
On The
Ranchiquita-quita-quita here, all is quiet except for one whiny, high
pitched, Oklahoma nasel twanged voiced call, from the man who threatens to
shoot the dogs “IF” they come over here. “The sheriff told me I can.”
I'm thinking but don't say
it. “Doesn't that give you a clue? They know it is against the law. The
Humane Society knows it is against the law to shoot a dog? Er.. Why are they
telling you to go ahead and do that?” |
