ROCKY BOY, Mont. (NMB) – A meeting was held last week at the Chippewa Cree Tribal Council Chambers in Rocky Boy to discuss possible changes to the tribes constitution. Recording Secretary for the tribe Caryn Sangrey says that the main issue they discussed was changing the enrollment portion, possibly opening enrollment for more people.
“Those opposed to it were saying that it would deplete our already limited resources, but on the end, the people who are for changing the enrollment criteria portion of the constitution, it would mean enrollment for them. It’s true that we do have limited resources up here and they would be eligible for that, but at the same time, there’s strength in numbers.”
Sangrey says that they also discussed eliminating Article 10 from their constitution, which states they need federal permission to make any constitutional changes.
“But in order to change our constitution, we have to do what is called a Secretarial Election. But in order to do that Secretarial Election we need permission from the, I don’t know if it’s the BIA, but it’s the regional office. And that’s in our constitution that we have to do it the way that we’re doing it.”
Sangrey says that they will have more comment periods on the topic, but nothing has been set yet.
