The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians may soon come under new leadership as a number of board directors look to remove their chairman.
Chairman Aaron Payment, who has been in the position since 2012, has come under a number of allegations and has been officially censured by the board.
“I believe that it’s all going to come back as a big nothing,” said Payment. “It’s so general that you can’t investigate it. So you can’t prove it right or wrong I suppose and none of what they allege is a violation of our constitution.”
The board of directors is not satisfied with his performance, alleging he’s failed to create an environment of respect, attacking public officials and releasing confidential information among other allegations.
Payment denies them all.
The board voted to censure him on Tuesday and Payment believes this could soon result in his removal from the position of chairman.
However, he’s ready to fight against it.
“It comes as an affront to the citizens of the tribe,” said Payment. “The citizens of the tribe have the democratic responsibility of electing their leader. I’m who they elected. The council didn’t elect me. I don’t report to the council. I report to the members.”
Payment is currently collecting signatures from tribal members that would overturn the censure, needing 100 to do so, but that may not be the end.
“We expect that the council is going to try and fenagle their way around it, try to find a legal argument why they don’t have to do it, but the white house is watching, the department of interior is watching, the entire country is watching to make sure that we don’t short circuit the right of our people and our right of referendum,” said Payment.
We reached out to the board of directors but no one was willing to comment on the specifics of the allegations.
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