Two seats on the Chilkoot Indian Association (CIA) Tribal Council are up for election on May 10.
Council members Kevin Thompson and Robert Martin will be up for reelection.
Tribal members who would like to run need to declare their candidacy and fill out a nomination petition by April 11.
The necessary forms can be picked up at the tribal administration building on Third Avenue. A short nominations meeting for candidates will be held on April 11 at 5:30 p.m. Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the tribal building.
“I think it’s important that young tribal members interested in leadership positions stop by, participate in a meeting — that will help generate a better understanding of what the tribe does,” said CIA tribal administrator Harriet Brouillette.
There are seven seats on the council. Five members were seated last fall in a delayed vote, since the 2020 election was canceled due to the pandemic. Voter turnout was slightly higher than usual, Brouillette said at the time.
Council president James Hart was elected in a run-off in December, after Nels Lynch stepped down from the council. Bill Thomas is the council’s vice president and Andrea Ferrin is treasurer.
In other tribal news, CIA recently received a four-year grant from the United States Forest Service to continue its eulachon monitoring project, which started more than a decade ago. That project is in partnership with the Skagway Tribal Council and Takshanuk Watershed Council. Eulachon are called “saak” in Tlingit.
A Sitka tribal member shipped herring eggs to CIA as part of the Tlingit New Year, which starts around the herring and eulachon runs. Tribal members interested in receiving eggs, called “ǥáax’w” in Tlingit, should contact Brouillette at the tribal office, 766-2323.
CIA is also in the early stages of putting together an intensive Tlingit language training project. The tribe’s tentative goal is for five families to reach conversational fluency and to form a Tlingit speaking community.