LUMMI, Wash. – Lummi Nation Chairman Darrell Hillaire and Kristin Kinley are competing for the Position G seat on the tribal council in the Jan. 24 general election.
Hillaire and Kinley were the two top vote-getters in the Jan. 10 primary election, with 252 and 165 votes, respectively. The third candidate was Ray Morris.
About 1,000 Lummi voters were registered in the election. The Lummi Nation has 4,500 enrolled members, of which 2,200 live on the reservation. Three council positions are on the ballot.
For Position E, the two top vote-getters were former council member Penny Carol Hillaire, 163 votes; and incumbent Perry Adams, 151. Other candidates were Laverne Lane-Oreiro, Candice (Lane) Wilson and Bill Sturgeon.
For Position F, the two top vote-getters were former council member Gordon Adams, 134 votes, and Elden Hillaire, 114 votes. Lenny Dixon got nudged out of the general election with 112 votes.
The other candidates were Lenny Dixon, Cheryl Johnson, Vernon Lane Sr. and Joe Hillaire. Incumbent Leroy Deardorff chose not to seek re-election.
Darrell Hillaire and Penny Carol Hillaire are brother and sister. Elden Hillaire is their cousin.
The tribal council – formally known as the Lummi Indian Business Council – has 11 members who serve staggered three-year terms. Council members receive $50 per meeting; officers are elected by and from the council, are full-time and receive salaries. The council will elect officers on Feb. 2.
The primary featured the largest group of women to run for elected office in a single year in the Lummi Nation’s recent history. Four of them – Lane-Oreiro, Johnson, Kinley and Wilson – ran as a coalition seeking to elect more women to the council. Sheri Williams, the council’s only woman member, is not up for re-election this year.
Penny Carol Hillaire told The Bellingham Herald she didn’t attend coalition meetings because she supports the council’s anti-drug policies being implemented by her brother and the council.
Coalition candidates have urged caution, particularly with making information about tribal drug use public, the Herald reported.
The Lummi Nation is using a range of methods – from banishment for drug dealing to possible elimination of alcohol from convenience stores, to stop substance abuse within its borders.
Penny Carol Hillaire, Lummi’s Youth Education Social Service director, supports those efforts but is focused on education. She wants to secure funding for a summer internship and tutoring program for Lummi youth; and wants to use profits from the Silver Reef Casino to pay higher education costs for all Lummi tribal members.
Lane-Oreiro, Johnson, Kinley and Wilson told the Herald they will continue to press for more women on the council, improved health care and health care funding, easier access to tribal services and more tribal resources for real estate and unique land issues.
Polls open Jan. 24, 8 a.m., at the Lummi Indian Business Council chambers, 2616 Kwina Road. All registered tribal members living in Whatcom County may vote.
