Bismarck Tribune

By LAUREN DONOVBy LAUREN DONOVAN

Former Three Affiliated Tribes chairman Tex Hall will take his lost election to a tribal court of last appeal.

Hall's attorney Tom Fredericks said Hall will ask the Northern Plains Inter-Tribal Court of Appeals in Aberdeen, S.D., to examine whether Hall had due process when his election complaints were heard by the local tribal election board in November, and possibly call for a new election.

Fredericks said the local tribal election board did not let Hall call witnesses to present evidence that the November election was tainted by bribery and election fraud.

Hall was making a bid for a third term as chairman and lost to Marcus Wells Jr., who had been a tribal council member. Wells was sworn in a few hours after the results were final election night.

When the tribal election board upheld the election results, Hall took the issue to tribal court. The court on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation turned down his appeal and Hall's request for a new election, though it did recognize a violation of due process.

Fredericks said the appeal will hopefully settle whether 4 Bears Casino money, allegedly handed out in the form of players' cash, was used to buy the election. Wells said candidates don't have the ability to "do what he's (Hall) alleging" with casino funds. He said the election is over, the people have spoken and he expected that any candidate who beat Hall would have been subject to the same allegations.

Fredericks said the tribal election law is poorly written because it allows the election board to police itself.

In a statement issued through a Seattle law firm, Hall said he's disappointed that the tribal court recognized election problems and said they should be criminally investigated and still didn't order a new election.