Douglas Indian Association’s newly elected tribal council members will all be familiar faces, according to unofficial results from the annual election held this week.
The five top vote-getters for five open tribal council seats were Barbara Cadiente-Nelson, 40 votes; Kevin Allen, 38 votes; Christopher Coronell, 34 votes; Darryl Williams, 32 votes; and Norman Sarabia, 26 votes, according to totals shared with the Empire by Georgia Finau, administrative research assistant for DIA.
The Douglas Indian Association is a federally recognized tribe with 700 tribal members that represent the T’aaku Kwáan and A’akw Kwáan clans in Douglas and Juneau. A total of 67 people voted in Wednesday’s election.
All apparent council-elects except for Allen were incumbents, and Allen is a member of the Juneau School District Board of Education and involved with Alaska Native Brotherhood/Alaska Native Sisterhood.
Allen said in a phone interview he hoped to use his experience with those organizations during his time on the board.
[Douglas Indian Association holds tribal council elections]
“With the election, I was kind of surprised by how many I had received,” Allen said.
However, he said his recently deceased grandmother did a lot of work for DIA as tribal administrator, and her legacy may have been a positive for voters. This was Allen’s first time running for tribal council since he said tribal rules preclude someone younger than 21 from running. Allen is 21.
Finau said the election results will likely be certified during a meeting next week.
Officer positions will be decided after the results are certified and council members are sworn in for their two-year terms.
A total of eight candidates were in the running for five openings on DIA’s nine-member tribal council.
Robert Paulo received 22 votes, Joseph Owen received 19 votes and John Morris Sr. received 17 votes, according to the unofficial results. Morris was an incumbent, according to DIA’s website.
No write-in candidate received more than two votes, according to unofficial results.
• Contact reporter Ben Hohenstatt at (907)523-2243 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt
