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SOUTH SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs is looking into how it can help the Skull Valley Goshutes restore some leadership after tribal members voted last month to disband the executive committee.
Tribal members have made the rare request of asking the BIA to supervise an election.
"It's unusual for us to do that in this day and age," BIA regional director Allen S. Anspaugh said. "Time is of the essence, because right now, they really don't have a government."
At the tribe's annual meeting Aug. 26, nearly all of the 33 adults who attended voted to shut down the executive committee that carries out the tribe's daily business. Members also accepted the resignation of tribal Vice Chair Lori Bear, cousin of embattled Chairman Leon D. Bear.
The Goshutes have a pending deal with Private Fuel Storage to store 44,000 tons of highly radioactive used fuel from nuclear power plants on the tribal Skull Valley reservation about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City.
Since the BIA approved the lease nine years ago, it has been mired in lawsuits, regulatory hurdles and bitter opposition despite the millions of dollars Leon Bear has said would benefit the tribal members.
Although the nuclear storage lease is in legal limbo, the Goshutes do have ongoing businesses, that require oversight.
Margene Bullcreek, a neighbor of Bear's and a longtime critic of him, leads a group of Skull Valley members who are petitioning Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to intervene.
"We've already said what we've had to say," Bullcreek said of the Aug. 26 meeting. "And they (the BIA) should act on that."
Chet Mills, the BIA superintendent for Utah tribes, said he cannot schedule an election until he gets proper paperwork.
"It's just as frustrating for me as for everyone else," he said.
Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
