LCO Tribal Members Shatter Records in County Elections

Five LCO Ojibwe Indians garnered 1,181 votes in the Sawyer County and Hayward School Board election held recently on April 1st.

The Sawyer County Record declared in their headline story a victory for two of the tribal candidates as it was the first time in history of the 130 year old county in which multiple Ojibwe Indians had run for county office positions. Successful in their bids for county government were Brian Bisonette and Joel Valentin, who ran against non-Indian incumbents in the Town of Bass Lake. Bisonette defeated his foe by a 90 vote margin for a District 9 seat on the County Board while Valentin easy distanced two non-Indians for Town of Bass Lake supervisor.

Trina Starr gathered 614 votes in her second bid for a Hayward School Board membership, falling just 61 votes short in her campaign. Ojibwe Indians are a small demographic minority in the school district population and success would require a political cross-over in future elections.

Karen Breit fell just 34 votes short in her bid to unseat her opponent Ron Kinsley for a position on the County Board for District 13 (Hunter Township) and Valerie Barber lost by only twenty votes in her contest for County Board in Hayward District 5 as she ran as a “write in” candidate.

In an off year election, a handful of more tribal voters here and there could have made all the difference for the tribal candidates in the 2014 campaign.

The State of Wisconsin gerrymandered Sawyer County voting districts about one hundred years ago so that the Township of Reserve (LCO) was split up into five other townships, thereby making Indians a minority in each of those new five districts. LCO tribal members have never expressed interest in serving in county government since 1915, until this year.

County and township supervisors make vital decisions that affect the lives of the estimated three thousand Ojibwe Indians living in Sawyer County and a handful of tribal members said this year for the first time: “Enough is enough…it's time we get involved in making decisions that will benefit our people.”
The candidates are already planning the next round of county-wide election.