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Peterson reelected to 7th term as president, Pata ousted as top VP in Tlingit and Haida elections
Updated: 8 minutes ago
Peterson gets 68.1% of vote, four other candidates get between 11.6% and 2.9% during 91st annual Tribal Assembly; Clinton Cook Sr. elected council’s new first vice president
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
This is a developing story.
Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson was resoundingly elected to a seventh two-year term as the president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska on Thursday, getting 68.1% of the vote in a five-way race in which the runner-up finished with 11.6%.
However, a shakeup in top leadership occurred as First Vice President Ku.seen Jacqueline Pata, who finished fourth in the presidential vote, then lost her current position to Clinton Cook Sr., the council’s second vice president. She subsequently was not elected to the council’s five other vice president seats.
Pata has served as the council’s second-in-command since 2021. She will continue in her role as president and CEO of the Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority, a job she has held since 2019.
"I would like to thank everybody who supported me during my terms at Central Council," she told the delegates after all the vice presidential positions were filled. "I really appreciate being able to serve you and represent you; it gave me great honor and great privilege to do so. I look forward to seeing the next council take the leadership and do the things that they need to do."
The decisive presidential vote by 69 delegates at the council’s 91st annual Tribal Assembly drew applause throughout Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall when the results were displayed. Peterson, the council’s president since 2014, was in a contested race this year after facing abuse accusations from a former romantic partner last year, with a council review resulting in no finding as to whether the accusations had merit.
Peterson, in an interview after Thursday’s vote, said it was the most contested election he has faced since the four-candidate race when he was initially elected in 2014.
"Really just my heart's full of appreciation," he said. "I wasn't running against anything or anybody, and I applaud everybody who stood up. I think that's actually a wonderful thing. I think we're supposed to stand up and make our case."
The top challenger was Shkaadul.aat Lisa Gassman with 11.6%, followed by Melissa Kookesh with 10.1%, Pata at 7.2% and Jáx Kóoste Tasha Hotch at 2.9%.
The votes for first vice president were Cook with 56.5%, Kookesh 17.4%, Pata 15.9%, Gassman 8.7% and Hitch 1.4%.
"I would just like to thank the delegation for supporting me and putting your trust in me as first vice," Cook told the attendees in the hall after the vote. "There's work still ahead to be done. I'm looking forward to it. Most people know how to get a hold of me and if you don't your neighbor probably does, so feel free to reach out, text, call, whatever you need."
Cook, according to Tlingit and Haida’s website, is the president of the Craig Tribal Association, and a member of the Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority board and Haa Yaḵaawu Financial Corporation. The website states he is a certified petroleum technician with years of experience working in the heating and construction industry.
While Alaska uses ranked-choice voting to reach majority votes in statewide and legislative races, the Tlingit and Haida elections require an outright majority. To get there, various groups of delegates meet in closed-door caucus meetings to hash out differences.
Before the first official vote, for instance, separate requests were made for caucuses of Juneau delegates, new delegates and small Southeast village delegates. An initial 15-minute period for those meetings in different parts of the building was extended to 20 minutes, and the delegates reconvened a few minutes past that.
The vote reelecting Peterson was cast shortly afterward.
The delegates, after another caucus, overwhelmingly selected Cook as first vice president. The five other vice presidents were selected in six balloting rounds, with caucuses occurring during each.
Elected were: Rob Sanderson Jr. as second vice president, Frances Mills as third vice president, Will Micklin as fourth vice president, Michelle D. Martin as fifth vice president and William A. Ware as sixth vice president.
Also elected were Cheryl Demmert as associate justice and Shania R. Murphy as emerging leader.
The newly elected officers took their oaths at the conclusion of voting, which took about three-and-a-half hours.
Peterson, by tradition, then offered a tribute and gifts to three now-former council members — Pata, former fifth vice president Delbert Kadake and former sixth vice president Paulette Moreno.
"I've had the good fortune to serve with a lot of executive councils, a lot of different vice presidents, and I can say from every one that's ever stepped up to serve they bring their heart, they give their time, their families make sacrifices for them to serve our people," he said. "And this is a group of people who have testified, they've stood up, spoken out for so many of us. They've brought voices from their community and made sure that all 39,000 tribal citizens have been well represented. So let us all take a moment, stand and give them applause for their service."
Pata, in an interview after the session concluded, said the outcome of the elections wasn’t a surprise.
"There's a lot of new delegates here and they wanted to see change," she said. "And I think that's why I ran too, because we wanted to see change."
At the same time, she said Peterson’s sizeable reelection showed support for what the tribal council has achieved.
"Our tribe has grown a lot," she said. "Every community has felt the benefit of the COVID dollars. We've delivered a lot and people are appreciative of that, so I'm not surprised. I think the tribe has done some really great stuff and we need to be proud of that."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
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