Interview with Victoria Higgins
Seated chief of the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians

ICT: Your April 17 letter to tribal members says you don’t plan on holding elections until 2011. Can you tell me what the basis for that is?
Higgins: When did you receive that letter?
ICT: I received it the other day.
Higgins: Right now I’m having my lawyer write you a letter.
ICT: I’m not really interested in speaking with your lawyer because, according to the inspector general’s report, he was supposed to recuse himself regarding the May 2007 election. What was your response to the inspector general’s report?
Higgins: I think a lot of it wasn’t true, like some parts that (former chief) Rick Getchell said and Marilyn herself, she didn’t give exactly the correct information.
ICT: About what, specifically?
Higgins: On a lot of that about the people being notified. The people were notified. It’s just that you have to think of the tribe … everybody’s related one way or another.
ICT: Right, but the issue is the May 2007 election that you lost.
Higgins: I know that.
ICT: And yet you’re still sitting as chief.
Higgins: And the thing is, at the time they had the Elders Council, which is in the bylaws, but it doesn’t say one member, two members, three members can be appointed. They have no rules or regulations. It’s just that the thing (the election) could be contested. It was contested. They got the elders together and they went through four things (issues) and on three of those things they (the elders) invalidated the election.
ICT: But, according to the inspector general’s report, the elders who invalidated the election had just lost the election. They had a conflict of interest in reviewing the election. What’s stopping you from holding another election?
Higgins: Nothing’s stopping me. I’m following the bylaws.
ICT: You wrote this letter saying you wouldn’t hold another election until 2011, but the bylaws don’t prohibit holding an election before then.
Higgins: Only the first Sunday of April. (The bylaws say nominations for elections take place on the first Sunday in April during a general meeting.) It’s gone by. We didn’t have a quorum.
ICT: What it looks like is that you’re not being democratic; you’re staying in power and stopping an election from going forward because people might vote you and the council out.
Higgins: No, that isn’t the way it is.
ICT: But if you refuse to hold an election until 2011, that’s the way it looks.
Higgins: I know they can wait until next April.
ICT: Why can’t you hold another nomination meeting? People brought you a petition to hold another nomination meeting.
Higgins: Because the council didn’t accept the petition. They never have accepted a petition before.
ICT: But why not accept one now knowing there is all this turmoil and all these problems within the tribe?
Higgins: There’s no turmoil and there’s no problems with the tribe. It’s just that chosen few and Marilyn.
ICT: You promised to hold another election in July 2007. Why wasn’t that held?
Higgins: We had another election (nomination meeting) in May and that group came and they got rowdy and they started pushing and shoving, so we had to cancel that one. We had another one a month later and she wouldn’t let her people come in, and this is the third time we tried to have elections, so what we did was we wrote to the Department of the Interior and we got a grant for $54,000 to fix the bylaws, especially the Elders Council, because she says I don’t care who gets in I can get eight elders and have the election invalidated, so she’s continued doing that. She’s mad. Ever since this tribe began everybody who’s been in authority she’s been against. I got two boxes of letters she wrote to different chiefs.
ICT: But she won the election, she got more votes that you did, so she must have some support.
Higgins: Well, the elders said it’s invalidated. I’m not related to any of those elders. I have no relatives here.
ICT: You’ve been chief since 2006 and you’ve never been elected by the members of the tribe. Don’t you think an election should be held so people can elect who they want as leaders?
Higgins: Right. We tried, but we don’t have a quorum and the elders won’t come out because they’re afraid.
ICT: But you had a petition asking for another nomination meeting.
Higgins: The tribe doesn’t accept petitions. You accept one one week and the next week 25 other people go out and sign petitions. I think she’s just upset because she’s broken every one of the bylaws.
ICT: I think she’s upset because she won the election and wasn’t seated.
Higgins: Okay. But the elders invalidated it.
ICT: But the elders had a conflict of interest. So now you’re saying you’re not going to hold elections until 2011. Do you think that’s good for the tribe?
Higgins: Well, I do because we’re moving ahead.
ICT: What are you moving ahead with?
Higgins: Economic development. I don’t wish to discuss it. I haven’t signed any agreements and I don’t wish to discuss it.
ICT: Do you think it’s okay to stay in power when you weren’t elected by the people?
Higgins: Yes, I told you.
ICT: Please tell me again: Why is it okay for you to remain in power without holding elections even though you were never elected and you lost the election. How is that democratic and how does it help the tribe?
Higgins: It’s helping the tribe because if you have somebody coming in who doesn’t know where they’re going. … when I came in here we almost got closed down.
ICT: What for?
Higgins: Misuse of funds.
ICT: You mean by the previous administration? The chief who appointed you was accused of misuse of funds?
Higgins: No! There was never misuse of funds. The audits and everything found that.
ICT: Given the fact that this tribe is in disarray, there’s incredible unhappiness among your members, and a big controversy about the May 2007 election, don’t you think elections would help?
Higgins: It probably could, but then it might not.
ICT: So, what’s the solution to reconciliation?
Higgins: I don’t have the solution right now and I can’t talk on my own. I’ll have to talk with my council.