Two of the three women who filed an unsuccessful federal civil rights lawsuit against four Ute tribal business committee members and several others were notified last week that they had lost their jobs with the tribe.
Cecelia Jenks, an assistant treasurer, and Shirleta LaFramboise, an operations and maintenance clerk in the resource department, were each sent letters Jan. 3 advising them of their immediate termination. A third plaintiff in the lawsuit, Lupe M. Duncan, is a federal rather than a tribal employee. Duncan did not receive a notice of termination.The letters of termination came just three weeks after U.S. District Judge David Winder issued an order denying the plaintiffs' request to have the matter reconsidered following his initial Dec. 1 decision granting the defendant's motion "to dismiss the case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction." Defendants named in the lawsuit included tribal business committee chairman Stewart Pike, business committee members Wendell Navanik, Floyd Wopsock, Ronald Wopsock and nine others.
In her notice of termination, Jenks was informed that she was being fired because of her "personal political participation while serving on the job." Jenks has worked for the tribe for 27 years and with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for eight years. LaFramboise received a similar letter.
"They said I was politicking on the job, but I didn't do that. Every time I did that I checked out," Jenks said. "As far as I know they had no authority to write me that letter."
The letter, signed by newly hired executive secretary Boots Sireech, quoted a section of the Ute Tribe Personnel Manual stating that "violations of any political participation on working hours are cause for disciplinary action. "
Although Jenks and La-Fram-boise received the notice Jan. 3, they returned to work the following day and were advised by a BIA officer that it would be best if they left the building. "He said me and Shirleta should go to tribal court and get a restraining order to stop them from removing us from office," Jenks said. A hearing on the restraining order was held Monday. The request was rejected by Tribal Judge George Tahbone based on a 1987 Business Committee resolution that says the tribal court has no jurisdiction to hear matters brought against the Ute Tribe or the governing Business Committee.
In the lawsuit filed last summer, the defendants were charged with violating the civil rights of the plaintiffs by conspiring together to coerce 30 people who had signed a petition seeking to recall Pike from office to have their names removed, invalidating the recall effort. The plaintiffs and Pike are members of the Uncompahgre Band of the Ute Indian Tribe.
Defense attorneys argued that the case should be dismissed on the grounds that the federal court has "no jurisdiction under long-standing principles of tribal sovereign immunity to hear plaintiffs' claims."
Should the plaintiffs decide to pursue the civil rights issue, the case would now have to be refiled in tribal court. Initial efforts to have the case heard in tribal court were unsuccessful, prompting the plaintiffs to seek a federal court ruling.
Jenks said she doubts efforts to take the case back to tribal court would succeed but said a second drive to recall Pike from office is now under way. According to Jenks, recall petitions will soon be circulated among Uncompahgre Band members.