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Posted: 12:20 PM- Leon Bear, the most ardent supporter of a nuclear waste disposal site in Skull Valley, has been shut out in the Goshute tribal leadership election, but not his family.
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which took the unusual step of supervising the election of the Skull Valley Band of the Goshutes, released the results today. The newly elected leaders are Lawrence Bear, chairman; Marlinda Moon, vice-chair; and Lena Knight, committee secretary. The newly elected officials are all members of Leon Bear's family. Leon Bear was a candidate for vice chair.
The 124-member tribe has been in turmoil for years under Leon Bear's chairmanship, largely over how money has been spent from a lease allowing a nuclear utility consortium to store deadly spent fuel on the reservation 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
But even tribal critics of the waste site who waited years for a new election for years disagreed with the mail-in voting arranged by Chester Mills, superintendent of the Uintah-Ouray Agency BIA office in Duchesne County. Rex Allen, a onetime tribal secretary, predicted there will be lawsuits over the election results.
Goshute tribal affairs have been of intense interest to Utah because of the multi-billion dollar waste facility proposal that would have brought 44,000 tons of waste to the reservation.
Last month, however, the Interior Department blocked transportation of waste to the site and invalidated the previously approved lease between the tribe and its utility-company partners.