{"id":15900,"date":"2025-10-30T16:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T22:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marilynn-house-wins-ute-mountain-ute-council-seat-in-run-off\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:52:08","slug":"marilynn-house-wins-ute-mountain-ute-council-seat-in-run-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marilynn-house-wins-ute-mountain-ute-council-seat-in-run-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Marilynn House wins Ute Mountain Ute council seat in run-off"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Campaign
Campaign poster for Marilynn House, who was elected as the latest addition to the Ute Mountain Ute\u2019s Tribal Council in Towaoc, according to the unofficial count from an Oct. 29 run-off with Evelyn Lopez. (Courtesy photo\/Weenuche Smoke Signals)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Marilynn House won a seat on the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council during a runoff election in Towaoc, according to unofficial results announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited Towaoc councilwoman won after two previous ties with candidate Evelyn Lopez in October. House is the latest addition to a council during what many acknowledge as a new period in Ute Mountain Ute leadership.<\/p>\n

House received 191 votes Wednesday, compared with 164 for her competitor, Evelyn Lopez. Two votes were deemed invalid. Both candidates were tied in the tribe\u2019s Oct. 10<\/a> election at 116 votes each, and again in a recount<\/a> on Oct. 16 at 115 votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you so much for seeing what you saw in me,\u201d House said during the election livestream<\/a> minutes after her unofficial win was announced. \u201cI\u2019m going to take on these challenges with you and for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

House joins three other newly elected officials expected to serve on the seven-person tribal council during the significant leadership shift.<\/p>\n

In Towaoc, she will serve with incumbent Councilman Conrad Jacket, who won with 150 out of 813 votes during the Oct. 16 recount. House also joins Gwen Cantsee, who won as a representative of the tribe\u2019s White Mesa community with 49 of 65 votes.<\/p>\n

Her unofficial win means she\u2019ll also be seated with newly elected Chairman Selwyn Whiteskunk, who received 156 out of 504 votes. Whiteskunk succeeds sitting Chairman Manuel Heart, who has served on the council for nearly three decades.<\/p>\n

House brings experience in tribal government, having previously served as the chairman\u2019s secretary, said Election Board Chair Constance Wall.<\/p>\n

House\u2019s competitor, Evelyn Lopez, also has experience, having formerly served as a secretary for the tribal council, Wall said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A board showcases the manual tallying of each count in a video livestreamed to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. (Courtesy photo\/Weenuche Smoke Signals)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

House\u2019s win will be made official on Nov. 3, if the results face no challenges, such as a recount request from Lopez, according to Wall.<\/p>\n

Wall said the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council inauguration is planned for Nov. 7 at the Ute Mountain Ute Casino and Hotel.<\/p>\n

Tribal Council hits the ground running<\/div>\n

\u201cI will be having a meeting with the new incoming council, including the outgoing council this coming Friday, just to have a transition process,\u201d Chairman Heart said during the livestream.<\/p>\n

Priorities moving forward need to be addressed, he said.<\/p>\n

The tribe has five formal priorities it\u2019s already taken on, Heart told The Journal<\/a> this month: health care, housing, education, economic development and natural resources.<\/p>\n

Councilor Alston Turtle said reviewing the tribe\u2019s objectives will be an important task for the elected representatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see how many policies are so outdated in tribes \u2013 not just our tribe, but every tribe out there,\u201d said Turtle. \u201cSo now is where the work really begins after inauguration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turtle pointed out challenges ahead for the new council, especially during a federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n

The tribe, like much of the country, is experiencing the impacts of the SNAP freeze<\/a>, Turtle said. The tribe is working with other food providers to bring aid to the community, he added.<\/p>\n

Turtle said division and negativity within the tribe need to be addressed moving forward.<\/p>\n

As a sign of that division, election counts this year were not open to the public due to widely acknowledged tension on the reservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say this respectably, council members, new council members, old council members, tribal members, let\u2019s work for a better future for our people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unofficial results showed House received 191 votes next to competitor\u2019s 164<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15900"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19904,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15900\/revisions\/19904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15900"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}