{"id":56767,"date":"2013-10-12T00:42:40","date_gmt":"2013-10-12T06:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/utes-choose-heart-to-lead-tribe\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T15:56:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:56:29","slug":"utes-choose-heart-to-lead-tribe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/utes-choose-heart-to-lead-tribe\/","title":{"rendered":"Utes choose Heart to lead tribe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Newly
Newly elected Tribal Chairman Manuel Heart shakes the hand of newly elected Tribal Councilwoman Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk after the election Friday, Oct. 11, in Towaoc.<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

TOWAOC \u2014 Manuel Heart is the new tribal chairman for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, winning a landslide victory over incumbent Gary Hayes on Friday, Oct. 11.<\/p>\n

Heart earned 264 votes to Hayes\u2019 162 votes, and will take over leadership of the 2,000-member tribe Nov. 1. Hayes completed a three-year term.<\/p>\n

Speaking in his native Ute, and translating in English, Heart praised the spirited voter turnout after the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had 700 voters come to the polls, from Towaoc, from White Mesa, and all over our land. The people voted me in, and I thank you,\u201d Heart said to the crowd. \u201cWe have challenges as a tribe, and I will work for a better future for my people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heart served as tribal chairman from 2005 to 2007, and has been a Tribal Council member for 17 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have three new council members with expertise in different areas, and that is a real positive,\u201d he said afterward. \u201cThe people trust me, and it is a real honor. We are a tight-knit community. I have spent my whole life getting to know our people, visiting with them, listening and working to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tribal members also voted in three new Tribal Council members, who will take their seats Nov. 1 as well.<\/p>\n

Priscilla Blackhawk-Rentz, a career court employee for the tribe, garnered 116 votes. Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, the tribe\u2019s information technology expert, had the second highest total at 104 votes. They replace council members Davis Wing, 68 votes, and Bradley Hight, who lost his bid for chairman.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Lehi, a recreation specialist, won the Tribal Council seat representing White Mesa with 42 votes. White Mesa is a satellite reservation community of the tribe located in southeast Utah. Lehi beat incumbent Elaine Cantsee.<\/p>\n

Seven candidates ran for tribal chairman; 17 candidates ran for the Towaoc Tribal Council seats; and five competed for the White Mesa, Utah council position.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see 29 candidates is a record number,\u201d said Charlie Lehi, of the Ute Mountain Election Board. \u201cIt shows the people were looking for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

For weeks the tribe has been in the grips of an election campaign that many described as a catalyst for a new direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a little tense,\u201d said Waylon Plenty Holes, editor of Weenuche Smoke Signals, the tribal newspaper. \u201cBut it has been a good process with good turnout at forums and at the polls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added election volunteer Constance Wall, \u201cI think people are realizing more that it makes a difference to come out and vote. It is good to see so many younger people getting involved in the election. Change is good; some people don\u2019t like it, but it is inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another election will be held in November to fill Heart\u2019s council position and Harold Cuthair\u2019s seat, who was required to give up his seat on the Tribal Council to run for chairman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a full board until January, and we will be having some training to get everyone up to speed,\u201d Heart said. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting because the new council members bring in expertise for legal, technology, and recreation.\u201d<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

turnout shakes up Tribal Council<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,308],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-56767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-elections"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56767","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=56767"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62668,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56767\/revisions\/62668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56767"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=56767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}