CONCHO, Okla. – After more than three years, the Interior Board of Indian Appeals has handed down a decision in the leadership dispute within the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.


On July 10, the IBIA ruled that the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Concho agency director and regional director acted capriciously when it recognized the judicial branch affiliated with then claimant governor Leslie Wandrie-Harjo in 2011.

“Even if we were to look to the superintendent’s decision to provide the necessary reasoning, we would vacate the court composition decisions because the superintendent provided no proper justification for making a decision on the composition of the tribe’s courts and thus violated the prohibition against interfering in the internal affairs of a tribe in the absence of a justification for BIA to take action on a separate matter, which, in turn, necessarily implicates and requires a BIA determination on tribal matters,” wrote Chief Administrative Judge Steven Linscheid.

The court also determined that since Wandrie-Harjo is no longer in office and has not demonstrated how she would receive any legal relief from being declared the Cheyenne and Arapaho’s governor, her appeals are now moot.

Originally elected lieutenant governor of the constitutionally-bound tribes in 2009, Wandrie-Harjo did not seek a second term in 2013. Former Cheyenne and Arapaho governor Darrell Flyingman and his running mate, Adrianna Gould, were the only pair of executive branch candidates to file with the election board affiliated with her administration.

By declaring Wandrie-Harjo’s appeals moot, the IBIA effectively ruled in favor of Eddie Hamilton, who was voted into office in November 2013 in an election conducted by the election commission affiliated with Janice Prairie Chief-Boswell, Wandrie-Harjo’s former running mate.

The decision is consistent with an IBIA ruling handed down on May 30 that allowed continued federal funding for nine self-determination contracts and for the Hamilton-led government to administer those programs. However, it does not apply to a pending appeal on a land into trust application submitted by former governor Janice Prairie Chief-Boswell’s administration. A separate ruling will be handed down at a later, as yet undetermined date.

“We are extremely pleased with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals’ ruling and see it as fully vindicating the authority of our administration and the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal court system,” Hamilton said. “Our expectation is that the dismissal of these appeals in the tribe’s favor will free up important time and resources that can be better used to meet the needs of our tribal members.”

Attempts to reach Flyingman were unsuccessful, as were follow-up requests for comment from BIA spokeswoman Nedra Darling. The BIA had previously said it would not recognize either claimant government until the IBIA ruled on the pending appeals.