ARAPAHO, Okla. — An application has been filed in Custer County District Court to access frozen Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal dollars.

An ongoing leadership dispute between Janice Prairie Chief-Boswell and Leslie Wandrie-Harjo has created two governments and led to frozen tribal bank accounts with the First Bank and Trust of Clinton, Okla. Since June 21, the bank accounts have been under the supervision of the Custer County District Court. Officials from either government attempting to withdraw funds must contact the court and the other government in writing before any removals are allowed.

Using figures from the tribes’ 2008 budget, Thomas Ivester, a Sayre, Okla.-based attorney representing the Wandrie-Harjo recognized legislature, filed a request last Tuesday with the Custer County District Court to access federal contract funds for the tribes’ elder nutrition program, emergency youth shelter and Indian Child Welfare office.

Ivester also asked that if the application is granted, that the Western Oklahoma regional office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Anadarko, Okla., be notified so the office can closely monitor the drawdowns.

The filing is the first written request from either side to allow a drawdown from the frozen account since the court assumed oversight.

A hearing date has not yet been scheduled.

More than 12,000 people are enrolled in the constitutionally-bound tribes, including about 5,000 who live within the tribes’ jurisdictional area.