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The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians could move forward toward decriminalizing and regulating marijuana on tribal lands after members of the state’s only Native American tribe voted for Referendum 2025-01 on Tuesday. The vote allows the Tribal Council to take the next step by searching for a consulting firm to study the feasibility of doing so.
After the Tribal Election Committee convened at 1:00 PM to count absentee ballots and certify the election on June 11, the measure passed by a vote of 1,415 to 1,164, or a 57% to 47% margin.
Of the tribe’s eight communities, only two voted to reject Referendum 2025-01: Standing Pine in Leake County and Conehatta in Newton County. All other communities voted for it, with Red Water voting at the highest percentage with 72% in favor. The smallest margin in favor came from the Bogue Chitto-affiliated community of Henning, Tennessee, which passed it with a 24-22 vote.
During the information sessions that the Tribe held throughout the reservation lands in May, a panel consisting of the Tribal Election Committee, Tribal Chief Cyrus Ben, and Tribal Council members explained that this vote is just a starting point. A consulting firm will “perform a comprehensive study to evaluate the marijuana market (medical and/or recreational) and analyze the potential economic benefits,” including any potential risks to the tribe.
The sample ballot provided to tribal members before the June 10 vote also stated that if the referendum passed, the tribe may proceed with allowing retail sales of marijuana; allowing it to be grown, processed, tested, and distributed for retail sales on tribal lands; and/or changing the current law to remove criminal penalties for adults 21 years and older who possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use.
A voter at the Conehatta meeting on May 27 asked whether the passage of this referendum would be retroactive for people who have faced criminal charges for marijuana use in the past. Chief Ben said there would be no change.
“Past offenses are based on the law on the books at the time,” he said.
A representative from the tribe’s attorney general’s office added that other states are passing expungement statutes “that make it easier to drop past offenses based on changing law.”
During a hearing in April, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, raised concerns about the patchwork of marijuana laws across the country, noting that the Eastern Band of Cherokee has legalized marijuana on tribal lands in North Carolina, even though it is not legal on the state level. In Mississippi, medical marijuana is legal for people with certain diagnoses who obtain a license to purchase it at a dispensary, but recreational marijuana is not legal.
A Clean Sweep for Incumbents
It took less than an hour for all communities to release the unofficial midterm election results on Tuesday night. The tribe now uses electronic voting machines after members participated in a mock election in 2022 to test out the entire Election Day procedure with the voting machines ahead of the chief and Tribal Council elections in 2023. For the first time since the tribe’s existence, the electorate didn’t have to wait all evening for the largest community, Pearl River, to submit its tally.
Initial results from the June 10 election showed that tribal members overwhelmingly voted to keep all the incumbents who were running for reelection to the Tribal Council. In the Leake County community of Standing Pine, incumbent Loriann Ahshapanek did not run for reelection.
The Tribal Election Committee convened in the tribe’s headquarters in the Pearl River community on Wednesday to count the remaining absentee ballots and issue the final certified results. None of the outcomes changed.
Choctaw voters for the Pearl River precinct cast their votes at the Covid Emergency Relief Facility building, a similar and uniformly designed building in each Choctaw community. The tribe used Congressional appropriated money in the COVID-10 era to construct the CERF buildings, which are now used as storm shelters, voting precincts, and are available for general use by the Choctaw public. Photo by Roger D. Amos
In Standing Pine, voters replaced their retiring incumbent with Lalaina Denson, who won 106 votes in the small, rural community. The other five candidates were Benjamin Farve, 93 votes; Jalen Tangle, 51 votes; Ashley Primer, 26 votes; Louis Charlie, 10 votes; and Betty Allen, seven votes.
Incumbent Christopher Eaves won reelection to a third term for the Winston County-based Crystal Ridge seat on the Tribal Council with 43 votes. The other candidates were: Rosa Kanagy with 28 votes; Alexander Hickman with 14 votes; and Tim G. Willis with one vote.
In the Neshoba County community of Tucker, located directly south of Philadelphia, Mississippi, voters there reelected Demando Mingo for a second term to his seat on the Tribal Council with 123 votes, or 42% of the total 291 votes cast. Rounding out the other candidates are: Eric S. Nickey, with 86 votes, Layla Taylor with 51 votes, and former Choctaw Princess Autumn McMillan with 31 votes.
The other communities each had two positions available on the council, and candidates earning the top two totals from that community win representation on the Tribal Council.
In the rural Newton County community of Conehatta, incumbents Gregory Shoemake and Hilda Nickey won reelection to their posts, earning 244 and 170 votes, respectively, for a combined 42% of the 975 total votes cast in this community. The other candidates for Conehatta include: Max Anderson with 119 votes; Shaun Grant with 107 votes, former representative Tarina Anderson with 105 votes; Trinesa Barojas with 72 votes; Hannah Charlie with 58 votes; Emerson Billy with 49 votes; and Jeron K. Johnson with 51 votes. Shoemake won a second term on the council while former vice-chief Nickey was re-elected to her fourth.
The Neshoba County community of Bogue Chitto has an interesting tally structure due to the elected councils also representing the Lauderdale County, Tennessee, community of Henning, just north of the Memphis metro. Henning does not have its own representation on the Choctaw Tribal Council but has historically voted along with the Bogue Chitto residents due to close familial ties. It would take a separate election supervised by the U.S. Department of Interior in order to change the Choctaw Constitution and add a community and a representative; the last time this occurred was the special election of April 11, 2006, to officially add a representative for Crystal Ridge on the Tribal Council.
The two incumbents, Kendall Wallace and Angela Hundley, were reelected by residents in both Henning and Bogue Chitto with a combined 60% of the 923 votes cast. The other candidates for Bogue Chitto were: Jeremiah Harrison with 74 votes; Natasha John with 67 votes; Kendrick Bell with 62 votes; Randy L. Jim with 56 votes; Jamion Johnson with 41 votes; Kinsey Henry with 30 votes; former representative Davita McClelland with 24 votes; Treundes Willis with nine votes, Kenneth Wallace with five votes; and Jackson Thompson, Jr. with four votes. With this year’s election, Wallace will serve in a third term while Hundley will be in her second.
Pearl River incumbents Kent Wesley and Deborah Martin’s campaign signs are posted next to each other at the entrance to the Pearl River Community across from the Choctaw Town Center. Both candidates earned the top two votes in the June 10 election. Photo by Roger D. Amos
Pearl River Community, the tribe’s seat of government, had the largest number of candidates vying for two spots on the council, with 14 candidates. Both incumbents, Kent Wesley and Deborah Martin, retained their seats, however. Both tallied 776 combined votes of the total 1,772 votes cast in the tribe’s largest and most populous community. The other contenders were: Benjamin Stephens with 202 votes; Asa Jimmie with 184 votes; former representative Lola Parkerson with 175 votes; Nickolas Stephens with 136 votes; Robert Dean Martin with 86 votes; Jerod Thompson with 59 votes; Collins Billy Jr. with 39 votes; Robert Briscoe with 33 votes; Mindy Davis with 29 votes; Speedy X. Lewis with 30 votes; Shelley Tubby with 13 votes; and Austin Tubby with 10 votes.
The Tribal Election Committee released a memo of the official results from the mid-term elections held on June 10, 2025. The TEC counted absentee ballots a day later, June 11 and added to each community’s total. Photo courtesy Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
Red Water Community (Leake County) and Bogue Homa Community (Jones County) did not have an election for Tribal Council, both communities elect their representatives in Chief election years.
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