Removed two years ago - Ousted Chief returned

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Despite being removed as the chief of the Saddle Lake reserve in 1985 following charges of alleged spending irregularities, Eugene Steinhauer was elected into the position Oct. 8.

Band officials say 628 out of a possible 1,400 eligible voters cast votes at the Saddle Lake band hall. But because the band follows custom election practices no further details were released to Windspeaker.

Steinhauer beat his closest running mate, Henry Cardinal, by 11 votes. Cardinal will join Wilfed Large, Henry Quinney, Mike Steinhauer, George Brertton, Barry Wood, Gordon Steinhauer and Floyd Steinhauer on council.

Steinhauer and his council were removed in a by-election nearly two years ago after more than 500 band members signed a petition, supporting a letter demanding their resignations.

According to reports in a August 1985 issue of AMMSA (Windspeaker) councillor Eugene Houle resigned from his position and disclosed that the band was heading towards a financial deficit.

The chief and council gave themselves sizable raises, totalling about $15,000 each, said Houle at the time.

Houle, who later became the chief, revealed the band had nearly $600,000 worth of bills and only $111,000 in the bank. "It was obvious the budget would be overspent," said the former chief, who is no longer a member of the Saddle Lake council.

Although about $125,000 was spend sending delegates to Ottawa to oppose Bill C-31 (which restores Treaty rights to Native women who marry non-status men), Steinhauer says he was "following the people's wishes ... I had warned them it would be costly and we'd run into a deficit."

After serving only nine months of a three year term, Steinhauer was removed from power. But, many of his supporters argued that he was wrongfully removed because his actions were not weighed by a majority of band members ? 60 per cent of the eligible voters.