Amidst the sound of generators and a game of horseshoes near the Quapaw Nation Powwow grounds, Guy Barker anxiously waited for messages from an election observer inside the Quapaw Nation's headquarters to tell him of the first batch of results.
"It's a hand count, so it's a slow process," said Barker as he and his mother Martha tallied some of the first votes around 6 p.m. on a small notebook while checking messages.
Around 10 p.m., the unofficial results were finally announced.
Joseph Byrd was re-elected for another term as chairman. But Barker ended up narrowly losing his secretary-treasurer seat to challenger Wena Supernaw by 27 votes. Supernaw has a bachelor of science in accounting from George Mason University and has worked for real estate development firms and a bank holding company. She’s advocating for an equal distribution of the Bear settlement for enrolled tribal members as of September 27, 2019.
Longtime business committee member Lloyd Buffalo was also unseated, by challenger Mike Shawnee, by 34 votes. Shawnee has a background in business and has worked in a few Fortune 500 companies, according to his candidate bio. He wants to make the Quapaw Nation's meat processing plant get more government contracts.
Out of roughly 1,500 eligible voters — only 621 Quapaw citizens cast their ballots in person or by absentee ballot.
Two years ago, Byrd unseated longtime chairman John Berrey. Byrd and Barker refinanced the debt on the tribe’s Downstream Resort and Casino, oversaw the ramping up of their criminal justice system after a case proved their reservation had never been disestablished, and helped win back the trust of citizens.
"We're just trying to put something in place for everyone that's going to come after us," said Barker in the middle of the vote count.
Reached after the final vote, Barker said he wished his opponent well and looks forward to developments in the Quapaw Nation. He admitted that his bid for Markwayne Mullin’s vacated seat in Congressional District 2 may have hurt his chances.
Supernaw will be tasked with further paying down debt incurred by the building of the Saracen Casino Resort in Arkansas and making sure the Quapaw Tribal Landowner Settlement Act gets passed in Congress.
A special election for another open seat on the business committee will be held in September.
