Ousted Salt River chief's supporters vote to remove council

Supporters of Frieda Martselos, who was fired a week ago as chief of the Salt River First Nation in Fort Smith, N.W.T., voted Tuesday night to oust the current band council.

But council members immediately said the vote was not valid.

About 60of Martselos' supporters packed the First Nation band office for a 4½-hour long meeting, which Martselos called.

Martselos and her supporters have been occupyingtheoffice since May 7, when council passed a resolution firing her as chief only a week after she was elected. Martselos has maintained that she is still chief.

Those who attended Tuesday's meeting voted unanimously toreinstateMartselos as chief, as well as remove the current council andappoint six interim councillors to sit until a July election.

As a result, Martselos agreed to end her occupation at the office.

But acting chief Mike Beaver told CBC News on Tuesday that the meeting was not properly called and the vote was therefore invalid. None of Martselos' opponents attended the meeting where the vote took place.

In firing Martselos, councillors alleged she was acting autocratically as chief by firing staff and contractors without council's permission, as well as blocking normal band business.

Martselos and her supporters have been demanding an audit of the band's finances.

CBC reporter Lee Selleck, who attended Tuesday's meeting, said Beaver "figures that if everybody is going to be so entrenched in their positions — if there's no way to compromise, and as he put it, 'money and hatred continue to rule' — there'll be no choice but to go to court."

Selleck said Wednesday that the dispute has divided First Nation members in Fort Smith, a town of about 2,300 that lies on the N.W.T.-Alberta border, 300 kilometres south of Yellowknife.

"They all pretty well said, 'we wish it would end,'" he said.