Three failed amendments and a heated discussion culminated in a 10-7 vote of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council Monday evening to approve a plan that increases voting districts from five to 15.

The previous act, passed July 13, 2010, allowed for three councilors per district, plus two at-large slots. Under the new redistricting plan, the current District 5 – which includes Rogers and Tulsa counties – would lose a seat to a new district being created to cover Ottawa, northern Delaware and a portion of Mayes counties.

The seat being eliminated in District 5 is held by Buel Anglen, who is up for re-election next year. Under the new map, either Cara Cowan Watts or Lee Keener, the other two District 5 councilors – both of whom reside in the same single district – would have to move to seek re-election, or give up their places on the council.

The three District 5 councilors have been vocal opponents of the administration of Principal Chief Bill John Baker since his election late last year.

The new districting map is based on Cherokee Nation registration data, and switches former district voters with bad addresses to at-large voters. At-large voters are not counted in redistricting population figures, but are still allowed to participate in tribal elections.

Two amendments and new maps were introduced by Cowan-Watts, and a third by at-large Councilor Julia Coates. All three were voted down.

During discussion of the amendments, Cowan-Watts said she believes councilors who were voted into office are being disenfranchised by the original proposal.

“We know from the Cherokee Constitution and court cases and existing law, the districting has to be based on registrar information,” said Cowan-Watts. “It has to include unverified or bad addresses; it specifically states that citizens’ names cannot be stricken simply because of returned mail. A district should be contiguous to eliminate gerrymandering. You cannot just remove, with a vote of the council, a seated council member. This puts Keener and myself in the same district, which would make one of us resign our seat if we live in the same district. That would be completely unconstitutional. Our citizens elected us. You can’t just take a vote and gerrymander us out.”

Councilor Chuck Hoskin Jr. said Cowan-Watts’ amendments were constructed on “shaky ground.”

“Gerrymandering is always the last refuge of someone who doesn’t like the changes being made,” said Hoskin. “It rests on shaky ground, the proposition that you must use bad addresses to construct the map. [Those opposing the act] can’t construct a map unless they use bad addresses. The map that passed out of committee relies on good addresses. The question is, do you craft districts based on the best data? That’s what this legislation does. This motion hinges on the use of bad data.”

Anglen said he believes the act, as originally proposed, is personal.

“This is absolutely a shot at me,” said Anglen. “Although I’ll be serving until 2013, I’ll be voted out tonight by a handful of people.”

Speaker of the Council Tina Glory Jordan, Councilors Jodie Fishinghawk and Hoskin Jr. all pointed out Cowan-Watts and Coates should have presented alternatives to the proposed map months ago, in committee.

“At the end of the day, we have an unconstitutional map that will obviously pass,” said Cowan-Watts. “This isn’t even about the people at this table, but about the Cherokee Nation citizens. Instead, it looks like we’re headed back to court. We tried tonight to put together options that are fair to everyone. I guess the politicians in Tahlequah just won’t listen.”

Fishinghawk said the new map was constructed using the best information the Cherokee Nation could provide.

“Everything on this map is based on fact, not speculation,” said Fishinghawk. “No one loses a seat with this map that is in front of us. They will serve out their terms. If they wish to move to serve the Cherokee people for the next election, they can do so.”

Hoskin agreed with Fishinghawk.

“It’s difficult to put it better than it was just put,” said Hoskin. “The information we used is good data. All we know with the bad addresses is that [Cherokee citizens] don’t live there. This makes a legislative judgment saying we will only count good addresses. This act rests on only good data. Watts’ map rests on bad data.”

Hoskin questioned the sincerity of Cowan-Watts’ and Coates’ efforts at presenting optional maps in a fair and timely manner.

“I believe we’re headed to a lawsuit, and what happened tonight was a stage show to set up that court battle,” said Hoskin. “Otherwise, they would have brought these maps forward months ago. Does anyone seriously think we’re not headed to court? Does anyone think this was a sincere effort? A sincere effort would have been brought forth months ago.”

In other business, Linda O’Leary was confirmed as the tribe’s new registrar. O’Leary previously served on the tribal council, representing one of two seats in Delaware County.

“I am so pleased to serve in this capacity, and will do the best job I can,” said O’Leary. “I’ll have an open-door policy, and if I’m not doing something right, please come tell me.”