The upcoming race for chief on Mosquito First Nation promises to offer up some familiar names.
A former chief, Clarence Stone, is running despite a criminal conviction against him in a treaty land entitlement fraud case on the reserve.
Stone received a one-year conditional sentence last July for fraud over $5,000 and also paid back all of an approximate $23,000 in TLE money he had taken from the trust fund.
He was one of five individuals charged in the case. Those charged were alleged to have taken money specifically set aside in a trust fund for TLE land purchases, but instead spent it on unauthorized uses.
Former TLE trustees Alphonse Moosomin and Eldon Starchief were both sentenced in December 2010 to a year in jail each for criminal breach of trust. A fourth individual, Gerald Bird, still awaits trial, while a fifth, Clifford Spyglass, died in 2012 while his case was still before the courts.
Meanwhile, one of the people who has opposed Stone in the past has announced he is running for chief.
Robert Armstrong confirmed to the Regional Optimist that he has filed nomination papers to be a candidate for chief in the upcoming band election.
Armstrong, a former treaty land entitlement trustee for Mosquito First Nation, is known on and off the reserve for his efforts assisting the RCMP to expose the treaty land entitlement fraud that took place on Mosquito during the previous decade.
Armstrong says he is running for chief because he wants to see changes on the reserve.
"We need help on this reserve, and the kids need help," said Armstrong, who says he wants to see more funding, improvements in education and improvements to housing conditions for band residents.
At least two other candidates are also known to be in the race for chief, Anderson Moosomin and Daniel Starchief.
Nominations closed on Tuesday and the Mosquito election is scheduled for April 17.
Incumbent chief Noel Stone Jr. is being barred from running again for two years on order from the federal aboriginal affairs ministry, over "corrupt practises" in the last band election in 2011.
