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After serving 28 months in federal prison, former White Earth Tribal Chairman Darrell "Chip" Wadena is back home on the reservation. Convicted in 1996 of 15 felony counts including conspiracy, theft and embezzlement of tribal funds, Wadena still contends he did nothing wrong. He now says he plans to seek the White Earth chairmanship again in 2000.

Wadena: Although they imprisoned my body, my mind was still free and I just made up my mind that they weren't going to break me, you know?

Wadena: It's almost like, you can't quit this thing, you know? All your life...you've served people and, to know that they still depend on you, you kind of put your own life aside and start looking to what you can do for those people that are less fortunate. It's tough to just say, to walk away from it, you know what I mean? So I'm going to get active again and I intend to run for tribal chairman again when it comes up.

Visenor: Personally, I feel that Chip would have a very difficult time to garner that kind of support.

Visenor: What's Chip going to do if he can't be chairman? Most of us have other careers, but he doesn't. And it was a good life for him. I mean, he owes the tribe 470-some-thousand dollars in restitution. Yes, he's had a good life here. And he yearns for that. I mean, didn't Marcos and these people, they yearn for that same position, and went to their grave yearning for that, so I don't see it as any different. He wants to come back.

Bellanger: There was no change whatever. There is more thievery right now going on. There is no such thing as accountability. I predict that if things don't change and the government don't come in here and take this government and check it out and do some prosecuting, there's going to be violence. There is going to be violence.

Bellanger: My theory is, he did things wrong, yes, he paid for them. He went in and did his time behind bars. He did his time. All right. Now he's home. Hey, we don't kick a guy when he's down. You don't kick a man when he's down. He done his time. He paid his dept. Okay. It's not for us to kick him. It's for us to pick him up and say, "Mr. Wadena, let us use your experience, and let us use you to do some accountability. You made a mistake, you paid your dept. I hope you learned something. I hope you learned not to do the same thing again, to work with people, and do the right thing. "

Visenor: I'm confident that this tribal government will, is moving ahead, we are doing what is right. We work for the best interest of the people, most of us work 60 hours a week. We walked into a government that was in shambles. It has taken us some time to gather and to organize and to really build up where we are today.

Baer: I know there are certain people that do support him and that will always support Chip Wadena, in spite of what he did to the tribe, in spite of the disrespect he brought to the tribe, in spite of the vote fraud that had been rampant for many years. There are still people who will always adore Chip Wadena. But I think that number is small and not by any means representative of the majority of people on White Earth.

Wadena: I think the support is there enough to win. I believe that. I mean, last time I won, prior to the trouble that started here, I won with 94 percent of the vote in White Earth, so apparently I was doing something right.