NCAI delegates re-elect Macarro as president

On Thursday delegates at the National Congress of American Indians’ 82nd annual convention in Seattle re-elected NCAI president Mark Macarro, according to Indianz.Com. Macarro, who first won the organization’s top executive post in 2013, took nearly 60% in a runoff against Jacqueline “Jackie” Pata of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Nez Perce Chair Shannon Wheeler of Idaho was eliminated in the first round.

Macarro, chair of the Pechanga Band of Indians in California, thanked delegates who supported him and those who did not, saying the three-way race pushed him to refine his message and priorities. Pata pledged to stand beside him and NCAI, thanking her tribe and the Alaska caucus for backing her late-breaking bid.

Delegates also returned Brian Weeden of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe as first vice president and elected Christie Modlin of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma as recording secretary.