Chase Iron Eyes - Candidate With A Checkered Past

Chase Iron Eyes, political candidate

 It was reported this week that North Dakota candidate for U.S. Congress Chase Iron Eyes has a felony conviction (click her to read the conviction UNITED STATES v. IRON EYES) that he had not discussed publicly before announcing his candidacy.

Yesterday, he addressed the conviction in his acceptance speech for the Democratic-NPL Party’s endorsement for U.S. House claiming he had turned his life around saying, “I became a family man and I realized that the powers of creation were giving me a second chance.”

However, in December a colleague wrote a post alleging an affair with Iron Eyes on the Last Real Indians Tumblr account that was later deactivated. A compromising photograph was also shared. The blog and the photo have been reblogged many times on Tumblr and are still searchable as of today.

Iron Eyes has asserted over social media that his colleague was simply infatuated and is a scorned woman. I am waiting for the Democratic-NPL Party to comment on these allegations.

I have also received allegations of fundraising through IndieGogo that the community felt never reached them. A "Heating the Rez” fundraiser raised over $60,000 but elders claim they never received the promised stoves. Twenty stoves were reportedly installed, but many in the community still feel it is too few considering the amount raised. They have also complained that Iron Eyes told them to "F-off" when asked for a financial accounting and that he claimed he was not required to give them an accounting because the fundraising was done through IndieGogo.

I starting investigating the "Heating the Rez" financials in June and am waiting for the latest IRS filings by Mr. Iron Eyes' nonprofit fiscal sponsors. I will report more at that time.

UPDATE: 04/06/16

I spoke yesterday to a blogger named Rob Port who called me after he had interviewed Chase Iron Eyes about the LRI Tumblr post. Chase had brought my name up in the interview claiming I was the one who had told Port about the Tumblr. Port had no idea who I was. He said his email was full of messages from folks relaying this scandal to him. I had emailed Port about an article he had done about "Heating the Rez" to see if he had been able to get ahold of any financial information about the project. He found my email and contacted me.

Port told me that the candidate had denied ever having an affair with his colleague. I then forwarded him a screen capture of a Facebook post Iron Eyes had done in response to the Tumblr. This is from the Facebook account Chase Iron Eyes deleted before announcing his candidacy. Chase is in the Native American world a social media celebrity so his posts are followed and liked and, obviously, preserved. In the post he admits to the affair--albeit as a cyber one. But this is in direct contradiction to what he told Port. Iron Eyes had mistakenly thought that since he deleted his Facebook account he could change the narrative and not be caught doing so. Port called me back and said Chase confirmed this was his Facebook account and he admitted to the online affair.

On Monday night, I spoke to someone very close to Chase Iron Eye's colleague who also confirmed the affair. This individual said that the colleague's husband had met Chase when he came to their reservation looking for a job. The husband tried to get Iron Eyes a job as the tribal attorney but the candidate was denied the position because of his felony. They claim "Last Real Indians" was his colleague's idea and she invited Chase to help her with starting the website after his job disappointment. Given that he'd gone to their reservation and worked closely with the husband and then with the wife for years, it is quite a feat he managed to never meet this colleague in person. In 2011, the husband's father died of cancer. Then, the husband also discovered he had cancer. It was shortly after this her husband claims he found texts from Iron Eyes to his wife and divorce followed.