Carolyn Lubenau is a disenrolled member of the Snoqualmie Tribe of Washington State. We've written about their issues HERE, HERE and Here... Carolyn is on the board of AIRRO, which works to gain civil rights lost to individual Indians in this country.
She's written a piece at Socyberty.com that tells HER story and those of the Snoqualmie 9. Please share this with your friends, these stories must be told.
Native Americans do not have the full rights of American citizens within their tribal governments. In 1924 the United States Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act but it did not bestow on Native Americans guaranteed civil rights……just the right to vote in U.S. elections but it wasn’t until 1948 that it was even enforced and even today there are places where Native Americans cannot vote in our nation’s elections.
In 1968 Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act but yet again they did not include enforcement and the Act is just a suggestion to the tribe’s to grant civil rights to their citizens. It is not enforceable and the Federal courts say they do not have jurisdiction to hear Indian Civil Rights cases brought to them and deny Native Americans the rights everyone takes for granted.
On their Banishment:
In April of 2008, I and eight other tribal members were illegally banished from the Snoqualmie Tribe. Banishment in our tribe is a permanent exile, a death sentence. Our descendants are erased with us and our entire families punished for events they were hardly aware of. Most people when they hear the term “banished” think of violence, of lifetimes spent breaking the law and repeat offenders of serious crimes. Our banishment can only be described as an illegal, political maneuver.
Prior to the banishment, all nine of us have served on the Tribal Council. Five of the nine banished, including myself, were elected officials serving on the council immediately before the banishments. Three of the banished were our spiritual leaders; one is a minister in the 1910 Indian Shaker Church, the church my late Mother belonged to. One spiritual worker was banished for saying a prayer…..a prayer the tribal chief felt admonished his actions. They charged our minister with treason yet his only “crime” was being related to the five elected officials.
READ MORE HERE
Thank you Carolyn for your support, and for taking the fight public.
1 comment:
YES, THANK YOU CAROLYN FOR FOR YOUR FIGHT FOR ALL OF US THAT HAVE BEEN SET UPON BY DECEITFULL AND CORRUPT TRIBAL LEADERS WITH NO REGARD FOR WHAT IS RIGHT, FAIR OR JUST IN INDIAN COUNTRY. I REALIZE THAT YOUR PLIGHT IS ESPECIALLY GREAVOUS WITH RESPECT TO THE ILLEGAL AND MORALLY UNJUST BANISHMENT OF YOU AND THE OTHER 8 FOR IN EFFECT "NO JUST CAUSE!" I CAN'T EVEN VISUALIZE YOUR CONSTITUTION AND BY LAWS EVER LETTING THIS HAPPEN, MUCH LESS YOUR TRIBAL COUNCIL AND MEMBERSHIP. AND DIDN'T YOU WIN A COURT CASE IN THE "WHITE MANS COURT" AGAINST YOUR TRIBE TO REINSTATE YOU BACK INTO YOUR TRIBE THAT WAS TOTALLY IGNORED? WHAT"S UP WITH THAT? WHEN IS THE GOVERNMENT(INDIAN AFFAIRS) GOING TO GET THEIR RESPECTIVE "HEADS OUT OF THEIR A.." AND REALIZE YOU CAN NOT LET THE GREEDY AND CORRUPT TRIBAL LEADERS MAKE IMMORAL AND UNJUST ACTS AGAINST THEIR OWN MEMBERSHIPS AS A MATTER OF POLICY WITHOUT STEPPING IN AND SAYING "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH." WITH THE EXTENT OF CORRUPTION AND GREED THROUGHOUT INDIAN COUNTRY, THE GREEDY TRIBAL LEADERS CAN NOT BE LEFT UP TO THEIR OWN DEVICES FOR THEY "MAKE IT UP AS THEY GO" AND THE TRUE "NATIVE AMERICAN" WILL GET SCREWED, OR SHOULD I SAY, HAVE BEEN SCREWED. THE GOVERNMENT(INDIAN AFFAIRS) COULD STEP IN FOR THE GOOD OF ALL IN INDIAN COUNTRY, BUT CHOOSE NOT TO FOR THE "WHITE MAN" HAS TRIED TO ERASE US FROM EXISTENCE EVER SINCE THEY STEPPED ON THE AMERICAS AND NOW THEY ARE ALLOWING OUR OWN PEOPLE TO DO THE SAME. WHEN WILL JUSTICE EVER COME TO THE "NATIVE AMERICAN" IN INDIAN COUNTRY? THERE HAS TO BE A "BREAKING POINT" WHERE THE GOVERNMENT(INDIAN AFFAIRS) WILL HAVE THEIR "BACKS TO THE WALL" AND HAVE TO FINALLY TAKE ACTION AGAINST THE CORRUPT TRIBAL LEADERS FOR ALL THEIR SHADDY AND ILLEGAL ACTS. THE PROOF IS OUT THERE, THEY JUST HAVE LOOK FOR IT. AND WE HAVE TO PUT IT OUT THERE FOR ALL TO SEE, AND FOR THEM TO FIND FOR " WE ARE NO LONGER SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER."
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