Yes, IF tribes like Picayune, Pechanga and Redding keep on the way they have been, there will be MORE EX-Tribal Members than tribal members.
Why are they NOT represented at President Barack Obama's Listening Sessions? Where is the EQUAL Protection for this group of Native Americans?
UPDATE: Commenter JAG fills in some of the blanks for you all and I think it's important to promote it on this post:
Thousands of men, women, children, and elders make up the fastest growing California Indian Group since the turn of the century. (JAG means the 21st Century)
The growth of Indian gaming has spawned a movement among California Indian leaders to reduce or limit the number of California Indians who benefit from Indian gaming. (In Pechanga's case, it includes and unconstitutional moratorium, in ADDITION to disenrollments)
Whether it be Pechanga and San Pasqual in the Southern part of the State; Redding, Robinson, and Enterprise Rancherias in the North; or Chukchansi in the Central Valley, leaders at these and other Tribes have violated the basic human and civil rights of thousands.
Such violations include the denial of due process and equal protection of tribal and federal laws; denial of participation in the political process; and denial of basic services afforded other tribal members.
Indeed, the violations have gone as far as to require the desecration of Indian burials and re-classification of tribal citizens to 2nd class status.
There is no end in sight, not as long as tribal leaders are allowed to invoke tribal sovereignty to protect themselves from being prosecuted for their crimes. Even though it is quite clear that laws have been broken and crimes committed, there is no means by which to address such actions.
While California's tribal leaders continue to reduce and limit their member numbers, California's newest class of Indians will continue to grow.
Where our ancestors once endured a century of dishonor at the hands of numerous "foreign" governments, thousands of California Indians find themselves in a time where the dishonor and destruction have been brought forth by their own leaders- men and women who do not have more blood or greater ancestral ties (in fact, some leaders come from families adopted into the tribes) than those they have oppressed.
6 comments:
Thousands of men, women, children, and elders make up the fastest growing California Indian Group since the turn of the century.
The growth of Indian gaming has spawned a movement among California Indian leaders to reduce or limit the number of California Indians who benefit from Indian gaming.
Whether it be Pechanga and San Pasqual in the Southern part of the State; Redding, Robinson, and Enterprise Rancherias in the North; or Chukchansi in the Central Valley, leaders at these and other Tribes have violated the basic human and civil rights of thousands.
Such violations include the denial of due process and equal protection of tribal and federal laws; denial of participation in the political process; and denial of basic services afforded other tribal members.
Indeed, the violations have gone as far as to require the desecration of Indian burials and re-classification of tribal citizens to 2nd class status.
There is no end in sight, not as long as tribal leaders are allowed to invoke tribal sovereignty to protect themselves from being prosecuted for their crimes. Even though it is quite clear that laws have been broken and crimes committed, there is no means by which to address such actions.
While California's tribal leaders continue to reduce and limit their member numbers, California's newest class of Indians will continue to grow.
Where our ancestors once endured a century of dishonor at the hands of numerous "foreign" governments, thousands of California Indians find themselves in a time where the dishonor and destruction have been brought forth by their own leaders- men and women who do not have more blood or greater ancestral ties (in fact, some leaders come from families adopted into the tribes) than those they have oppressed.
This is just absurd, especially when some tribes like Pechanga do not allow adoptions but somehow made it into the membership and have taken over.
Putting things in perspective helps. Pechanga had the same arguments of membership in the late 70's, some of us were very little or not even born. Our elders held the same discussions. The tribe voted on one family and decided it would share the blanket with them. The spokesman for this family lead a group and tried to break away from the band to form it's own government, this took place before the vote to bring them in. The spokesman for this family visited with our elders and asked if they would support them in a vote. Here we are 30 plus years later, and the same arguments arised. However this time the adopted family was in and held a position on the council. Why does this family have more rights to hold office, vote in elections over anyone else? As far as another family in question, they also had questionable ties to Pechanga but somehow enrolled after 1979 and still hold elected offices and participate in tribal elections. This story is been playing out for over 30yrs people. The adopted people had the blanket shared with them, then they decided to take the whole thing. The BIA has all the documentation of these things. I belive its time to go after the BIA for allowing this to happen. I personally am not for disenrollment of the adopted people, but they should not have more rights than other indians.
My name is Bobby Foreman, i am one of the 76 Foremans that were disenrolled in 2002 by the redding rancheria,I, along with our family took care of my father until his death. We still live on the rancheria, my fathers land is held in trust status, so we are ok on that issue. As a young child i would travel with my dad to meetings regarding health care and i could not understand the amount of confrontation, i would ask my dad why does it have to be like that, he stated we have not found our Moses, one that will lead without self first and to not turn away someone in need, sometimes he gave out of his own wallet. So in closing i would say we need to be one and pick a leader, one who will be able to put us back on the radar to put presure on the rouge leaders, remember we provided DNA from our ancestors to prove who we are, 99.998% along with volumes of documentaions of our being on this earth
please visit www.tribalcorruption.com to see some of unreported issues across the nation, I am only one, but together we are big, it is time to become active and not just post comments, not to say they are not productive, but we need to be seen and tell our story
Tribal corruption.com is a good place to read about all the corruption that is happening in Indian Country.
It lays it out for you to see
...if you care enough to read it...
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