Some Reasons WHY We Need Enforcement of ICRA. And How YOU can Help

Hunter Cousin A'amokat has put together some information on why the ICRA needs to be enforced. During the disenrollments of tribal members without due process that have been occurring over and over again all across Indian country in recent years there is one common theme, that despite the offending tribes’ claims to the contrary, individual Indians have not been given fair and impartial hearings and even when the disenrollees have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt (Redding Rancheria) that they are legitimate members of their tribes, they have still been kicked out of their tribes with no recourse. The Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) needs to be enforced. The main problem is that even if a tribe doesn’t follow their own rules, who can make them do so? We need congressional hearings now to help rectify this situation and legislation to provide enforcement provisions for the ICRA. SNOQUALMIE TRIBE-WASHINGTON STATE: Even after a Federal judge ruled that our civil rights were violated and overturned our permanent banishment- the corrupt tribal council will still not reinstate us and have instead handed us another 7 year sanction without due process. The sanction says we will be arrested if we step on tribal property and that we cannot speak to other tribal members - we cannot vote or hold office or attend meetings. We are in affect banished again.......and even though they swore in Federal court that we were members of the tribe - they are now disenrolling us. The Snoqualmie Tribal council just scoffs at the Federal Judge and told him in his own court that he couldn't make them follow our laws. All that is left is organized crime. PECHANGA-CALIFORNIA: Even though Article V of the Temecula Band’s Constitution and Bylaws, sometimes referred to as the Pechanga Band, says, "IT SHALL BE THE DUTY OF ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS OF THE BAND TO UPHOLD AND ENFORCE THE CONSTITUTION, BYLAWS, AND ORDINANCES OF THE TEMECULA BAND OF LUISENO MISSION INDIANS; AND ALSO, TO UPHOLD THE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS OF EACH MEMBER WITHOUT MALICE OR PREJUDICE", The Pechanga tribal council led my Mark Macarro allowed close family members of people who submitted and/or signed statements against the disenrollees’ tribal membership to rule on their disenrollment cases on both the enrollment committee and the tribal council despite the fact that the disenrollees requested these people, who had a clear conflict of interest, be made to step aside from sitting in judgment and rendering a verdict. The people who were related to the people who testified against the disenrollees included sisters, aunts, and a nephew of the witnesses. And those on the enrollment stood to gain the per capita of those they terminated. This amounts to over $250,000,000. Incentive enough to get rid of Indians? Better than the bounty on scalps. REDDING RANCHERIA-CALIFORNIA: On January 27, 2004, all 76 members of the Foreman family were removed from the Redding Rancheria tribal rolls based on nothing more than a conjured up rumor alleging that Foreman family matriarch Lorena Foreman-Butler was not the daughter of her mother Virginia Timmons, one of Redding Rancheria’s 17 Original Distributees. Tribal Officials never produced a single piece of evidence to dispute Foreman-Butler’s maternal lineage and her family provided reams of legal and contemporary documents proving her mother was Virginia Timmons. Tribal Council still required her family to provide genomic DNA from their deceased mother and grandmother to retain their tribal citizenship. Despite their family providing Tribal Council with DNA test results from two separate labs of 99.987% and 99.890%, proving by the legal standards established by the American Bar Association and the American Medical Associations that Lorena Butler and Virginia Timmons were mother and daughter, Tribal Council still stripped their family of their tribal citizenship. Robert Foreman should be considered a HERO to the Redding people for all he has done for Indians in Northern California. We need enforcement of ICRA, we need to exercise our moral outrage at tribes that harm their own and we need your support to make this happen.