Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn was sent a letter from the Nooksack 306, the latest embarrassment to Indian Country with pending disenrollment from the Nooksack Tribe of Washinton State.
It is TIME for the BIA and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, headed by Senator Cantwell to take a look at the violations of civil and human rights in Indian Country.
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Good Afternoon,
I am writing in regards to a couple of actions that the Nooksack Tribeis taking against enrolled Tribal members.
On August 28th, 2013 a letter was sent to a couple of tribal members informing them that they are no longer being considered eligible for housing because enrollment status is not certain. The certainty of
this these tribal members as of today is that are recognized by the federal government as an enrolled tribal member.
Also, at the end of August enrolled tribal members, recognized by the federal government were denied the return to school funds. It is unclear if these funds were taken from the JOM funds, but members were asked to complete that form.
In my opinion I believe these actions are clearly in violation of the rights, if not other violations of the members needing housing and the children that were excluded from receiving funds.
In your positions of being advocates for all tribal members I respectfully ask that you investigate the legitimacy of these actions.
Sincerely,
Michelle Roberts
Nooksack Tribal member #880
The BIA does not protect the rights of Indians under tribal law. The BIA does not enforce the protections of the Indian Civil Liberties Act. The BIA supports tribal officers and shows deference to their intrepretations of tribal law and their actions when they claim to be fulfulling their vows of office. All you need to do is look at the decision on jurisdicitional determination issued by Kevin Washburn in the Pala disenrollment appeal It says it all.
ReplyDeleteSorry Nooksack. You have to work within the tribe to stop the disenrollments. The time to do it is now before the disenrollements become final.
The EMAIL for Mr. Washburn is:
ReplyDeleteKevin.Washburn@bia.gov
PLEASE send in a letter, reference YOUR own tribal issue as well.
STAND WITH NOOKSACK306.
True the BIA and Washburn will not stand against tribal leaders they believe the councils to be "the tribe" when it's actually the majority that is the tribe. In the Pala case Washburn agreed what the council did was wrong but wouldn't intervene. He followed the councils ordinance that they themselves changed not the general council of all tribal members. Washburn stated sovereignty is a tribes right even when they make bad or wrong decisions that is their sovereign right. The tribe didn't make a decision one man did dictator Robert smith. Smith also tried bringing up an ordinance that he can take your percap for a year if you bad mouth him or the council. What happen to freedom of speech he really is making Pala a police state.
ReplyDelete