Should tribe's be forced to follow their own constitutions? One of the questions asked:
Does tribal sovereign immunity extend to Defendants who were incapable of acting in their official capacity because certain of them had criminal convictions and were barred by the tribal constitution from serving as tribal officials?
Plaintiffs are Native American Indians of different ancestral lineage within Pala who posed a threat to Defendants because they constituted a large voting block of Cupeños within Pala and sought accountability and transparency from
Defendants with respect to the Tribe’s financial dealings and other matters. The friction between Plaintiffs and Defendants escalated after one of Plaintiffs’ family members, King Freeman, circulated a petition for a special meeting to discuss the removal of one of the Defendants from office for engaging in criminal misconduct and violating his parole. Thereafter, in retaliation, Defendants disenrolled Freeman’s three children and five of his other relatives, on the grounds that they
did not have sufficient Pala Indian blood to be members of the Tribe because their
ancestor, Margarita Britten, was not a full-blooded Pala Indian.
Before
disenrolling them, however, Defendants cleverly ensured that these disenrollees would not be able to seek recourse from tribal courts by withdrawing Pala from the Intertribal Court of Southern California. Six of the Plaintiffs are among these eight disenrollees.
Read these links for more on Pala:
Pala dispute
Pala disenrolled 162 members
Pala Disenrolls families
Pala disenrollments led to hardship
PALA WATCH
DESPICABLE ROBERT SMITH
READ THE REST of Pals’s Big Gamble
17 comments:
Interesting that BIA Director Amy Dutschke's daughter is on Pala's legal team.
I hope this case is allowed to see the light of day, it is so essential to stop this corrupted view of sovereign immunity being misused upon Indian people in this day and time. The lawyers that defend these act are nothing more than blood suckers feeding on the demise of simple people. Keep hiding behind sovereign immunity and some day it maybe your own demise, no one will come to your aide, they to, will look away. If you believe that your position is so iron clad, you should fear no adverse out come, if you prevail, hold your head high.
Please read Indian country today, there is an article describing possible outcomes to Michigan vs Bay Mills, there still maybe hope to break through the vail of sovereign immunity for future challenges to Indian civil rights act, keep the pressure up, looks like there maybe a lot of hand wringing going on before the December 2nd hearing.
Who is running for office?
Sarah Palin
In a regular court it would be deemed as illegal, even a hate crime. But as long as tribes can claim sovereignty against their own people there is little that can be done. Tides will turn one day though and there will be someone paying for this illegal activity.
WHO'S RUNNING FOR OFFICE IT'S THE THREE STOOGES!!!!!!!! LARRY, MOE ,AND CURLY WHAT A FREAKIN JOKE
Remember when......... Pala was a wonderful and shining example of how a Casino owning Tribe handled things. They were good to there people and at least from the outside appeared to run there Tribal affairs with integrity and honesty. I remember recommending there casino as a place to go instead of Pechanga to people who wanted an honest place to go.
Sigh.... Lets hope and pray that things can get straightened out some day for both Tribes... for ALL Tribes.
I wish them luck; it will certainly be an uphill battle.
The current council is running Pala into the ground. Dispite the economy steadily rising over the last 2 years and all the other tribes in the immediate area are doing well Chairman Smith claims Pala just can't compete and isn't making money so percap went down. The biggest drop ever since the middle of the horrible economy 6 years ago. Maybe a change in managment is needed. The current council lead byRobert Smith and Teresa Nieto are running Pala into the ground while they and their partners flourish in tribal/casino money. Don't vote Howard Maxy or adopted tribal member goodpasture
Looks like per cap is going down in Pala again,there are some stupid ass people in Pala.
Does anyone really know the true per cap numbers?...it's hard to write our legislators without hard numbers...I have heard Pechanga was up to $30,000 a month at one time but down to $18,000 now?...anybody know?...and why is it a big secret?...the voters of California should know what they voted in and how the money is spent in case they want to change things at these casinos....no matter what the tribes think...the voters gave them their gambling AND can take it away.
The percapita is not the issue it's the money that isn't being accounted for and used by corrupt tribal councils like at Pala,Chukchansi for personal gain and perks. The Pala council still gets a huge Xmas bonus they gave themselves but cuts the rest of the tribes money. I mean come on how stupid are people the economy has been improving for a while now and Chairman Robert Smith still wants to blame the economy and lower percap to cover his over spending and stealing. Attention Pala people show your not stupid and don't vote in anymore of Roberts minions like Howard Maxy and Jimbo goodpastures daughter or Sheila Lopez and Dino Perez. Without his minions on council he can't get away with these things! Even tho his minions on the election committee throw away votes they can only throw away so many.
I've heard from several tribal members that have served on the Pala election committee that the chair of the election committee who is Always" a Robert smith family member or supporter throws away a handful of votes and won't let others on committee see them before to see why they are throwing them out. I know on the ballot it says they have the right to throw out ballots that have any marks or writing on them other the an "X" next to who you vote for but all the thrown out ballots should be checked and cleared by everyone on the election committee not just one person. This year Chairman Robert Smiths own daughter is on the election committee I mean come on.
When is pala going To wise up and get rid of Robert? It is a huge cut in per cap. He is robbing you blind.
Kilma, what's it going to be? Red ice or yellow?? Are you going to leave your blood and guts on the ice or dribble down your leg again?
If Kilma lattin really cared about his people he would speak up and let everyone know that what Robert Smith and Nieto are doing is totally wrong. And that the dis-enrollments were all made up lies to get rid of a large voting block.However, i don't think Kilma has the balls to expose Smith and Nieto.And i don't think that he realizes that if they get caught and taken down,that he will go also, because a lot of the wrong doings were being done while he was in office.Kilma, if you are reading this you better save your ass while you have a chance.
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