Grand Ronde Tribe Spares 16 from Disenrollment; 5 Council Members Vote NO

From their FACEBOOK PAGE: 

We are so happy for our friends and their families who were spared disenrollment from Grand Ronde at last night's Tribal Council meeting. While our own family continues to fight this heart wrenching battle we are comforted to know that, in this case, 5 members of Tribal Council made the right decision and voted NO to disenroll. Keep hope alive! 

Pechanga and Pala Disenrollment News Video From KCBS 2 in Los Angeles

Re-POST: KCBS Channel 2 reporter CRISTY FAJARDO reports on disenrollment for greed and power tonight. Pay special attention as to how WEAK the responses are from the two tribal chairmen, Mark Macarro and Robert Smith! They can lie and obfuscate with ease.

Here is the video:

Please SIGN this National Petition for JUSTICE

You can find this petition here:  National Petition for Justice

In 1968, the Indian Civil Rights Act "ICRA" was originally introduced and enacted as an effort to protect individuals from the "arbitrary and capricious" actions of tribal governments and/or officials. Unfortunately, while the "ICRA" was well intended and expressly forbid tribes from taking actions that violated an individual's rights, the "ICRA" failed to include an effective enforcement mechanism which would hold tribal officials accountable for violations of its provisions.

With no oversight of the "ICRA" and not one federal dollar being spent on the enforcement of fundamental civil rights of American citizens on Indian Reservations since 1978, we must do our part to ensure Congress appoints a special impartial counsel to investigate the ongoing denial of equal protection of the law and civil liberties in Indian Country.

It starts with your signature. One does not have to be Indian, or have been the victim of rights violations to sign - anyone can. Please sign, share and get family and friends to sign.

$18 MILLION DOLLARS Stolen from ALTO family at San Pasqual. (so far)

But, I'm sure the tribe will say, "it's not about the money.

A family fighting the San Pasqual Band of Mission’s efforts to eject them from the tribe got a victory in court this week.

The Valley Center tribe is trying to remove about 60 members of the Alto family from its rolls saying they don’t qualify for membership.

San Pasqual, which owns Valley View Casino, has cut off the Altos’ share of casino profits, denied them access to tribal elections and removed them from casino and tribal government jobs.

In 2011, the Altos sued the U.S. Department of Interior, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for going along with the tribe’s plans to expel them. The tribe has tried to intervene in the lawsuit saying it has the sole authority to decide who belongs and who doesn’t.

The U.S. Ninth District Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the family’s case against the federal agency could go forward without the tribe’s involvement.

“This is a big victory for them and it gives them hope,” said Tracy Emblem, an Escondido attorney representing the family.

Attorneys for the tribe and the tribe’s chairman could not be reached for comment Friday. In documents, they argued that the court has no jurisdiction over the tribe because it is a sovereign nation and since enrollment decisions are internal tribal matters, the court cannot intervene.

However, in her ruling, Judge Marsha S. Berzon wrote that “the Band is not a required party” in the case because the family is only asking the court whether the BIA acted appropriately in its decisions, not the tribe.

The dispute began in 2008, when the tribe’s enrollment committee decided the Altos descended from a person who was not a member of the tribe.

The family traces its tribal heritage to Marcus Alto Sr., who died in 1988 and whose lineage was questioned by another tribal member. According to the tribe, Marcus Alto Sr. was adopted by a San Pasqual family and was not their biological son.

San Pasqual rules require a biological connection to the tribe.

Under many tribal government constitutions, tribes make final decisions about who belongs. But the San Pasqual tribe’s constitution gives that authority to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In 2011, BIA Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk sided with the tribe, overturning an earlier decision by agency’s regional director, who said the evidence submitted by the tribe did not warrant the Altos’ ouster.

In its ruling, the appellate court also upheld a lower court’s decision to temporarily stop the removal of the Altos until the case is decided.

In the meantime, the Altos remain in legal limbo, Emblem said.

Though they are officially enrolled members of the tribe, the Altos don’t get their share of the casino profits — which for each adult family member was nearly $100,000 in 2011, according to court documents. Under a court order, the tribe is supposed to be collecting the payments in a trust fund to be distributed if the family wins its case.

Emblem said some of the family members are working but others have no jobs or can’t work.

“They are getting by,” Emblem said. “They are keeping the faith.”

DISENROLLMENT = STOLEN Tribal Heritage/Citizenship by Corrupt Tribal Leaders

Our govt needs to do its job and stand up for the weak and defenseless in Indian Country. Exercising moral outrage against tribal disenrollment includes:

1. Eliminate funding for tribes who violate the rights of their people.
2. No longer take land into trust for abusive tribes
3. Place enforcement actions into the Indian Civil Rights Act
4. Publicly expose the tribes who have harmed 11,000 Natives

Tribes have a right to do wrong, but they shouldn’t be supported by our politicians when they do.

I find it disconcerting that in all the years we have had mass terminations of tribal citizenships, no politician has stood up for those Indians who have been harmed by their tribe.  (See:  Like Being Raped and Going to your Rapist for Justice)

When you give it a cute moniker like “disenrollment”, it takes on the context of, say, losing your membership in the P. T. A. or the Kiwanis. And that makes it simpler for a politician to take tribal money and with the phrase, “tribes can choose their own membership” they can avoid taking a closer look at what it really entails.

Nooksack Tribal Leaders Bob Kelly FIRES Accounting Staff. Also VIOLATES Tribal Court's Ruling on Support Checks for 306

From the Nooksack 306 Facebook Page:

Not only has the Kelly Faction violated the Tribal Court's ruling by refusing to cut Christmas support checks to the 306 families, but today they fired the Tribe's accounting staff. 

On a day when the Tribe was closed, the Kelly Faction had the Tribal Police deliver all of the employees' belongings to their homes. Bob Kelly and his followers will stop at nothing!  But in the end, they WILL be held accountable. 

San Pascual Disenrollment of Alto Family GOES BACK TO BIA which FAILED to PROTECT THEM

IN an earlier post, we linked to the 9th Circuit Decision on the ALTO CASE.

We have the sections below that are breaking new ground in disenrollment case law:

(1)  P. 2, fn. 2. The Ninth Circuit understands that membership disputes "have been proliferating in recent years, largely driven by the advent of Indian gaming."    The tide may be changing.

(2) The Ninth Circuit for the first time clearly states that the federal courts have jurisdiction to review BIA actions under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). On P. 25, the Ninth Circuit wrote "That the substantive law to be applied in this case is tribal law does not affect our jurisdiction over an APA challenge to the BIA's decision."    This is a very important statement from the appellate court because Tribes have used the "tribal law" arguing an intra tribal dispute as a defense to get cases dismissed around the country when a disenrollment action occurs, even though it also involves BIA action or inaction.

(3)  P. 17, The Ninth Circuit discusses the BIA's fiduciary duty to protect the Alto's access to tribal rights and benefits and recognizes the importance of preserving the status quo by analogizing removal off the federal rolls as similar to immigration proceedings (See P. 35).       This is important because being  removed from the federal roll is similar to losing citizenship and all rights.

(4) P. 26-36, the Ninth Circuit clearly sets out the reasons the Tribe is not entitled to "sovereign immunity" in the Alto case.              Disenrollment cases around the country have been dismissed based on sovereign immunity grounds, so this is a big step in the right direction. 

READ MORE ABOUT SAN PASCUAL AT THESE LINKS

San Pascual Evictions
San Pascual II
Larry Echo Hawk Screws Alto Family

9th Circuit Rules in favor of ALTO Family in San Pascual Disenrollment. ECHOHAWK decision smacked down...

I need help reading legalese, but it appears that the 9th circuit has ruled in favor of the Alto family vs. the corrupt San Pascual Tribe:

Finally, because the court’s review of the Disenrollment

Order is limited to the administrative record before the BIA,

see Fence Creek Cattle Co. v. U.S. Forest Serv., 602 F.3d

1125, 1131 (9th Cir. 2010), the Tribe could not offer new

evidence in the judicial proceedings that would materially

affect the outcome of claims one through three.

The Band also points to a dispute over the interpretation

of tribal law as evidence that the United States cannot

adequately represent its interests. Specifically, the Tribe

maintains that the Disenrollment Order took immediate effect

upon issuance, whereas the district court concluded (and the

BIA initially argued) that the Altos would retain their

membership status until the Secretary of the Department of

Interior approves a revised membership roll for the Band, on

which the Altos’ names do not appear.10 But the ability of the

district court to afford complete relief on the Altos’ first three

claims does not turn on the resolution of this dispute.

If the Disenrollment Order is invalidated and the case

remanded to the agency, then the effective date of the order

will be of no consequence: the Altos would have remained

members of the Tribe throughout the pendency of this

dispute, and would be entitled to any attendant benefits as

provided in the tribe’s governing documents and applicable

federal law. If, on the other hand, the Disenrollment Order is

upheld, then questions concerning the date of the Altos’

disenrollment can be addressed by the appropriate body or

bodies, whether that be the Band alone or the Band with an

appeal to the BIA.

I am waiting for some clarification... STAY TUNED...and SHARE.  

The full decision is HERE   Alto 9th Circuit

DOJ's Civil Rights Division On Protecting Native American...SOME NATIVE AMERICANS.

Our friend JOE LISKA who has the BLOG:  Joe’s Crime Blog/Human Rights Site    tipped us off to this publication of the Department of Justice Website.   We have written numerous letters to Attorney General Eric Holder with NO RESPONSE yet.

In keeping with President Barack Obama’s proclamation recognizing National Native American Heritage Month, this month the Department of Justice honors the vibrant cultures of Native American societies and strengthens the government-to-government relationship between the United States and each tribal nation.  By proclaiming November to be Native American Heritage Month, President Obama reaffirmed this administration’s commitment to Native self-determination and the right of tribal governments to build and strengthen their own communities.  (OP: UNMENTIONED is the number of tribal governments that have harmed more Indians that the white man has this century, and the past quarter century)

The Civil Rights Division shares this commitment to respecting and protecting the rights of tribes and individual Native Americans.  The division’s work in this area is a year-round effort, spearheaded by the division’s Indian Working Group.  The Indian Working Group has representatives from every section of the division, from education to voting to employment, recognizing that Native Americans’ civil rights should be protected in every sphere of life.  This collaborative effort elevates enforcement, outreach and educational opportunities concerning Native American issues throughout the country. (Makes one wonder if they really mean this or if this is lip service.  It's not like it's a secret, the abuses that are happening.)

For too long, Native Americans have experienced discrimination and injustice, and the federal government can and must stop such unequal treatment.  In response to frequent concerns raised by tribal leaders, the Civil Rights Division’s Indian Working Group is researching new ways to enhance implementation of civil rights laws and other laws affecting the rights of Native American parents and children in the context of child custody.  The discriminatory removal of Native American children from their families and placement in foster care and adoption systems, without adequate consideration of tribal citizenship and the unique family structures in Native American communities, are of deep concern to Native Americans and tribes.  The Indian Working Group is interested in methods in which the division can effectively assist in addressing Native American rights in the child custody context, including enforcement of federal civil rights laws and/or technical assistance to tribal or other related governmental agencies.   (OP:  We think that the discriminatory removal of people from their tribes, demands as much inspection as those 'few" children that are being harmed. )

The division enforces federal laws against hate crimes and discriminatory or abusive policing. We confront challenges to the civil rights of Native Americans, including vicious assaults born of hatred and threats used to drive Native Americans out of their homes. 

In addition, using our authority under the Religious Land Use of Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), this year we urged courts to ensure Native American prisoners in South Dakota were able to freely practice their religion.  

The Civil Rights Division’s ability to enforce federal civil rights laws on behalf of Native Americans depends on communication with Native Americans who have faced discrimination – whether in education, housing, voting, employment or lending – on the basis of race, national origin, English language fluency or religion.  

To that end, the Indian Working Group is striving to establish relationships with Native American human and civil rights groups.  This year the Indian Working Group entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission (NNHRC) as a mechanism to communicate regularly about potential civil rights issues and the division’s role in enforcing civil rights laws.  The Indian Working Group has embarked on a series of meetings with the NNHRC to exchange information that might necessitate referral to law enforcement agencies for further investigation when deemed appropriate.  This is the first agreement of its kind reached by the Indian Working Group and it serves to support our mission to identify and address potential civil rights violations that affect Native Americans. 

In an effort to expand our outreach, the Indian Working Group has launched an Indian Working Group website – www.justice.gov/crt/iwg/ – that provides information about the Civil Rights Division’s work on behalf of Native Americans and includes links to publications, statements, briefs, press releases, outreach initiatives and contact information.

We do this work not only because it is our legal responsibility as a division of the U.S. Department of Justice, but because it is our moral responsibility as members of a broad, diverse community.  We have the power of the law and the federal government behind us, and we will continue to protect the civil rights of American Indians and Alaska Natives.  

The Indian Working Group can be reached atindianrights.workinggroup@usdoj.gov.

YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM US, INDIAN WORKING GROUP

North Fork Rancheria Debate Continues. OFF RESERVATION GAMING SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED.

There is nothing I'd like better than to see casino business taken away from the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians.  But letting Governor Jerry Brown authorize off reservation casinos is NOT the way to go.

Tribal Casinos should be on reservation land that was available when Californians passed gaming laws.  Actually, it's time to end those compacts and open state-run gambling, so that ALL the people have the benefits of gaming and not just tribes.   We have seen and many of has felt the negative impacts that come with tribal gaming.

The Desert Sun has a story up on this issue:

Californians will decide next year whether a Central Valley Indian tribe can open a new casino, meaning voters should prepare themselves for a statewide debate over so-called “off-reservation” gaming that desert tribes oppose.

The state and federal governments granted permission to the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians for a casino along Highway 99 north of Fresno, but a group funded by competing casino interests succeeded in getting a referendum before voters next November.  OP:  DO NOT BELIEVE that these tribes are worried about the law not being followed.  They are concerned with losing market share.

The North Fork tribe has said its designated land can’t accommodate development to support the tribal economy, so it secured 305 acres in Madera County that was part of its historical homeland for a new casino. The site is 36 miles from the tribe’s governmental headquarters.

Here are statements from two Southern California Tribes:

The Morongo tribe has “consistently opposed tribal gaming on land that is not on or adjacent to an existing reservation,” Martin said in the statement.

Jeff Grubbe, chairman of the Palm Springs-based Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, said in a statement the tribe “respects the wishes of California voters” and, “It’s been our longstanding position that off-reservation gaming compacts break this commitment.”

Read the rest HERE:
OFF RESERVATION GAMING

Tribal Casino Crimewatch: New Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park has Violent Robbery Attempt on Senior Patron

A 67-year-old man was robbed in a parking lot at Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park Tuesday morning, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department.

The robbery was reported around 6:30 a.m., when the victim was struck in the head with an unknown object and robbed outside the casino, according to the sheriff’s office.

The victim said he was robbed by two suspects, who stole an undisclosed amount of cash and personal property, the sheriff’s office said.

The victim was taken to Memorial Hospital to be treated for severe head trauma, the sheriff’s office said.

Original Pechanga's Blog Wishes You a Merry Christmas and New Years Wishes for the END of Tribal Disenrollments

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

May the New Year bring positive results for those of us who are struggling to retain or regain what is rightfully ours. 

May those who are harming their people see that doing the right thing, IS the right thing to do.

May we have others join our fight for justice

Paulina Hunter
PROVEN Original Pechanga
By Pechanga's Hired Expert

Tribes that have shamed their ancestors include:  The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, The Enterprise Rancheria, Redding Rancheria, Nooksack, Pala Band of Luiseno Indian, Mixed Blood Uinta Utes, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, San Pascual, Berry Creek Rancheria, there are more, please check the blog out and share......

Black Cherokee Freedmen Hater/Abuser Chad Smith Announces Candidacy for Cherokee Nations Principal Chief

Losing to the current principal chief two years ago, Chad Smith announced this morning that he will run for his old job in the 2015 Cherokee Nation elections.

It sets up a rematch between Smith and Bill John Baker, who took office in 2011 after an election that included four recounts, a federal intervention and a re-vote.

“Some will say that it is best that I not run because of those who oppose me,” Smith said this morning during a press conference at the Tulsa Press Club downtown. “I say I run because of those who support me.

Of Baker’s term as principal chief, Smith said it is “promises made, promises broken. The Cherokee people have had enough.”

Serving three terms as chief between 1999 and 2011, Smith opposed voting rights for Cherokee freedmen, the descendants of former slaves. And he led a successful campaign in 2007 to pass a tribal constitutional amendment to exclude them from voting.

But he lost a re-election after federal authorities pressured the tribe to have a second election, counting the freedmen votes.

Sixth Casino Tour Bus Crash in Four Months Injures 13. Should Safety Inspections Be moved UP?

A tour bus heading back from a Southern California Indian casino crashed on a freeway east of Los Angeles early Monday, injuring 13 people, authorities said.

The bus went off the shoulder of an Interstate 10 off-ramp in Baldwin Park shortly after 4:30 a.m., California Highway Patrol Officer Christian Cracraft 

"The bus tried to get on the ramp to exit, but he come too fast. He can't control the bus," passenger Eduardo Magana told KCBS-TV.

Eleven people received minor injuries and two received moderate injuries, the station reported, citing the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Nearly 40 people were on board the bus, which was returning from the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio. They were briefly trapped by a blocked door before rescuers freed them.

There were two crashes last week with 50 injuries between them.  Buses from Valley View Casino and from Pala Casino overturned.

Over 100 Injured in FIVE CA Tribal Casino Tour Bus Crashes in The Last FOUR MONTHS.

It's time for Tribal Casino patrons to look a little closer at their bus transports in Southern California.

With news of the two recent crashes this week that resulted in 1 fatality and over 50 injured, that brings the total of the SIX crashes of casino tour buses in just the past 4 months to over 110 injured. If you ad the Pechanga shuttle bus crash of last year, the total rises above 120 injured.

Makes you wonder if casinos have any concern over whether the companies they charter are safe, doesn't it?

Should casinos require safety records for charters to their casinos?   Should our state be looking into this issue and crackdown on permits?    What do you think?

Fresno State's Castro Appoint Human Rights Violator To Advisory Board. The IDIOTS are in Charge at Fresno State

Apparently, our Institutes of Higher Learning in California don't require reading for their Presidents. Joseph Castro, are you an idiot?   The Chukchansi Leadership deserves the SCORN of Cal State FRESNO.

Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians tribal chairwoman Nancy Ayala was appointed to Fresno State's University Advisory Board by university President Joseph Castro.

The advisory board is a panel of community members who provide advice to Castro about improvements and development of the university.

Castro said that Ayala "will bring a unique and valuable perspective."  YA THINK?  How to get rid of people?  How to not give DUE PROCESS?  How to DEFAULT on your BONDS? How to throw burning logs at old people?  How to get rid of your elders?

READ AND LEARN JOSEPH CASTRO

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/12/20/3677454/fresno-state-president-appoints.html#storylink=cpy

Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians
Picayune Rancheria
  Chukchansi thuggery
  Nancy Ayala
  Chukchansi disenrollment
Chukchansi Council Dispute
  Morris Reid
  editorial in the Fresno Bee Chukchansi Council dispute
  Read Story for BIA quote here
  REGGIE LEWIS Read the FRESNO BEE STORY
  Chukchansi election contested
  Bedbugs at Chukchansi

Tour Bus Coming From PALA CASINO, Owned by Tribe That Harmed their OWN PEOPLE CRASHES with Multiple INJURIES

BREAKING:   A tour bus apparently going from Pala casino to Westminster has overturned, injuring 20. Developing and Details coming.

UPDATE:  CHP TRAFFIC labels it as FATALITY

UPDATE:  THERE ARE TWO TOUR BUS CRASHES.  There was one on the 15 fwy, just south of the 91 that overturned, reportedly taking passengers home from Pala Casino to Westminster.  A SECOND crash is near the Pala Casino and the 15/76 With a Fatality.  Stay Tuned.

UPDATE:  Crash one on N15 in Corona has had at least 20 transported to the hospital for injuries.

UPDATE: The Southern Crash site is reportedly from a tour bus coming from the VALLEY VIEW CASINO:  One person died, six were seriously injured and 13 others suffered minor injuries when a Valley View Casino tour bus overturned on south Interstate 15 just south of state Route 76 near Bonsall Thursday afternoon, authorities said.

What the Bureau of Indian Affairs IGNORES in failing to Protect Native Americans From their OWN TRIBE

I culled this from the Nooksack 306 Facebook page. It's a rundown on what the Nooksack Tribe is stealing/denying/taking from those they are working to disenroll. It denotes lack of DUE PROCESS, Penalties without judgement, Termination of Employment and impending loss of homes. The BIA should be protecting Native Americans from all this.  Sally Jewell and Kevin Washburn are abdicating their responsibility.   Sen. Maria Cantwell should be holding hearings in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Tomorrow, December 19, 2013, marks the one-year anniversary of the date the Kelly Faction started this hate-filled disenrollment effort against us. Over the last year:

• At least four members of us have been automatically disenrolled, without any hearing at all, despite the Kelly Faction’s prior promise in open court, and a Tribal Court Order, that “no person will be disenrolled prior to the completion of the meetings before the Tribal Council” – those meetings have not even commenced as a result of a Tribal Appellate Court litigation stay.

• At least thirteen members of us have been fired from our jobs with the Tribe by the Kelly Faction, without cause, or recourse.

• 64 Nooksack of our children were humiliated when the Kelly Faction denied them a $275 school supply stipend, merely because they are “proposed for disenrollment.”

• All of us were denied $250 in Christmas support, for the same shameful reason.

• Some of us have been denied Tribal public housing, for that very same reason, and 28 expect to have the homes we own taken by the Kelly Faction if we are terminated.

• 37 of our Tribal Elders face termination and a loss of health care and housing.

• The Kelly Faction has refused to hold a single public meeting of our Tribe, despite clear Tribal Constitutional requirements for (1) regular meetings of the entire Tribe on the first Tuesday of each month and (2) multiple special meetings of the Tribal Council requested by Tribal Councilpersons and various Tribal members.

• The Tribal Court Judge has dismissed two lawsuits brought by our family, believing that the Kelly Faction cannot be sued for any constitutional or civil rights violations as a mater of the Tribe’s sovereign immunity; the Judge has otherwise refused to stop any illegal behavior on the part of the Kelly Faction.

• U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn, as federal trustees to us and all enrolled Native Americans, have not even acknowledged receipt of a petition signed by 900 Indians in Washington State, requesting federal intercession on our behalf.
We wish these circumstances of hate and genocide on nobody.

NOOKSACK Tribe cites "missing" Ancestor AS Grounds for Disenrollment

Outside the courthouse – a small, portable building that resembles a mobile home – about two dozen people wait out a court hearing underway inside. Their tribal membership hangs in the balance.

The Nooksack tribe’s disenrollment process started nearly a year ago, and people here have felt the sting as outcasts.

Enlarge image

Credit KUOW Photo/Liz Jones

Linda Hart, Nooksack elder who faces disenrollment: "You find out who your friends are."

“You find out who your friends are,” Linda Hart says outside the courthouse. 

“I’d come up here one time, and told them I wanted dental work,” Daniel Rapada says. “They wouldn’t even see me.”

“Matter of fact, even at a gathering, sometimes they won’t sit by you,” Lois Gladstone says.

Hart, Rapada and Gladstone are Nooksack elders and among 306 members targeted by tribal officials for disenrollment. The cuts would reduce the 2,000-member tribe by about 15 percent, and would likely be the largest disenrollment ever in Washington state.

Without tribal standing, the members stand to lose fishing rights plus access to health care and housing programs, among other benefits. Similar disenrollment battles have increased across Indian Country in recent years.

Enlarge image

Credit KUOW Photo/Liz Jones

Daniel Rapada, a Nooksack elder: “I’d come up here one time, and told them I wanted dental work. They wouldn’t even see me.”

In February, the Nooksack Tribal Council sent letters to the 306 members, citing documentation errors with their proof of ancestry.

"I was really mad," Rapada said. "I mean, I was ready to come here and chew on somebody."

Most of the 306, as they call themselves, enrolled in the tribe in the 1980s, about a decade after the tribe gained federal status. Their Nooksack ancestor, upon whom they based their enrollment, is a woman named Annie George. However, in the disenrollment letters, the tribe says George is missing from a 1942 census that is used to verify lineage.

Read the Rest of The Article

Disenrollment as GENOCIDE A Year in the Life of the Nooksack 306 -

We MUST tell the stories of what has happened to us.   We MUST share the details of the corruption, the shameless theft of our rights.   Here, Michelle Roberts writes about the Nooksack 306, who are currently being disenrolled by the Nooksack Tribe.

Genocide: A Year In The Life of The Nooksack 306 

By Nooksack Tribal Councilwoman Michelle Roberts

I am the great granddaughter of Annie George, the daughter of ancestral Nooksack Chief Matsqui George. I belong to the Nooksack Tribe, and last year I was elected to our Tribal Council by the Nooksack People.

Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the date when disenrollment against my extended Nooksack family and I—known as the “Nooksack 306”— began. Since December 19, 2012, we have been persecuted in ways unimaginable anywhere else in America.

I live on the Nooksack Reservation, which is situated in Whatcom County, just east of Bellingham, in Northern Washington. I have 3/4 American Indian blood. I am also part Filipino-American by way of my grandfather. But because of my “Indipino” mixed blood, Nooksack Tribal Chairman Bob Kelly proclaimed in recent Secretarial election propaganda that my family and I have “weaker ties to Nooksack than the rest of us who are currently enrolled here.” (Incidentally, Bob Kelly has been adopted into our tribe; he has zero Nooksack blood.) In other words, we have been blatantly discriminated against, through tribally funded mailings and a federal taxpayer funded election.  Meanwhile, federal officials, ranging from local BIA Superintendent Judy Joseph to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn, have turned a blind eye to the illegal use of a federal election as a weapon of discrimination and genocide. That simply would not happen anywhere else but in Indian Country.

I have sued in Nooksack Tribal Court for racial discrimination under the Nooksack Constitution Equal Protection Clause and for misuse of tribal funds. But the Tribal Court Judge dismissed my claims, citing Bob Kelly and his Council faction’s ability to assert the Tribe’s sovereign immunity from any suit. That resulted from recent changes that they made to the Nooksack judicial code, to shield themselves from the very civil rights claims that they foresaw my family and I bringing against them. To date I have not been able obtain any legal recourse at all for violation of my civil rights. That simply would not happen anywhere else in America.

This summer, I was abruptly fired from my day job as the Human Resource Manager at the Nooksack River Casino, where I had worked for six years. I was fired simply because I was “an employee at will.” Twelve other members of my family have likewise lost their tribal jobs this year. In reality, I was fired by Bob Kelly and his Council faction because I have spoken out against the injustices that my family and I have suffered. I also cannot seek any legal recourse for blatant workplace retaliation. That simply would not happen anywhere else but in Indian Country.

During back-to-school season this fall, several of my nieces and nephews and other youth in our family from ages 3 to 19, were denied a $275 schools supply stipend by Bob Kelly and his Council faction—simply because they are among the 64 Nooksack children “proposed for disenrollment.” Our children were humiliated when they were denied financial aid for new backpacks and supplies, only to see all of their friends with new things for the first day of school. If that were not awful enough, this month our families’ holidays were dampened when Bob Kelly and his Council passed a Resolution that likewise denied us and our children $250 in Christmas support because we are “subject to pending disenrollment proceedings.” That simply would not happen anywhere else in America.

For the last year, I have not been notified of various Tribal Council meetings, despite my elected seat on the Council. At the meetings that Bob Kelly and his Council faction have told me about, he has ordered me to leave them due to unspecified “conflicts of interest” relating to the pending disenrollment process against me and my voting constituents. Or I have been allowed to participate by conference call, only to be muted by Bob Kelly from his off-reservation home when I spoken from my heart. That simply would not happen anywhere else but in Indian Country.

Over the last year, I have been unsuccessful in my formal pleas that Bob Kelly and Council his faction convene some form—any form—of public meeting of the Nooksack People. Still, there has not been a democratic meeting at Nooksack this entire year. That despite the clear requirements of our Constitution that the Chairman at least convene an open tribal meeting of the Nooksack People on the first Tuesday of every month. A government shutdown for an entire year – that simply would not anywhere else in America, not even Washington, DC.

On two occasions this year, nearly 200 enrolled members of my Tribe—some proposed for disenrollment, some not—have signed a petition for the recall Bob Kelly, due to his failure to honor the Nooksack Constitution or any notion of democratic government. On both occasions, he and his Council faction simply refused to allow the recall petitions to go to a vote of the Nooksack electorate. They suppressed the Nooksack People’s right to vote, twice. That simply would not happen anywhere else but in Indian Country.

Meanwhile, we possess federal probate records, expert opinions from two Ph.D. anthropologists, recorded sacred oral testimony from one of our deceased matriarchs, and even a 1996 legal opinion and enrollment record from the Tribe’s lawyer, all of which all makes clear that we are, and have always been, properly enrolled Nooksack. But we have no place to go with this proof. That is because over the course of the entire last year, Bob Kelly and his Council faction have deliberately denied my family and I—and really, our entire Nooksack Tribe—access to any political process, access to any electoral process, access to any judicial process, and access to any other forum where Indian democracy or due process might reign.

That simply would not happen anywhere else in America.

Tribal Leaders Don't Trust Lobbyists At Tribal Nations Conference. Can Holly Cook Macarro Only Wear ONE HAT?

Holly Cook Macarro, a Principal at IETAN CONSULTINGis miffed at a story in Indian Country Today about some tribal leaders that don't trust that she can attend a national conference as a member of the Red Lake Ojibwe tribe and not use some of her time lobbying for her clients.  Holly's firm gets $240,000 to lobby for her husband's tribe.  Do YOU believe she wouldn't mention his interests, even if he was there?

Many tribal leaders wanted Obama to put intense pressure on Democratic senators, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), to drop their bids to use a Carcieri fix to limit Indian gaming, as these tribal leaders maintain that the two issues are separate—land-into-trust is not just about gaming, after all.  (OP:  Limited gaming means tribes can protect their market share at the expense of tribes who would benefit by gaming)

At the same time, some tribal lobbyists thought the best strategy was to bargain with Congress in ways that would protect some of the lobbyists’ Indian clients from competition from other tribes. In a flurry of negotiations with Congress in late-2012, those lobbyists began to add new ideas to the table. What if off-reservation gaming were limited just in some areas, like California, asked one tribal lobbyist—could that gain favor with the rest of Indian country? Ietan Consulting, founded by Larry Rosenthal, former legislative director for U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.),  and Holly Cook Macarro, wife of Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians Chairman Mark Macarro was one of the lead lobbying firms pushing for a Carcieri compromise. The firm represents California tribal interests that would benefit from a narrowing of Indian gaming.

So, NOT ONLY is Pechanga not satisfied with stealing per capita from members they disenrolled, they want to keep other tribes from gaining gambling.  Pechanga has stolen over $400 MILLION from terminated members.

Sources say Rosemary Morillo, chairwoman of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians, couldn’t believe what had happened. Apparently, she felt tribal lobbyists with their own interests had been able to have more of an influence with the federal government than the elected tribal leaders of sovereign nations. And it had hurt Indian country’s economic and sovereign interests.

Sources have said that after the deal was dead, Morillo expressed her exasperation toward tribal lobbyists on a conference call set up by national Indian organizations with tribal advocates from around the country to assess the Carcieris ituation. She said they should be ashamed of themselves for their role in the failed Carcieri fix dealings. Their work had caused Indian country to lose its unity on an issue that should be a no-brainer, she said, since all tribes should be treated equally on land-into-trust matters.

Welcome to REAL WORLD Madame Chairman.  Other tribes don't see you as brothers, they see you as COMPETITION.  You are feeling the flea bites from the DOGS you lay down with.

More from Morillo:  Morillo thinks that if important Indian policy is going to pass Congress anytime soon, tribal leaders need to be present at such meetings.

“I think tribes need to take the time to send elected tribal leaders,” she says. “We’re making history here—when that invitation is extended, that’s a gesture that opens up a lot of doors. We need to make sure the doors that are opened help the tribal citizens, not the lobbyists.”

In an email that went out to many prominent Indian Leaders, Holly says:

Per Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain, Jr., I was appointed to attend the conference as a Red Lake Band member representative, not as a lobbyist.  Rob Capriccioso's off-base attempt to paint my attendance as anything other than as a representative of the Red Lake Nation is wrong.   I am concerned that Michael O. Finley, as an official of the National Congress of American Indians, would support a position that seeks to dictate who tribes can choose as their representative to a federal meeting.  Neither other Tribal leaders, the White House, nor the BIA should dictate who tribes choose to attend the Tribal Nations conference - that is an act of a sovereign nation and worthy of respect.  As I noted to Rob Capriccioso when he contacted me regarding this article, there were many non-elected tribal official attendees at the Tribal Nations conference.  VAWA activists, Law & Order Commission members, and many others - yet he chose to ignore those facts, which should have been included to provide Indian country with an accurate story.

Funny, it was HER HUSBAND, MARK MACARRO's Tribe, The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians that trampled on the sovereignty of the Ramona Band at a TASIN meeting, pulling out a Ramona Tribal employee, who was a terminated Pechanga Member and asking him to LEAVE the Pechanga Reservation as he had been banished.  Except they forgot to notify him.

Read about it HERE:  http://www.originalpechanga.com/2008/11/at-tasin-meeting-last-week-pechanga.html

Read the response to the banishment here:   http://www.originalpechanga.com/2010/05/airros-john-gomez-jr-responds-to.html

IETAN works for three tribes that have harmed THOUSANDS of Native Americans via disenrollment.  If you can't trust them not to harm their own tribal members, do you think you can trust their lobbyists?

Should all sovereign tribes be treated equally?? 

 http://www.originalpechanga.com/2013/10/treating-sovereign-tribal-nations.html

 

Mega Millions Jackpot Reaches $586 MILLION. Almost What has been stolen by Tribes from Disenrollee's Per Capita!

The Mega Millions jackpot has been boosted to $586 million, a jump from the earlier projection but still trailing a $656 million prize last year that was the largest in U.S. history.    

The amount stolen from Native Americans by their OWN TRIBES has surpassed that number.  Well over $400 MILLION from Pechanga alone.

What would YOU do with your winnings?  I know we'd help our families, would you BUY a politician or two like the corrupt tribes have?

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/12/15/3669632/mega-millions-jackpot-climbs-toward.html#storylink=cpy

Indian Country Today: Loss of Citizenship via Disenrollment is a DISASTER

What is happening at Nooksack is making the national stage.  It helps those who have been victims of corrupt activities to keep bringing their stories forward.   Pechanga, Chukchansi, Redding, Pala, Cherokee Freedmen all have disenrollment stories, and they are not alone. Moratoriums have harmed hundreds, and loss of federal recognition, like the Mixed Blood Uinta Utes are stories that also need to be learned.

Read this opinion piece from Indian Country Today:

Prof. David Wilkins is dismayed by language chosen by the Chief Judge of the Nooksack Tribal Court in a disenrollment decision.

His dismay is directed not at the holding of the case, which supported the sovereign authority of the Nooksack Nation to be stupid, but to the Chief Judge’s assertion that tribal enrollment is of less legal import than loss of US citizenship.

Nowhere in Prof. Wilkins’s critique of the opinion does he touch the essential argument the judge made: “While the impact on the disenrollee is serious and detrimental, it is not akin to becoming stateless.”

I propose a thought experiment. Suppose that the persons subject to disenrollment by the Nooksacks had US citizenship not by the right of birth set out in the Fourteenth Amendment, but rather a derivative citizenship based on the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.

Suppose that upon disenrollment, US passports had to be surrendered, Social Security numbers cancelled. Would that not be at least a different kettle of fish, if not two seasons ofThe Deadliest Catch?

Disenrollees would be insulted and diminished. They may have lost affirmative action consideration if it existed anymore. They would have lost any benefits that flow though membership in the Nooksack Social Club—for so it will render itself by its own actions.

Disenrollees are not stateless persons in two senses. The first is that they still have passports and the consular rights those passports confer. They still have Social Security cards and access to the anemic social safety net those cards confer.

The second is that they are still citizens of the Nooksack Nation to the degree it still exists, as the Cherokee Nation does, as the Six Nations do, as the Navajo Nation does…I am not fully informed how many tribal nations survive, but I’m certain that it’s a substantially smaller number than can be found in 25Code of Federal RegulationsPart 83.

You don’t get your tribal citizenship from the US government.

Either something of your tribal identity, your peoplehood, survives as more than family folklore or it does not.

 

Three Chukchansi Leaders Act Like THREE STOOGES. WHICH ONE IS MOE?

The FRESNO BEE continues to shine the spotlight on the corruption and infighting at Chukchansi.  It's amazing that the three so-called "leaders" can't see how stupid they are.  How does that dead golden goose taste?   Like it has bedbugs in it?   Nancy AYALA is accusing Lewis of TREASON against the tribe now.   Really, you stupid idiot?  And you were part of the faction that destroyed your own tribe?    Nancy is not smart enough to be LARRY.... so can we call her Curly?

Lewis, Ayala and Reid, Which one is MOE?

The three leaders vying for control of the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians — and its $9 million-a-month haul from its Madera County casino — have undeniably different styles.

Reggie Lewis, 62, conducts business from a high-rent, north Fresno office that has a sweeping view of the San Joaquin River. He has control of the tribe's multimillion-dollar bank accounts.

Nancy Ayala, 46, holds meetings in a windowless portable building near the tribe's Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino, which opened in 2003 along Highway 41 near Coarsegold. Ayala controls the daily casino profits, which she no longer deposits in the tribe's bank accounts for Lewis to use.

Morris Reid, 72, keeps tabs on the tribe from his Fresno home near Saint Agnes Medical Center. He has neither access to the bank accounts nor the casino profits.

While all three agree that in-fighting is bad for business, none of them are willing to step aside.

 The power struggle has led to charges — and counter charges — of embezzlement that, in Ayala's estimation, will put the casino in bankruptcy within a year if the leadership issue isn't resolved.

Now, Lewis has upped the ante, said Ayala, who described the dispute as "a chess match."

For years, Lewis opposed the North Fork Rancheria Band of Mono Indians' plan to put a swanky casino resort along Highway 99 north of Madera because it would cut into the Chukchansi tribe's profits.

As recently as May, Lewis sent out a newsletter to tribal members voicing his opposition. But now, Ayala said, he is trying to cut a deal with the North Fork tribe "for his own personal gain."

"He's a traitor. He's not only selling out his mother, he is selling out the entire tribe," she said.


Read the REST OF THE STORY HERE