This appeal is from the Tribal Com1′s order dismissing Appellants· second amended complaint. Appellants requested the Tribal Court enjoin members of the Nooksack Tribal Council from conducting disenrollment proceedings against them. Appellants are understandably gravely concemed at the prospect of disenrollment. We understand how serious the prospect of disenrollment is to Appellants. and how it impacts their cultural. social and political identity.
We also recognize that determining its own membership is a hallmark of a tribe’s sovereignty. It is one of the few aspects of tribal sovereignty that has withstood the relentless attempts by outside forces to tear down tribal self-governance, and one of the few aspects of tribal sovereignty that has not been eroded by the federal government.
Judges are not sages. We do not delude ourselves into believing we have the wisdom of a Solomon. It is not our role to insert ourselves into the Tribe’s political fray. or second guess the political judgments made by the Tribe’s elected leaders or its voting members, even if we believe those judgments unwise. We, like the trial court. are limited to resolving legal questions where authorized by the Tribe’s Constitution and laws.
The nature of this dispute requires us to find the delicate balance between Nooksack lawand politics keeping in mind the equal importance attached to both Tribal membership and Tribal sovereignty. The Tribe’s Constitution guides us in this difficult task. which we are duty bound to perform.
The Nooksack judiciary is not the only Nooksack governmental body whose decisions are tethered to the Tribe’s Constitution and laws. The decisions of its elected officials are as well. The trial judge expressed it well and it is worth repeating:
The Tribal Council members named in this Complaint hold an obligation to act in the best interests of the Nooksack Indian Tribe. Membership and enrollment decisions impact individual lives in the deepest possible ways and those decisions cannot be taken lightly. This Cotut recognizes the serious implications of this case and its decision on this motion and all the others that have preceded it. It is the solemn obligation of this Court to follow the law of the Nooksack Indian Tribe and it is the obligation of the Tribal Council to do the same.
15 comments:
The judges should rule that disenrollment decisions should be voted on by the whole tribes and not just the councils, and have an unbiased third party tally the votes or have them made public, this way it will be all of the tribal members who make the choice and the sovereignty of the tribe remains valid. For some reason the judges seem to feel that tribal councils are the whole tribe or represent the tribes feelings, but they obviously don't. I can understand the tribe having sovereignty, but not the councils because they are just a few people.
Perfectly said. The councils are not and do not represent the whole tribe! Especially like at Pala the executive/enrollment committee are the same. I believe they also made themselves a few other committee's not sure which ones, housing I believe. Chairman also controls tribal security. We have a family friend that quit Pala tribal security and went to do it at another Rez he said he was tired of the extra rules Robert would give them and the favoritism. He said everytime something happened regarding a tribal member they had to notify Robert so he could give them instructions on what to do depending on who the tribal member was.ROBERT SMITH IS A DICTATOR PLAIN AND SIMPLE!
Everyone enrolled or not needs to let this man Robert Smith know what they think of him, what a soulless,greedy piece is Sh*@ he is. Make his life so miserable like he has done to sooo many so that everytime he leaves his house he has to worry about who he's gonna run into that day and everyday. He does WHATEVER he wants because he knows there is nobody above him to stop him.He has lied to our faces in tribal meetings then caught on camera ripping down the BIA letters that showed he was lying to us. I know most of u are afraid to lose your percap so only talk sh*@ behind his back I've heard it all but as we all know with the drop in percap and bonuses for the year being cancelled there won't be much to lose soon anyway if this waste of a human remains in power. Stay quiet now only to lose it all or speak up and save it and the tribe.
The drop is Pala's revenue is not from the economy as Robert and his side kick treasurer Teresa Nieto keep saying it's because they are taking more from the tribe then we bring in. Does anybody watch the news the Dow and S&P have been closing higher then ever in history,unemployment is down the economy is steadily rising. All the other casinos within a 20 min drive are flourishing. We had the biggest drop in percap this month since the middle of the worst recession in years . THINK PEOPLE you cannot be that stupid or oblivious to what's happening in our tribe. Robert and his business partners are gonna milk Pala for everything they can while they can WAKE THE FU$@ UP!!!!!! How can they say no bonuses 4 months from now and that percap may drop again this year they don't know how the economy (what they blame) can change in 6 months. Unless they know something we don't know about how much money they'll need to be taking this year.
Why hasn't anyone questioned the fact that Smith enrolled his two adopted nephews as Tribal Members.
His late sister, Deborah adopted 2 boys before she died, and both are receiving per capita from Pala
Also one of them,Ted Smith,has broken into the Pala Store a couple of times in the last year & is still walking around like a zombie, free to do whatever he wants.
It seems to me that that would be considered a Federal crime, scence the u.s.post office is in the same building.
But try to banish this little puke from the rez and see what happens.
They are both adopted into the tribe according to our constitution membership requirements section "b" the Pala band is allowed to adopt members native blood or not into the tribe. Yet the disenrollee's who have blood cannot be adopted because they are from the wrong family. Bring it up at a meeting to Amend constituition and take off that membership requirement. Guaranteed Robert will not allow it. He uses that as a perk to his friends. I wonder how many people have been adopted under that law?
HEADLINE:
Pala chairman Robert Smith now denying TANF a federally funded program to disenrollee's by signing (and lying) on federal TANF documents that they are not descendants or native of Pala. "If someone's biological parent is an enrolled member of Pala how can their child, even though disenrolled not be a descendant"?? Answer me this please! He really does whatever he wants he is a DICTATOR..when will someone stop this man??
HEADLINE:
Pala chairman Robert Smith now denying TANF a federally funded program to disenrollee's by signing (and lying) on federal TANF documents that they are not descendants or native of Pala. "If someone's biological parent is an enrolled member of Pala how can their child, even though disenrolled not be a descendant"?? Answer me this please! He really does whatever he wants he is a DICTATOR..when will someone stop this man??
You know i was brought up to be respectfull and to never wish any ill feelings toward anyone.But after dealing with a fuc@ing asshole like Robert Smith, i have changed my views.i hope that he suffers more pain and hurt than any other human has endured. i pray for his end a.s.a.p.along with that fuc#ing c@nt Nieto.
I want her to suffer even more.
She is nothing more than a piece of dog shit.They truley believe that they are going to get away with what they are doing to the people of Pala.There is no way that they will get away with anything.
Here is an interesting move. Smith fired the Tribes I.T.
and also fired the I.T.'s wife, which was smiths personal assistant.i'll bet that they know alot about the wrongs that are being done.
Sounds like Smith is preparing for something, don't know what, but definitely something big. You know it is not a sin to kill evil, we can cast the devil back to hell and feel good about it, because we have rid this earth of such evil corruption that has no problem hurting people.
People need to start letting their feelings be known publicly and to Robert and Teresa's faces. Fu!@ respect they don't deserve it!! They have none for anyone else or their families.
I have a question.
HOW MANY OF YOU ENROLLED PALA MEMBERS HAVE THE BALLS TO STAND UP TO ROBERT SMITH, THERESA NIETO,AND THE REST OF THE COUNSEL THAT ARE HURTING YOUR PEOPLE.
Please they don't care about the people just the check sad but that's they way it is now. If they did care they would stand up to the corrupt leaders. In the past 2 years has the EC done anything good for us NO! Percap drop bonus drops and some bonus are now gone this year. Charging us enrolled members to use the lights at the ball field if we wanna play at night because Pala can't afford the electric bill. Under Roberts leadership Pala has only gone one direction in the past 2 years "down"!.
and his loud mouth sister-in-law, lizzy,she needs to shut the fu@k up and stand up for her people.
She is nothing more than a puppet hanging from Smiths balls. And the same goes for the asshole Jim Goodpasture, you know the guy that has a felony for stealing cars and selling parts.He should be turned into the auto theft unit
because according to his record he is not supposed to be doing any kind of business concerning automobiles. I wonder what stolen parts he has in those storage containers on Smiths property.
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