Separation of Powers In the Nooksack Tribe: Corrupt Council Runs Afoul of Tribal Law

“No Indian tribe in exercising powers of self-government shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws or deprive any person of liberty or property without due process of law.”

 

Tribes laugh at this portion of the Indian Civil Rights Act, and deny with impunity, Native Americans rights under this act. An article in Indian Country Today, by Peter D'Errico detail the issue:

Let's look at how the Nooksack case plays into the negative stereotypes about Native legal systems:

On February 29, the Nooksack citizens targeted for “disenrollment” won an important motion in Nooksack Tribal Court, when Judge Susan Alexander affirmed their right to vote in the upcoming 2016 elections. But, apparently unbeknownst to these citizens, their lawyer, and the court itself, the Nooksack Tribal Council had taken steps on February 24 to disbar their lawyer.

On March 7, when the lawyers tried to file motions to get copies of council resolutions and related documents, the tribal judge said the council disbarment move prevented the court from accepting the motions, and that the citizens were now in a pro se status, i.e., they had to represent themselves.

The council did not directly deprive the Nooksack citizens of all legal representation, but it derailed their representation in the middle of the case. According to a statement filed in tribal court by the lawyers, the tribal council convened a special meeting during which it “resuscitated” a tribal resolution on business license procedures that had not been enforced for 30 years. The lawyers told the tribal judge their application for a business license had been returned by the Nooksack Chief Financial Officer, with a statement, “We…are not able to issue the requested license.”

The right to be represented by a lawyer in criminal cases has long been seen as fundamental, but representation in civil cases stands on a lower rank. Nevertheless, many jurisdictions provide a right to counsel in the most serious types of civil cases, such as termination of parental rights and commitment proceedings.

Read more at Indian Country Today  

In Hopland Disenrollment, Evidence is Unnecessary Because it Would Contradict the Narrative.

Interesting post from a FB page of a recently disenrolled HOPLAND POMO woman, on evidence presented, and how corrupt tribal politicians (not much of a leader) only use what they want to use.

It strikes a chord with me and my family, because in our disenrollment, the enrollment committee didn't use the expert's evidence they paid for, instead using some vague hearsay from ..dead people.

Here's the post: 

Data and records were submitted with our disenrollment appeals letters proving our lineage to the tribe dating back to the 1800's. According to our appeals Letters from the interim secretary of the tribe, we were, in writing, assured that whatever evidence we submitted would be shared with the general council.

NOOKSACK TRIBE Reportedly has NO LEGAL Tribal Council: NO AUTHORITY to RUN their CASINO??

Word coming  today that the NOOKSACK TRIBAL COUNCIL has outsmarted themselves..

They need a quorum of 5... There was no election held on March 19th, 2016.. Therefore their positions are NULL and VOID. Lona Johnson's term is up! Katherine Canete's position is up! Abby Smith's position is up! And Rick George--vice chairman's position is up.

They cannot extend their positions according to the Constitution.They do not have the Constitutional power to extend their Rule.. 

The Nooksack Tribe, in their zeal to keep the Nooksack 306 from their rights to vote, and by delaying elections, now should be kept from having their business enterprises running.

SHUT DOWN THEIR CASINO, NIGC!  

Indian Child Welfare Act Rear It's Ugly Head in the case of LEXI. But This Could Have been Settled 3 years AGO

The Indian Child Welfare Act, developed to protect Native children from the horrors of the past when Indian children were taken from their families, has come between a child and her foster family. Ostensibly designed to protect Native children, to ensure they are kept with Native families, this case of Lexi, a foster child in CA is making news.

From a FOX 11 News Story:
Lexi has 1.5 percent Native American blood, and because of that, she's about to be removed from the only home she's ever known. Both of her biological parents have been out of the picture since she was around age 2.

"Lexi doesn't know another home. She finally knows what mom and dad means and they want to take that away from her, and we can't stand idly by while that happens," Rusty said.
"This little girl, we are her home. This is her family and that can all be rocked tomorrow," Summer said.

On Friday, in the middle of their litigation, the court system lifted the families "emergency stay."
"She doesn't know tomorrow might be her last day in this house. None of our kids do. We are under specific orders not to tell any of them what's happening," Rusty said.

As hard as it is, and as scary as it is to go up against the people we going up against, we're putting everything on the line. A mom is not going to sit back, a dad is not going to sit back. We're going to fight until the very end," Summer said.

This child will be placed with a NON-Native family, not blood related in UT, away from the only family she has known.  Is this what is best for the child? It definitely WOULD have been 3 years ago.

In a statement, a court appointed attorney for Lexi said, "Her family in Utah have been waiting to receive her for over 3 years, during that time they have traveled to California monthly and she has visited their home as well.

"The injustice here is not that she is leaving California but rather that her foster parents pursued litigation which prevented her from joining her family sooner."

In another statement, the Choctaw Nation said it wants what is best for Lexi.


"The Choctaw Nation desires the best for this Choctaw child. The tribe's values of faith, family and culture are what makes our tribal identity so important to us. Therefore we will continue to work to maintain these values and work toward the long-term best interest of this child," it said.

In an ICWA revision press release, it states:

Several long-term studies have been conducted of Native American adult adoptees. Despite socioeconomic advantages that many of them received by virtue of their adoption, long term studies reflect that these adoptees experienced increased rates of depression, low self-esteem, and suicide. In addition, many adult adoptees continue to struggle with their identities and have reported feelings of loneliness and isolation. Today, the number of Native American children in foster care alone is still alarmingly high, and they are still more than twice as likely to be placed in foster care overall.


Is it time for a study on the experiences of depression, low esteem and suicide on children who have been discarded, sometimes by non-Indian leaders?  Think about this:  The news release continues: Protecting Indian children reflects the highest ideals of the trust responsibility to Indian tribes and the guidelines issued today are a part of this Administration’s broader approach to ensuring compliance with ICWA.     This statement begs the question: 

WHO has the trust responsibility to protect the now individual Indian children and ensuring the protections that the ICWA, provides Indian Children?

We can't even get the Secretary to LISTEN, or respond to repeated questions for help. Where are the Indian child welfare advocates to work on behalf of the Indian children who no longer have their heritage and whose ancestors have been desecrated by disenrollment.


There are NON-Indian children, enrolled in Indian tribes who are protected by the ICWA, while a thousand Indian children, some removed by non-Indian tribal leaders, are cast aside, receiving no protection, and to whom the Indian Child Welfare Act now does not apply.  TheBIA recognizes all tribal members as Indian, yet they have abdicated their trust responsibility to Indian children, hoping nobody will notice.

What say YOU?

Chumash Chairman Vincent Armenta RESIGNS....for CULINARY SCHOOL?!?

Wow....

Vincent Armenta resigned from his post as tribal chairman of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians on Thursday to pursue a culinary arts degree.

“I have always enjoyed cooking, but it’s been a lifetime dream to delve further into the culinary arts and enhance my talents in this area,” Armenta said in a statement.

Armenta has served as chairman since December 1999 and been reelected every year to the tribe’s top post.

“Nearly 17 years ago, when I first became tribal chairman, I was a young man who had no tribal government experience, but what I did have was a strong desire to work on behalf of my tribe to take us to the next level and position our tribe for a better future,” Armenta said. “I believe I have done that.”

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The tribe’s vice chairman Kenneth Kahn will take over on an interim basis.

“Under chairman Armenta’s leadership, our tribe has traveled further than any of us ever thought possible,” Kahn said. “He led our tribe from relative obscurity to being one of the most visible and dynamic tribes in the nation. I am grateful for all that he has done for our tribe and wish him the best.”

Armenta was accepted to the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, New York, where he will pursue a bachelor’s degree. 

BOYCOTT Tribal Businesses That Violate the RIGHTS of their People

The Nooksack 306 are beginning to put together a boycott of Nooksack businesses.  Actually, it's in response to the Nooksack's treatment of their elders, whom the tribe has stripped of their free meals. Recently the tribe has refused service to some N306 people, even placing then on a do not serve list.

I wrote this piece quite a while back, and I think it's time to resurrect the idea of a BOYCOTT.  The State of CA was working to boycott neighboring state AZ businesses, because of the tough immigration laws that didn't even take affect. Yet, these same entities won't stand up for tribal people that have actually been HARMED by their tribes.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Obama Supreme Court Pick, Served JUSTICE for Cherokee Freedmen Against The Cherokee Nation

Today, President Barack Obama made his choice for the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of legal giant, Antonin Scalia.  His pick Merrick Garland, has made some waves in Indian Country. Including being in the majority against San Manuel vs. NLRB

Merrick Garland
Supreme Court Candidate

He was part of the 3-0 decision in Vann vs US Department of Interior which reversed a lower court ruling that the Cherokee Chief could NOT be sued due to tribal sovereignty.  Read more about the Cherokee Freedmen

Before the Civil War, members of the Cherokee Nation had slaves. Those slaves
were freed in 1866 pursuant to a treaty negotiated between the United States and the Cherokee Nation. The Treaty guaranteed the former Cherokee slaves and their descendants – known as the Freedmen – “all the rights of native Cherokees” in perpetuity. 
See Treaty with the Cherokee, art.9, July 19, 1866, 14 Stat. 799. 
Those rights included the right to tribal membership and the right to vote in tribal elections. At some point, the Cherokee Nation decided that the Freedmen were no longer members of the tribe and could no longer vote in tribal elections. A group of Freedmen eventually sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming that the Cherokee Nation had violated the 1866 Treaty.

The District Court agreed with the Cherokee Nation. The District Court concluded that the Cherokee Nation was a required party for purposes of Rule 19, that the Cherokee Nation’s interests could not be adequately represented by the Principal Chief, and that the case could not go forward

The court said:

We reverse. Applying the precedents that permit suits against government officials in their official capacities, we conclude that this suit may proceed against the Principal Chief in his official capacity, without the Cherokee Nation itself as a party.

When reached for comment, Marilyn Vann, President of the Descendents of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes stated:  "He' s not a tool of big money tribes, so he' s the kind of judge we need on higher courts"

NOOKSACK 306 Told;You Don't Get Your Stinkin' Attorney Gabe Galanda. We CHANGED the RULES

Since attorney Gabe Galanda has been kicking the ass of the corrupt Nooksack tribal leaders in tribal court, the best alternative for them is to CHANGE THE RULES and keep Galanda from their courts.

On Feb. 24, the Nooksack tribal council gave itself the power to disbar attorneys. It might seem a curious move. Both inside and outside Indian country, that power is usually vested in courts and bar associations.

But the council soon made its motive clear. At the very same meeting, the council voted to disbar its biggest foe: Gabriel Galanda

HOPLAND Pomo JUSTICE: Stripping Citizenship, Rights from Members, No Respect of Tribal Constitution, Two Minutes to Present Cases

Pathetic. Some voted TWICE?  TWO minutes to present their case?  Voting without hearing any evidence?

On Saturday, the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians voted 127-71 to confirm the disenrollment of 74 members of the tribe. Those who have been disenrolled are no longer eligible for tribal housing, tribal healthcare, or academic scholarships provided through the tribe.

Questions about discrepancies arose immediately. According to tribal member Susan Billy, 181 voters responded to roll call after signing in and presenting their voter ID cards. But 199 ballots were cast, with one spoiled. Rather than considering each disenrolled member separately, voters were asked to cast their ballots for or against the disenrollment of all 74 members, who were told they had two minutes each to appeal the Council’s decision. Voters were also told they could cast their ballots and leave before the disenrolled members presented their cases.

Former Pechanga Chairwoman Jennie Miranda DENIED Reinstatement to Tribe

Multiple sources say former Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians Tribal Chairwoman Jennie Miranda attempted to regain her citizenship status in the band at a tribal meeting on Sunday.

 HER ATTEMPT FAILED MISERABLY

As we reported:

A recent letter from the rez to our politicians has pointed out that former tribal chair Jennie Miranda has been investigated for money laundering and embezzlement from the tribe.   They were not disenrolled, as 25% of the tribe has been, but disenfranchised, a new term.  No per capita, but still get their health care.  How disgusting.   Congratulations Macarro.

MONTEAU: BIA SHIRKING IT's Fiduciary and TRUST Responsibilities...AGAIN and AGAIN

Attorney Harold Monteau  a founding partner of the law firm, Monteau and Peebles, which was the tribal attorney for picayune during the HUGE disenrollment of over 600 chukchansi people in 2006, has a piece about the BIA betraying its trust responsibility to Native Americans in not following due process in TRIBAL DISENROLLMENT which is stripping of citizenship from tribes.

The entitlement of Native Americans to benefits and services from the United States, as trustee for Indian Persons and Indian Tribes, cannot be terminated without due process of law on the part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

The fiduciary duty of the U.S. Government cannot be so easily disavowed by the BIA when to do so involves the enforcement of a legal standard of “blood quantum” or “membership”, whether it is by the BIA or by a surrogate, such as an Indian Tribe.
Those standards made their way into Federal Law at a time when the policy of the United States was to work towards the termination of the Indian Tribes and the Trust Responsibility by enforcing policies that would cause the eventual disappearance of Tribes and disbursal and disappearance of individual Indians “into the mainstream” of society.

Such a policy comports with no “fiduciary” standard known to western jurisprudence. A “trustee” cannot facilitate the “disappearance” of a “beneficiary” any more than it would comport with Fiduciary Responsibility to bring about the demise of the beneficiary in order to terminate the duties of the trustee. Such a policy meets the definition of Genocide.

Read more at Indian Country Today

Petition to STOP UNJUST DISENROLLMENTS and EXPOSE Corruption In Indian Country

Working for YOUR rights and your family's  rights is more than a single day event.  Many in our disenrolled community are working to "DO SOMETHING" while many are content to sit back and watch/wait.  Watching and waiting is NOT a successful tactic.  HERE is a LINK to a petition that draws attention to disenrollment.  

PETITION TO BAN Disenrollments and Expose Corrupt Governments  (link fixed)

Sure you may have seen others, but did you sign?  Why not?  Get your name out, be a warrior for justice.

Please join us in petitioning the tribes from continuing to dis-enroll their members.

San Pasqual Meeting for ALL JOSE JUAN DESCENDANTS.

There is a meeting Saturday March 12th for all 

Jose Juan descendants at the Valley Center Community

Hall regarding your enrollment at 4:00 p.m. Please 

bring your parents. 

Time to STAND UP. 

UPDATE: MURDER ARRESTS on PALA Indian Reservation Weeks after Chairman's Daughter Arrested on Weapons Charges

Only weeks after Pala Tribal Chairman Robert Smith's daughter was arrested on assault weapons charges, NOW, murder.  IS it safe to go to the Casino at Pala?

Sheriff's Homicide detectives have arrested 32 year-old Anthony James Boles Sr. and 30 year old Tyann Louise Allen for the murder of a 44 year old male found inside their home on the Pala Indian Reservation.  Sources say they are tribal members

On the night of March 2, 2016, Anthony Boles Sr. and Tyann Allen reported to Pala Tribal Security that after returning home from dinner they found an unknown deceased male in their garage. Pala Security Officers entered the home and found an adult male deceased in the garage. At approximately 11:00 PM, deputies entered the home and confirmed that the deceased male had apparent gunshot wounds.

Detectives from the San Diego Sheriff's Homicide Detail responded to the scene to investigate. The investigation established probable cause to arrest Boles and Allen for murder. The motive of the homicide is still under investigation.

UPDATE:

Tribe to Nooksack 306: You don't get no STINKIN' Equal Protection Rights

In our disenrollment, the tribe refused to allow us attorney representation in either our meetings with the disenrollment committee, nor in our appeal.  Hey, as long as our Congress, keeps letting corruption run amok, why not see how far you can take it?

Apparently, WHIPPING THEIR ASSES in court, goes against what the Nooksack tribe determines as, "reflecting poorly on the proper administration of justice".

From TURTLE TALK:

Whenever the Tribal Council becomes aware that any advocate’s behavior and/or practices reflect so poorly upon the proper administration of justice before the Nooksack Tribal Court of the Nooksack Indian Tribe, the Tribal Council may revoke any privileges provided to such person(s) and bar them from further practice in any administrative tribunal before the Nooksack Indian Tribe or proceeding before the Nooksack Tribal Court. Tribal Council may hold such hearings as necessary to ensure that such behavior and/or practices are proven; or, as may be necessary to correct such past behavior and/or practices.

In the judicial order above, the court described 16-28:

On the same date, February 24, 2016, the Nooksack Tribal Council enacted Resolution #16-28, barring Gabriel Galanda and other attorneys in the Galanda Broadman law firm from practicing in the Nooksack Tribal Court and from engaging in business on Nooksack Tribal lands.

The court ordered the tribal defendants to produce an affidavit describing the process offered the Galanda firm before issuing 16-28, on the theory that the Indian Civil Rights Act requires at least some process.

See here:  https://turtletalk.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/belmont-v-kelly-fourth-declaration-of-michelle-roberts.pdf

Descendants of Freedmen President Marilyn Vann to Speak to Democrats

DID YOU KNOW: The  Cherokee Dragged Their SLAVES on the Trail of Tears
  

Marilyn Vann, president and a director of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes Association will speak to the Canadian County Democrats on March 14. The public is invited to attend the Democrats’ meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. at the Yukon Police Department, 100 S. Ranchwood Boulevard. 

Marilyn Vann
President Descendants of Freedmen

Robert Salgado Sr. Former Tribal Chairman of Soboba Walks On

Former Soboba Tribal Chairman Robert "Bobby" Salgado Sr. was big, blustery, politically powerful -- and highly controversial.

He died Sunday at Hemet Valley Medical Center after years of suffering from diabetes and other illnesses. He was 73.

Death came five years after the former high school and college football star-turned-tribal powerhouse was sentenced to nearly 3 1/2 years federal imprisonment for accepting almost $865,000 in kickbacks from vendors in exchange for giving them contracts on the San Jacinto-area reservation and its Soboba Casino.

NOOKSACK 306 WINS MOTION to DENY TRIBE's QUEST to DENY THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE

Successes come incrementally to the NOOKSACK 306 because they KEEP FIGHTING for their rights.   BOB KELLY and his cronies go down in FLAMES.

Al-Jazeera Streams LIVE discussion on Tribal Disenrollment. Mainstream Media IGNORES the Issue

You ask what you can do to help?   Watch the show, spread the word, tweet, FB ask your friends to do the same.

WATCH THE DISCUSSION HERE and PLEASE  SHARE, TWEET, EMAIL and GOOGLE + http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201603030238-0025165

On Thursday, March 3 at 19:30 GMT  11:30 Pacific 2:30 Eastern:

Native American activists are campaigning against the practice of disenrollment taking place in some tribes in the US. Disenrollment is when a tribe strips an individual of their tribal citizenship. This typically happens when tribes question an individual’s lineage. The impact on an individual or family is immense. Expelled members face loss of medical and educational benefits offered by the tribe. Some may have to relocate off reservations, even if they’ve lived on tribal land their whole lives. 

In February, a #StopDisenrollment selfie campaign took off online, raising awareness and opposing the practice some have dubbed “not traditional”.  

More than 80 federally recognised tribes in 17 states have administered the practice, with many looking to clamp down on enrollment requirements. While tribe leaders assert disenrollments are meant to protect the integrity of the tribe, critics argue it’s politically and economically motivated. We’ll look into this controversial issue and ask what it takes to belong.

Tribal Brother Vs. Tribal Brother: Pala and Pechanga Disenrollment DAVE PALERMO is LAZY on this

Dave Palermo has a piece up on Disenrollment at Pechanga and Pala, catching up to the DECADE of disenrollments that he's missed.  Surprisingly, this article made it up on Pechanga.net  to which, you should go to view the entire piece. Reading to the end, it ends up being a piece that only gives the Pechanga side of the story.  SEE the sidebar for LINKS to Pechanga's TRUE story of the disenrollments.



 Some California American Indian tribes contend enrollment audits and expulsions are a result of strengthening tribal governments through gambling resources and not an effort to increase per-capita casino payments to remaining members.

“It has nothing to do with money,” says Chairman Robert Smith of the Pala Band of Mission Indians. “Disenrollees can say what they want, but that is not true. Right is right, wrong is wrong, and they don’t meet the requirements to be enrolled.”  OP:  He means, NO MATTER what the proof, no matter what the evidences says, we will NOT believe it!

Ousted Pala members disagree.

“This is all about greed,” King Freeman, a onetime Pala tribal chairman who runs a general store near the tribe’s San Diego-area casino, told the Los Angeles Times.

The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians says it has been “fighting false claims of citizenship” since the 1970s, long before the tribe opened a gambling hall in 1995. Resources from gambling have helped strengthen the tribal government, a function of which includes auditing enrollment.

But two families of about 225 members ousted from the Pechanga Band in 2004 and 2006 claim their disenrollments were the result of greed and politics.  OP: Dave must've forgotten how to get ahold of us. Or the Manuela Miranda descendants?

Indian Country Today: NIGC Must Deter Gaming Per Capita Misuse; $1 Billion Stolen in Per Capita

A new column up at Indian Country Today points out it IS the NIGC's trust responsibility to AMERICAN INDIANS, including those that face disenrollment to protect their rights.   Over ONE BILLION DOLLARS have been stolen in per capita and benefits have been stolen by tribes, under the guise of "correcting enrollment rolls" which is code for STRIPPING the CITIZENSHIP of Native Americans.
The Pechanga Tribe has stolen over $500 Million in their more than a Decade of Disenrollment

Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro has overseen
the theft of $500 million in per capita via disenrollment

The NIGC’s deference to an intra-tribal system of check and balance in that context, is derelict. So is the Commission when it comes to the trust responsibility it owes to every single enrolled member of gaming tribes.

By the admission of former NIGC Chairman Harold Monteau, the NIGC owes a “direct trust (fiduciary) responsibility to American Indians”—meaning not merely to tribal governments, but to tribal members, including those who face disenrollment. Chairman Monteau, too, was not afraid to enforce IGRA—even shutter casinos—when gaming monies became weaponry in internecine tribal conflicts.

Both Chairmen Hogen and Monteau understood that by taking enforcement action against one tribe, the next tribe was deterred from violating IGRA, which in turn deterred Congress from meddling with Indian gaming. Each took the long view.