ELEM INDIAN COLONY ..Withdraws Disenrollment ACTION!

THIS is why you expose the corruption and shine the spotlight on the corrupted.  THINGS can CHANGE.

We posted in February about the lawsuit by those who were subject to disenrollment.

The Executive Committee of Elem Indian Colony announced that all actions taken towards the potential disenrollment of Tribal members have been permanently withdrawn.

WE wrote about the BIA involvement here  

The Executive Committee is said also to be taking the necessary actions to begin the Secretarial Election process to amend Elem’s Constitution with input from all members, and by that process to permanently prohibit disenrollment.

On March 30 of 2016, the Elem Colony tribal council issued an “Order of Disenrollment” to as many as 61 adult tribal members, under an ordinance, entitled “Tribal Sanctions Of Disenfranchisement, Banishment, Revenue Forfeiture, and Disenrollment and the Process for Imposing Them,” dated May 9, 2015.

Disenrolled tribal members would no longer qualify to receive tribal funds and services such as housing and health care.

Under the ordinance, disenrollment also includes the penalty of “banishment” and is “[the] penalty by which a member of Elem is permanently removed from the membership roll of Elem for all purposes.”

The Elem Tribal Constitution requires such an ordinance to be approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary, but Bureau of Indian Affairs Superintendent Troy Burdick confirmed that it not been submitted for federal review and approval at that point.

The order included six pages of allegations that the accused tribal members violated “the laws of Elem,” yet made no allegation whatsoever that they are not properly enrolled as Elem Indian Colony of Pomo members, attorney Little Fawn Boland said at the time.

Boland represented a group of 30 people listed in a lawsuit against the Elem Colony Executive Committee, the tribal council. The group filed a petition in federal court last year to prevent tribal members from being exiled through disenrollment and banishment. They argued the exile would leave an empty 52-acre reservation.

In a statement released this week, the Executive Committee said they look forward “to working with all Elem members to heal the tragic wounds of decades of internal disputes by affirming and nurturing Elem’s traditional values of Tribal unity and collaboration for the benefit of all members.”