Assistant Secretary Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney Names Darryl LaCounte Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs

Darryl LaCounte

Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Mac Lean Sweeney today announced that she has appointed Darryl LaCounte to the position of director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in the U.S. Department of the Interior. LaCounte, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota, has served as acting director since 2018. His appointment is effective April 28, 2019.

Assistant Secretary Sweeney is committed to providing consistent and focused leadership for the BIA, as well as to actively collaborate with the Department’s senior managers. Among her top priorities is to fill all of the bureau’s leadership positions with highly qualified managers who will provide continuity and expertise in trust management in accordance with its mission.

“Ensuring that key leadership positions are filled is important for Indian Affairs’ success and the Department’s relationship with Indian Country,” Sweeney said. “Mr. LaCounte has done a superior job over this past year as the acting director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He is clearly committed to the trust responsibility and the further development of our vital workforce, which is the foundation for our ability to deliver services to the tribes.”

“When I was asked to step in to be the BIA’s acting director, I felt a strong responsibility to the people behind the work – the Indian Affairs employees, the tribes, and the Indian and Alaska Native people we serve,” LaCounte said. “In accepting this appointment as BIA director, I want to thank Assistant Secretary Sweeney for her confidence and support. Because I believe in our mission, I am committed to improving the way we accomplish it and to upholding the federal trust responsibility now and for future generations.

Jonodev Chaudhuri RESIGNS as Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission

 WASHINGTON, April 24, 2019 – The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) today announced the resignation of Jonodev Osceola Chaudhuri as the Chairman of National Indian Gaming Commission, effective Wednesday, May 15, 2019.

“It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve Indian country and the general public in my capacity as Chairman, a role I have had the pleasure of fulfilling since 2013. During my time as Chairman, the Commission worked hard at every turn to stress strong partnerships and consistent communication with tribal gaming operations to achieve compliance with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The Commission works with tribes to ensure they have the tools necessary to effectively regulate their operations and meet IGRA’s requirements,” said NIGC Chairman Jonodev Chaudhuri. “As I reflect on the initiatives of NIGC during my time at NIGC, we have been able to protect the integrity of Indian gaming, expand outreach, and develop new services that support gaming operations and its staff.”

Pechanga Absconds with Cultural Remains of Tongva People

We've written on Pechanga inserting themselves into Gabrieleno Tongva business, the have NO Cultural Affiliation  with San Nicolas, yet they worked to keep the tribes that DO have it, from their rightful repatriation of the remains.


Many archaeologists who are knowledgeable about the earliest inhabitants of the Channel Islands say a preponderance of skeletal and DNA data affiliates the island with Gabrielino Tongva Indians, who occupied the greater Los Angeles Basin and the southern three islands: Santa Catalina, San Clemente and San Nicolas. The Navy DEEMED them Luiseno??

The VCSTAR reports

After years of consultation and trips to museums, hundreds of human remains and burial objects removed from San Nicolas Island soon will be returned to California tribes.

For decades, those remains have been kept in museums and collections throughout the state after excavations that date back to the late 1800s. Over the past several years, the Navy, and tribal leaders have worked to bring them to one spot. 

The goal: a final trip to San Nicolas and reburial.

Pechanga Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro described the repatriation process as allowing tribal communities to reclaim their ancestors and finally put them to rest.

“To us, they are our relations that deserve the dignity of being reinterred and cared for under tribal custom and tradition,” said Macarro, in a letter to then-Gov. Jerry Brown last year about the issue.

In 2015, the federal government published notice of a determination that the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians were culturally affiliated with San Nicolas Island, now Navy-owned. The island is about 65 miles off Ventura County.

Pechanga should BUTT out, give way to the rightful descendants of San Nicolas...

Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band Meeting To Discuss Federal Lawsuit To Restore Citizenship

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band                                                                                                                                                P.O. Box 6366                                                                                                                                                    Moore, OK 73153                                                                                                                                     www.1866creekfreedmen.com                      

The Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band will host its next meeting at Ralph Ellison Library on April 27, 2019, at 1:00 pm.  Topics of discussions will include the federal lawsuit filed by attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons of Riggs Abney law firm on behalf of the Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band to restore citizenship to thousands of Creek Freedmen within the Muscogee Creek Nation.  

Carmen Tageant, Former Nooksack Tribal Council, WINS Suit Against STALKER, a Nooksack Heath Care Official

Galanda Broadman Atty Bree Blackhorse (L) Carmen Tageant (R)
photo courtesy Galanda Broadman

A good outcome for a good person.  Justice against a horrible regime and their offspring.


News Release

Carmen Tageant

Carmen Tageant, a former Nooksack Tribal Councilperson and mother of seven, has reached a confidential settlement of her Whatcom County Superior Court lawsuit against Nooksack health care official LeAndra Smith, who cyberstalked Tageant from a fake Facebook account for two years.

We are pleased that Carmen was able to achieve justice for herself,” said Bree Black Horse, Tageant's counsel with Galanda Broadman, PLLC. “We hope her case has brought needed attention to the disproportionate stalking and harassment that Native women experience, and shown both victims and perpetrators in Indian Country that they are not beyond the reach of justice.” 

Beginning in January 2016, LeAndra Smith used federally funded Nooksack Indian Tribal information technology to post a stolen photo of Tageant in lingerie, as well as misogynistic comments about her, in an effort to recall Tageant from the Nooksack Tribal Council. LeAndra Smith, the daughter of Nooksack Tribal Councilwoman Agripina Smith, targeted Tageant on behalf of a Tribal Council faction after she spoke out against the faction’s efforts to persecute and disenroll over 300 Nooksack Indians. 

 Soon after LeAndra Smith posted and disseminated the intimate photograph, Tageant became a target for sexual predators. Numerous predators sent her sexually explicit Facebook messages.

Pechanga Tribal Chairman Macarro, Citizenship Stripper, LAMENTS Lack of Listening to Natives, Recognizing Existence

Gaming writer Buck Wargo has an incomplete piece in CDC Gaming Reports on how Native Americans  are reacting to negative comments, sovereignty, and acknowledgement. He's not there to make a complete story, but report on gaming. I'll clap back in blue..

There’s frustration among Native Americans that people aren’t listening to them, not taking their sovereignty seriously or recognizing that they exist.  Tribal leaders said they want politicians and the public to condemn what they consider a slur to Native Americans as if someone makes a comment deemed anti-Semitic or other negative racial or religious connotations. 
We've written about the Pocahontas issue and the Redskins issue numerous times.  This is the FIRST time we've heard Macarro mention it.

Mark Macarro, tribal chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians in Southern California, once the subject of a RECALL ATTEMPT  said there was pushback from politicians and others when Congresswoman Iihan Omar, D-Minnesota, made controversial comments about Israel and Jews.  They weren't controversial, they were racist, anti semitic and hateful.

“A lot of people came down on her and there was pushback because she denigrated Jewish people and politicians,” Macarro said. “Donald Trump talks about Pocahontas, and people laugh and snicker, and nobody says anything. Our Indian Country community (did) but is anybody listening?”  We feel the same about YOU, Mark and your cohorts who stripped us of our heritage, denigrated our ancestors, ruined our children's futures, threaten us with banishment.  And nobody says anything.

Macarro expressed frustration about a 2018 survey that said 40 percent of people didn’t think Native Americans still exist.  This from a man who disenrolled 25% of his tribe out of existence, pals with other who did the same like Pala's Robert Smith, and who skirted poltical donation rules we saw in Wikileaks.

“We are invisible largely to American society, and that’s a problem,” Macarro said. “When we try to articulate argument of government parity and tribal sovereignty (SOVEREIGNTY DOESN'T mean RIGHT) who is listening other than a very small segment of Congress. You SHRINK your tribes and then cry about being invisible.  What is you disenrollers had 11,000 MORE to rally to the cause? And, politician only listen to your casino money.  The GOOD ones, listened to us, Mark, and kept you from your water bill even after you paid your lobbyist wife HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Dollars.  We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

Macarro: We have a lot of work to do to turn that around. We talk to ourselves in our own echo chamber and listen to ourselves but outside of these walls nobody is hearing us. That’s a problem we need to make sure they do because our future is ahead of us.”  Our future is ahead too, imagine the great publicity should disenrolling tribes bring their people home like Enterprise Rancheria and Robinson Rancheria did.   BRING the Pechanga disenrolled HOME Mark.  Let those caught up in a DECADES long Moratorium INTO the Tribe where they BELONG, just like their relatives.  Show REAL leadership, real concern for your OWN family, your own TRIBE......

The Indian Civil Rights Act was PASSED on this DAy in 1968. It's a TOOTHLESS LAW Lacking Enforcement

Today is INDIAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACT day... well, really the anniversary of it's passing in 1968. I wrote about it when it was...40 the last 11 years haven't changed a thing..  Abuse of individual Indians at the hands of tribal governments and/or tribal officials- led to the introduction and enactment of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 (ICRA).  Unfortunately the ICRA did not contain an effective enforcement mechanism to deter tribal governments from violating the rights of the individual.   Here is a portion of the information AIRRO put together on why we need enforcement of ICRA.    There was a petition on this back in the day..

A quick review of the book  The Indian Civil Rights Act at Forty by Kristen A. Carpenter, Matthew L.M. Fletcher, and Angela R. Riley (eds.).  Because there was no enforcement placed into this act, Native American citizens have been abused by their tribes, stripped of citizenship, banished without cause.   We simply need to add enforcement.

Julian Assange ARRESTED and INDICTED: REMEMBER when Wikileaks EXPOSE PECHANGA's POSSIBLE FEC VIOLATIONS?

You 'member, we wrote about it in August 2016 where Pechanga donated MORE than the allowable 100K for a DNC BUILDING FUND?  Wonder if they reported what got built with the more than allowable funds?  Did Pechanga get a PLAQUE saying thank you for Mark Macarro, whose wife HOLLY COOK MACARRO was on HRC's short list of Native American Advisors??



Listverse says:

On May 19, Justin Klein of HillaryClinton.com emailed Jordan Kaplan, national finance director of the DNC. Klein had a check for $144,100 from the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians. He told Kaplan, “please note the first $100,200 should be allocated to the convention fund, while the remaining $43,900 should be allocated to the building fund.”

According to FEC (Federal Election Commission) rules, $100,200 is the campaign contribution limit for nonmulticandidate PACs in a single year. The email suggests Klein, on behalf of HillaryClinton.com, may have been trying to circumvent that limit. If true, it would constitute an offense

.
UPDATE:  SOURCES say...NO vote on this expenditure before the General Council.


Tribal contributions discussed in the emails below:

WikiLeaks - Tribe Donations by TWOLFSPIRIT on Scribd

I wrote a letter to both JUSTIN and JORDAN, here's part of it

Dear Jordan and Justin,

We saw with dismay how easily the DNC and Hillary Clinton take money from a Tribe that practices APARTHEID on it's reservation, and is well known for violating the rights of it's people.  

I wrote to Howard Dean prior to the 2008 convention about Pechanga chairman Mark Macarro's inclusion on the platform committee.  Apparently, if you have money, there's a blind eye turned....  

I'll print a response.....

Galanda Broadman, Premier Native American Law Firm Celebrates NINE YEARS

 

Those of us at Original Pechanga's Blog, (Me, Myself and I) want to congratulate the Galanda Broadman Law firm, on it's nine years of operation today.

Gabriel Galanda has worked with disenrollment issues at Nooksack and the Grand Ronde Tribe and just his bar admissions alone shows his dedication:

Bar Admissions

State of Washington
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. District Court (Western Washington, Eastern Washington)
U.S. Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)
U.S. Court of Federal Claims

Land Into Trust Decision On Santa Ynez Chumash REVERSED by TARA SWEENEY

BAD NEWS FOR SANTA YNEZ CHUMASH, good news for condors and flycatchers.

Photo: Santa Ynez Valley Star

The Lompoc Record Reports
The assistant secretary of Indian Affairs has reversed her decision to take the Camp 4 property into federal trust for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians after additional endangered species were discovered either on or near the property.

CHALLENGE to Wilton Rancheria-Elk Grove casino filed in U.S. District Court

We wrote that this issue wasn't settled in Wilton Rancheria and City of Elk Grove Celebrate CASINO Prematurely. The Issue is NOT Settled at ALL  and about possible subterfuge here  Also, Stand Up For California sued them here

The filing says,  the BIA trampled "public notice and participation requirements in the process, to prevent the incoming Administration from reviewing the underlying merits of the application or the extraordinary deficiencies in the process." 

The argument states "every step of the review process was without precedent and without support in the law or the regulations governing NEPA, the fee-to-trust-process, and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)."

At the heart of the argument, plaintiffs claim that the Wilton Rancheria and BIA officials engaged in a bait and switch maneuver. They assert that while the original site in Galt had a required public scoping meeting, none such were conducted for the benefit of Elk Grove residents.

AND:

Of interest, the filing also provides a history of the Wilton Rancheria noting that as part of the California Rancheria Act of 1958, California Rancheria would be disbanded by a popular vote of members. In return, members were given proportional shares of land and certain improvements.

By September 2006 however, a group identify themselves as the Wilton Rancheria submitted a development agreement with the National Indian Gaming Commission for approval. According to the filing, a group called East West Gaming was to provide the "group financing to obtain federal recognition and start development of a gaming operation."

Eight months later the same group sued the U.S. Department of Interior seeking restoration as a recognized tribe claiming the government had failed to "provide certain improvements to roads, water and sewers." In a stipulated agreement, the group's status as a tribe was restored and the former land was placed back into federal trust.

Read the whole article here

 

Tribal Disenrollment: Indian Termination by Indians WHO is Still Fighting For their Rights?

That's RIGHT. Indian Termination BY Indians, watched from the sidelines by BIA, NARF, NCAI, NIGC, Senate Indian Committee, The House.... 

Yes, dear friends and readers. Many Native American Tribes such as: The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, The Redding Rancheria, The Picayune (Chukchansi) Rancheria,Nooksack, PALA have all DESTROYED Indian families, including the elders that have made their tribes successful. And ruined the futures of the children.  WHO STILL FIGHTS FOR THEM?

Tribes like the Cherokee and Creek have violated treaties that their vaunted elders agreed to almost two centuries ago with the Cherokee Freedmen being restored after DECADES of struggle.

We must understand that we can only fight with the weapons that are available to us: TIME, ENERGY, WILLPOWER and ALLIES. We know tribes have casino dollars to spend on politicians. We know for a fact that most of us don't have those kind of funds to fight back. And we know these fights aren't won instantly. Continued pressure will work, while a once a year event has impact for a day or two, we must show our strength and willingness to fight for our rights on a regular basis. 

Creek Freedmen Call for BOYCOTT of Muscogee Creek Nation For Discrimination

A group of Creek Indian Freedmen have called for the boycott of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation amid endorsement of a U.S. House resolution that would sever government ties with the Oklahoma tribe.

The Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band called for a boycott of the Creek Nation. General counsel for the band, Damario Solomon-Simmons, said they are working with their national partners to call for “all individuals of good faith, particularly African Americans,” to end business with the Creek Nation until the freedmen are able to enroll in the tribe.

BIA Dragging It's Feet on FOIA Requests on Pacific Regional Director Amy Dutschke

Owner of the native American news website STOP TRIBAL GENOCIDE, Emilio Reyes, also a frequent contributor to Original Pechanga's Blog has share his communication to the Dept. of Interior's FOIA office.   It seems they are  protecting the BIA's Pacific Regional Director Amy Dutschke's tribal affiliation information.   Here, again, they are dragging their feet on getting information out.  Maybe Dutschke's Denton's Law Firm lawyer niece can send a threatening letter to Emilio like she did to Pala's King Freeman.

Dear U.S. Department of the Interior/Office of Government Information Services:

Pechanga Tribe Banishes Tosobol Descendant Landowners for TRESPASSING on their OWN LAND

REMEMBER this treatment of the RIOS/TOSOBOL family, stuck in the decades old moratorium, purportedly created to give the enrollment committee a chance to get through all the applications.  Did I say decades?  Yes, I DID. They were kicked off the reservation, where they are land owners for PICKING SAGE...




It's amazing what Pechanga chooses to BANISH tribal descendents for. It's WELL KNOWN that they have a child molestor in their midst as well as many of the Masiel Crime family with violent offenses that bring police to the reservation.

And AMAZINGLY, they banish members of the Tosobol family, which HAS LAND ON THE RESERVATION and BLOOD RELATIVES living there for: wait for it...

PICKING SAGE!

Those dastardly villains who come onto the reservation, TELLING the security guards WHAT THEY are doing there, then get detained, searched and now face LIFE EXCLUSION for merely being on the land they OWN?

Ask yourselves, readers, WHAT is the larger crime, child molestation or sage picking? Destruction of a childhood or a plant that grows in abudance? What is the Pechanga Tribal Rangers definition of UNDESIRABLE?          Please check the links above