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| Armed police at NOOKSACK Anti Free Speech, Brutality |
Families from the Nooksack Tribe and Lummi Nation and other Puget Sound tribal communities, will descend on Deming, Washington, in traditional song and civil protest.
The protest coincides with a 9:30 AM criminal court appearance by former Nooksack tribal member Elile Adams, who Nooksack Chief Judge Ray Dodge has persecuted since March 2017, when she sought a protection order against the father of her now 5 year-old daughter.
In retaliation against her father George Adams' outspoken support of the Nooksack 306, Dodge converted the protection order proceeding into a child custody proceeding, despite knowing then that Elile Adams had already been awarded custody by the Whatcom County Superior Court.
Despite his awareness of that pre-existing Superior Court proceeding, which under the priority-of-action rule prevented the Tribal Court from assuming jurisdiction over any custody action, has issued no less than twenty orders against Elile over the last thirty months.
Dodge recently held her in criminal contempt of court and cited her with ten felony counts of "custodial interference," and issued a warrant for her arrest when her public defender appeared in court on her behalf in July, while she was away on the annual inter-tribal Canoe Journey.
On July 30, Dodge caused Elile to be arrested by Nooksack cops and jailed in the Whatcom County Jail for nearly eight hours. She has never before been criminally cited or arrested in her life.
During her arrest, Nooksack police brutalized her father George Adams, kicking him in the groin, throwing him against a concrete stairway, and breaking his eye-glasses. (Lynden Tribune).
There have now been at least four documented instances of Nooksack police misconduct and brutality relative to the Nooksack 306 disenrollment controversy (Indian Country Today). In each instance, surrogates of the 306 were assaulted or falsely imprisoned by Nooksack cops.
Conditions are so unsafe and unjust at Nooksack that in April 2019, Elile obtained citizenship with the Lummi Nation for herself and her daughter, after relinquishing each of their enrollments with the Nooksack Tribe.
“Dodge has made my life a living nightmare,” said Elile. “So much so that I have sought asylum and protection from him in the Lummi Nation.”
“‘Asylum-seeking Native’ is a phrase I never thought I’d utter," said Dr. David Wilkins, a leading scholar on tribal citizenship issues. "Nooksack ha[s] degraded into a state of an anarchic nation."
Tomorrow members of Elile's new tribe, as well as several other Coast Salish tribes, will take a traditional stand against the injustice at Nooksack.
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