CALIF INDIAN LEGAL SERVICES (CILS) Has MAJOR POLICY SHIFT on Tribal Disenrollment

Gabriel Galanda has the GREAT NEWS on his blog that CILS (California Indian Legal Services) which has been little help for two decades to the THOUSANDS of CA Indians that have needed legal services regarding their disenrollment from primarily casino Indian Tribes, has a galactic policy shift.

Thank you to Chairman Mark Romero and his Board of Trustees at CILS for this major policy move.  Looking forward to seeing the press release on this and wondering if the FOUR disenrolling tribes  including Pechanga and Redding Rancheria will PULL THEIR SUPPORT.

On December 5, 2020, the California Indian Legal Services (CILS) Board of Trustees passed a new policy that forbids the organization from assisting tribal governments in disenrollment or similar scorched-earth controversies.

CILS has a longstanding police of assisting “people with enrollment in particular Indian tribes because of potential professional conflicts of interest,” but that did not prevent it from helping California Indian politicians and in-house lawyers disenroll countless tribal members over the last couple decades. CILS most recently counseled Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians politicians in regard to a disenrollment purge in 2019, and also afforded counsel to tribal politicians like Cayuga Chief Clint Halftown in internecine tribal controversies. 

This is big news, and hopefully the start of an avalanche.