Indians Barred from Tribes Seek Help

More than 200 California Indians, claiming they've been banished from their tribes by greedy or power-mad tribal leaders, on Wednesday asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to halt compact negotiations with gambling tribes until they establish independent tribal courts to deal with membership disputes.

California Indians For Justice, a coalition of 14 tribes, converged on the north steps of the Capitol to protest a wave of disenrollments they say is cutting the hearts out of Indian people.

In recent years, several thousand California Indians have been kicked out of their tribes or denied official membership, often because they challenged the ruling faction, questioned the tribe's finances or were embroiled in long-standing family feuds.

"Disenrollment takes away your identity," said protest organizer Laura Wass of the American Indian Movement. "We have full-blooded Indians not recognized by their tribes."

Outcasts from more than half a dozen tribes told the crowd how they were barred, often without explanation.

Bob Foreman, an Achumawi Indian of the Pit River nation, said he and 75 members of his family were kicked out of the Redding Rancheria in January, despite DNA evidence that indicated there was a 99.9 percent probability that the Foremans were descended from one of the founders of the rancheria.

Foreman, who served as first tribal chairman of the Redding Rancheria, contends the tribal members who voted out the Foremans and cut off their share of the casino profits - about $40,000 a year per person - "let greed decide."

In an interview earlier this year, Redding Rancheria Chairwoman Tracy Edwards denied greed was a motive and defended the tribe's right to determine its membership.

"We're a sovereign nation - we don't have to justify to anybody our tribal laws or ordinances," Edwards said.

State and federal courts have agreed, claiming they have no jurisdiction over Indian tribes, which, like other nations, have the right to determine citizenship.

The protesters want the tribes to be held accountable for their actions, whether through independent tribal courts or federal intervention.

Specifically, Wass said, they want Congress to give federal courts the power to review membership disputes, or for tribes to be required to create their own court system to ensure that Indians who feel they've been wronged get a fair hearing.

The protesters appealed to Schwarzenegger to stop negotiating compacts, or treaties, with gambling tribes until they've created independent courts.

"Arnold Schwarzenegger, be a man and come out here and clean up this mess," declared Paula Lent, who said she's been unfairly excluded from the Santa Rosa Rancheria.

The governor was busy trying to clean up another mess - the state budget - and was unavailable. But spokesman Vince Sollitto said membership squabbles are out of the governor's hands and can be resolved only by Congress or the federal courts.

Sollitto added that even if the governor wanted to, he couldn't unilaterally halt compact negotiations: He's required by federal law to negotiate with any federally recognized California tribe that wants a casino.

Jacob Coin, executive director of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, acknowledged that those who feel they've been wronged by Indian tribes generally "have no place to go."

He said Congress legalized Indian gambling to help strength en tribal governments and that the creation of an independent judicial system "is one of the more basic responsibilities of any government." After battling a "long backlog of social problems and poverty issues," Coin said, more than 20 California tribes are establishing courts.

Carole Goldberg, an Indian law expert at UCLA, said the U.S. government could take jurisdiction over membership disputes, but such a move would be bitterly opposed by Indian nations. Nevertheless, she said, the wave of disenrollments could threaten the sovereignty of all tribes.

Despite what you may read or see on TV through slick commercials that show how wonderful gaming is for Indians, not ALL Indians believe that gaming has been a good thing for ALL Indians.

There are too many documented problems that are not being addressed because the people making the most money from these casino ventures, like non-Indian management companies, BIA officials slipping through the old revolving door, and a few corrupt, arrogant Indian leaders who think sovereignty means absolute power, have money and influence to try and keep the lid on these problems.

Unfortunately, the government, through legislation, compacts, and suspect BIA practices, uses and abuses the casino revenue like it did with the mining, lumber and oil resources of the Indians.

What is heart-breaking to me, mostly because I am of Indian descent and was raised to be proud of it, is this horrible new image of Indians--that ALL Indians are greedy, corrupt, full of vengeance and want to exploit the ancestors of those who may or may not have exploited or destroyed Indians in the past. It's sickening.

A lot of Indians are frustrated with Indian gaming as it stands now. Casino cash is causing many tribal members and leaders to fight with each other for control and bigger bonuses. Indian people are being banished, disenrolled or becoming afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation from their own councils who care more for the bottom line than what is really good for the tribe.

Concepts of sovereignty, nation within a nation, Indian identity (who is and isn't an Indian) are being shaped by casino culture.

Delphine Red Shirt, a reporter for the newspaper Indian Country Today, was fired recently for writing an expose on so-called Indians and Indian tribes who appear out of no where just to obtain a casino. All of her archived articles have been obliterated, like she and her thoughts no longer existed. Any Indian with good bloodlines who critcizes these "Indians," risks being banished or fired. (Red Shirt's former employer Indian Country Today is now owned by the Oneida Nation, one of the top casino-owning tribes in the US. The newspaper may have a bias, no?)

Read Delphine Red Shirt's story here: http://www.yvwiiusdinvnohii.net/News2003/0304/DRedShirt030429Persona.htm

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