Are Tribes like PALA the Correct Authority to Determine DEGREE OF INDIAN BLOOD

 

Kevin Washburn, this happened under YOUR WATCH with the leaders of the Pala Band of Luiseno Mission Indians.  WHY did you turn a blind eye?

The Britten Descendants arbitrarily had their Degree of Indian Blood LOWERED by the Executive Committee of the Pala Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pala Reservation, California.   They were seeking their disenrollment, but the two issues can be separated.

THIS IS AN ISSUE OF WHO HAS THE AUTHORITY TO DETERMINE DEGREE OF INDIAN BLOOD.

The allowing of a Tribal authority to determine Degree of Indian Blood is not only a serious matter but one that will have serious consequences for the United States, State Governments, Indian Tribes and Individual Indians.

The United States is, as a matter of its sovereign power and under the Doctrine of Pre-Emption, the entity with the sole authority to determine the Degree of Indian Blood of an individual Indian.

THE PALA MATTER

President Elect Biden Chooses KEVIN WASHBURN to Head his Dept. of Interior Transition team

I know, let's choose the guy who was so ineffective in protecting the civil and human rights of over 11,000 Native Americans harmed by corrupt tribal leaders!!

Joe Biden Transition Team announcement

We've had some issues with former Secretary Washburn... read the links here

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced that Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn, after more than three years of leadership, will conclude his service to the Department and will return to the faculty of the University of New Mexico School of Law in January. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Lawrence “Larry” Roberts will lead Indian Affairs for the remainder of the Obama Administration.

SEE THESE LINKS ON WASHBURN and DISENROLLMENT:

Washburn Can't be Serious Part ONE
Washburn Can't be SERIOUS Part TWO
Washburn Can't be SERIOUS Part Three
Washburn Can't be Serious Part FOUR

NBC DISCOVERS DISENROLLMENT! CREEK FREEDMEN Treaty Rights Issue Recognized

 This is great news.  NBC uses the term, unenrolled, but it's disenrollment in fact.  We've had many stories on the Creek Freedmen

When Rhonda Grayson was growing up in Oklahoma, summer visits to her grandparents' house in Wewoka meant time spent in the kitchen with her grandmother. Together they cooked peach cobbler and traditional Native foods like wild onions, poke salad and hominy, the corn used to make grits.

Cooking was just one way Grayson learned about the rich history and culture of the generations of Black Native Americans who came before her.

"I was always keenly aware of my African ancestry," said Grayson, 51. Part of her lineage was Native, too. "I always knew that we were Creek."'

Will President Biden Choose an Indian As Interior Secretary? Deb Haaland is the choice for 50 House Democrats

Deb Haaland 
(D) New Mexico

More than 50 House Democrats are making a formal push for President-elect Joe Biden to select Rep. Deb Haaland as his Interior secretary.  Haaland spoke on tribal disenrollment earlier this year.  We that story here

The New Mexico Democrat, who is already being vetted for the position, would be the first Native American Cabinet secretary in the nation’s history.  It's a long time coming and will help make the empty promises of Presidents a thing of the past.
You can make history by giving Native Americans a seat at the Cabinet table for the first time,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter, obtained by POLITICO on Thursday.

The letter, led by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, was delivered to the Biden transition team this week. Grijalva also endorsed Haaland for the post this week in a letter to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Read the Politico article here

Department of Interior INVALIDATES Redding Rancheria MOU of 2016. CASINO Plans HALTED

The Redding Rancheria, a disgraceful tribe that violated the civil and human rights of 20% of their tribe, is again a LOSER.
In a critical announcement , the Department of the Interior has officially invalidated the Rancheria Restored Lands “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU), which was enacted in 2016 between the Department of the Interior and the Redding Rancheria. The Redding Rancheria cannot proceed as previously proposed with their Casino relocation and expansion at Strawberry Fields in Shasta County.

Google HONORS Native American Ballerina Extraordinaire Maria TallChief of Osage Nation

 

Thank you Google, for recognizing Maria TallChief of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma.   The cloak of invisibility for Native Americans is lifted a bit.

Maria TallChieft is America's first Prima Ballerina.  

At age 17, she moved to New York City in search of a spot with a major ballet company, and, at the urging of her superiors, took the name Maria Tallchief. She spent the next five years with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where she met choreographer George Balanchine. When Balanchine co-founded what would become the New York City Ballet in 1946, Tallchief became the company's first star.^[5]

The combination of Balanchine's difficult choreography and Tallchief's passionate dancing revolutionized the ballet. Her 1949 role in The Firebird catapulted Tallchief to the top of the ballet world, establishing her as a prima ballerina. Her role as the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker transformed the ballet from obscure to America's most popular.

NCAI FINALLY RECOGNIZES the RIGHT to BELONG, After Ignoring the Individual Indians for DECADES

THE Spirits of our ancestors and find a bit of hope today, from an unlikely source, The National Congress of American Indians. 

Today, for the first time in its 76 years,  resolved to affirm the inherent sovereign right of Native Nations to decide who belongs as citizens, and to recognize the Indigenous human/civil right to belong, free from discrimination. NCAI will form a Task Force.

Recognition of the right to belong, needs to HAPPEN.  We can't have a one term enrollment "committee" decide who is Native or not.

READ THE RESOLUTION

GET OVER DISENROLLMENT? F**K YOU! Says Hopland's Michelle Hammock:

Michelle Hammock Hopland Disenrolled

My friend Michelle Hammock, one of the HOPLAND 74 disenrolled has a powerful piece up on her webpage .  I was proud to share a podium with her in Sacramento as we shared our stories of disenrollment, I wrote about that here.  I ripped my speech up after hearing hers..

The act of disenrollment is an act of genocide, whether the Genocide Convention recognizes it as such or not. It removes the living and deceased identities of federally recognized individuals and strips them of their treaty rights, their tribal constitutional rights, and their legal identities. It breaks families apart and expires the identities of a group of people. It strips them of the federal protections afforded to only Native tribal people uniquely agreed upon with our dominantly white government.

And we are called hateful for decrying the acts. For calling it out and never letting it be forgotten. We are the hate filled ones that need to shut our mouths for the sake of other people’s reputations. We are told to get over it. We are told that because of “our” hate that no one would want us back. We are told that we are so blinded in hate that we cannot offer anything to our tribes.    And to that I say Fuck You!

NCAI Marketplace 2020 Truth and Reconciliation Convention Passes Resolution PDX-20-001

Report from NCAI Marketplace 2020 from Gabriel Galanda:

Led by  @NCAI1944

President Emeritus and Jamestown S'Klallam Chairman Ron Allen, Resolution PDX-20-001 was unanimously passed out of the Jurisdiction and Government Subcommittee and now heads to the Litigation and Governance Committee.

Still waiting on a progress report, but here are some sponsors and supporters that we need to thank.  Please, do so

 PRESSURE only works if it is APPLIED...

After DECADES of Disenrollment Avoidance, NCAI Finally Brings Resolution on Protecting Tribal Citizenship

We have written for years about the National Congress of American Indians avoidance of the question of tribal diseenrollment, which strips the rights to belong of over 10,000 Native Americans  Read Pechanga Casino News Report.... to see video of what's happening.   Now, indigenous attorney Gabriel Galanda writes that NOW, after hundreds of elders have walked on without justice, the NCAI is bringing the issue up.

But, is it to protect tribal citizens from the abuse of their own corrupt leaders?  WHO PROTECTS THE DISENROLLED from the ABUSES of disenrollment? At Pechanga, their own hired expert confirmed that MY ancestor had more right of belong to Pechanga than ANY OTHER FAMILY.

NCAI will convene its annual meeting on Monday and consider a Tribal citizenship protection Resolution, at the urging of a broad coalition of former NCAI Presidents, Native Nations, inter-Tribal organizations, and Indigenous leaders, educators, and advocates.

Pechanga Casino News: New Years Eve Celebration CANCELLED

Pechanga News  New Years Eve is cancelled at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, CA. Additonally Events schedule for the first quarter of 2021 have been postponed.  Continuing concerns over the Chinese coronavirus which has affected our nation for eight months has led to this decision

Previously, Pechanga officials had hoped to bring back entertainment early in 2021. Chaka Khan, Hotel California – A Salute to the Eagles and Pitbull were among the shows scheduled for the first three months of the year. Those shows have been canceled according to Pechanga’s website, but new show dates may be announced for them in the future, according to the release.

People who have tickets to postponed shows may keep their existing tickets to be honored for the rescheduled events, but those who have tickets for canceled shows should seek refunds before Dec. 31, 2020, the release said.

Tribal Leaders, Our Children Suffer From Lack of Belonging After Disenrollment

                                               Mark Macarro washes hands of responsibility 

                                              Image created by Pechanga descendant Sophia C. 
 

Children who were newborns when Pechanga disenrolled the first family in 2004 are now 16 year olds, no longer able to be part of the tribal community, that even adopted members children enjoy. Blood members stripped of their rightful place in the tribe.

Leaders bring their tribes together. Sadly, tribal strongmen like Mark Macarro, Robert Smith of Pala, Allan Lawson of San Pasqual don’t think a larger tribe is a good thing. Macarro still has a moratorium on membership, including his own cousin 

The Indian way means nothing to them.   The CASINO INDIAN WAY, IS ALL THEY KNOW.