Saturday, August 18, 2018

Bureau of Indian Affairs HELPS PALA Executive Committee to TRAMPLE on Tribe's Governing Documents

The latest CUPA NEWSLETTER calls out Robert Smith's Exec Committee AND the BIA.

You 'Member.. Robert Smith

For nearly 25 years the governing documents of the Pala Band have been trampled on by the BIA in cahoots with Pala’s Executive Committee. In 1994 Pala was supposed to adopt a new Constitution.

That Constitution included Kupa as part of the blood requirement. But the BIA took it out. From 1994-1997 the BIA requested all kinds of changes to the Constitution that Pala’s Executive Committee rejected in favor of their 1997 version of the Constitution.


This 1997 version of the Constitution is different than what the Band thought they were voting for. Further, the BIA made clear that any changes to the Articles would have to follow the Amendment Process laid out in the Articles of Association which also required Secretarial Approval by the BIA.

The vote has never been taken properly nor have any amendments been passed properly.  One of the last times the Band tried to amend the Constitution was to introduce Term Limits. That passed only for the Band to watch Robert Smith come into a meeting with Barbra Karshmer who proceeded with a few hand waiving gestures to magically make Term Limits disappear.

It keeps happening over and over. Pala’s Executive Committee just makes any changes they want to the Band’s governing documents with absolutely no input from the General Council. This happened recently where the Constitution was put on the agenda in May 2018 only to have the meeting canceled. The changes Robert wanted made to the approval dates of the Constitution were made by the BIA with no input or notice to the General Council.

This has to stop. For this reason, I have sent a Notice of Appeal about this date change to the Interior Board of Indian Affairs (IBIA). Further, I contend the Constitution is invalid, that the Band is still governed by the Articles of Association, and that the disenrollees must be allowed to vote on any changes to the Articles of Association. The Articles of Association gives final approval of the rolls to the Secretary of the Interior who already recommend the Band reinstate the disenrolled.

If you agree let me know. Nothing will change until we all stand up for our rights. If you would like a pdf copy emailed to you contact us at the Pala Store palastore01@gmail.com

6 comments:

URBAN NATIVE said...

First check if the B
I.A. has the jurisdiction to do such actions in that tribes constitution. The constitution that was constructed in the beginning...If the B.I.A has jurisdiction then y'all must find legal loop holes to Justice in this case.

Anonymous said...

Robert Smith has the California BIA in his pocket, everyone knows that. Amy and he are like twins. They will always listen to him, he has Pala's money. The hands must be getting greedier and the payouts to keep quiet against Robert must be growing since he and his EC lowered Pala members per capita. When the first disenrollments happened, the members were getting about $11,000.00 before taxes, and Robert and Theresa told the members that they would get so much more now that they disenrolled a huge family. How much more have they gotten? It has been 7 years now, the members should be raking it in with all the remodeling, new slots, wine cave, race track, Pala Interactive, hmmmmm wonder where those millions are going. How much better off are the real members of Pala since the disenrolments? Did it make your community better? Did it help the tribe grow in unity?

Reinstatement_Restitution said...

The problem is that Robert Smith had a Constitution drafted by his attorneys, and at the same time told the Band they were working on amending the original governing document called the Articles of Association. The Band voted to accept the amended Articles of Association which Smith called the new Constitution, but he sent the Constitution prepared by his attorneys to the BIA for review and approval and said the Band voted to adopt it. The BIA conducted technical review, made recommendations, and incorporated the recommendations into the Constitution and retyped it for the Band. The Pala General Council never saw the Constitution or the recommendations, never voted on the revised Constitution, and didn't find out it had been approved by the BIA until six years later.

By the time the General Council found out about the revised Constitution and the changes that gave the Pala Executive Committee the power to enact ordinances and resolutions without General Council approval, and to write an Enrollment Ordinance that gave the EC the power to disenroll long time tribal members, the Statute of Limitations on appeal of the approval of the Constitution had expired, or so the AS-IA and the Court ruled.

Since then the BIA has issued a decision to issue a Corrected Certification of the Pala Constitution with a different approval date. The appeal filed by King Freeman challenges the Acting RD's authority to change the approval date of the Constitution when it had already been decided that it was final by the Court and the AS-IA. In addition, if the original Certification needed correction, then it was issued erroneously and is invalid. Therefore it never superseded that Articles of Association and they are still controlling law.

The IBIA will no doubt find some reason to dismiss the appeal because the BIA does not want to deal with the Pala situation, but the facts will become part of the administrative record and of course is necessary to exhaust administrative remedy.

Anonymous said...

Your lying ass you don't have to show it.
If you are using it to disenroll you have to show it in order to prove that you are right because you and Nieto are natural born liars and 2 of the most corrupt people that ever lived on an Indian Reservation.
So show us your proof you lying son of a bitch.
You don't have shit to prove that you are justified in the disenrollments.
You and the BIA bold face lied to the Courts about your fake Constitution and you should be held accountable for your actions.
Be a Man for once in your life and step down from the EC and reenroll the Brittens.

Anonymous said...

Your karma will get you Smith and Nieto.
You both are destined to die soon or spend many years locked up in a Federal Prison.
Which one ever comes first will be a blessing for all Pala Members and then our Ancestors can once again rest in peace.
YOU BOTH HAVE EARNED IT AND I HOPE THAT YOU BOTH END UP IN PRISON BECAUSE DEATH IS TO GOOD FOR EITHER OF YOU.
YOU BOTH NEED TO SUFFER THE WAY YOU MADE SO PEOPLE SUFFER BECAUSE OF YOUR CHICKENSHIT LIES AND CORRUPTION.+

Anonymous said...

Nona Scott,your aunt Vivian Banks was a Trujillo,your mother was a Trujillo, your mothers dad Alvino was a Trujillo,so get over it.