Thursday, February 24, 2022

2004 Flashback on Tribal Disenrollment Protests GROUND ZERO Begins in Sacramento During Schwarzenegger Administration Part Two in A Series


Tribal disenrollments started making national news in 2004.  To understand what's happening now with the Nooksack 306 eviction issue, it's good to get the history of the disenrollment struggles.  Redding Rancheria had disenrolled the Lorena Butler descendants and their first tribal chairman Bob Foreman. Pechanga had disenrolled the Manuela Miranda descendants, over 130 adults.

From James May in Indian Country Today 

Several hundred disenrolled members of various California tribes staged a lengthy and loud protest on the steps of the state capitol asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature to immediately halt signing new compacts with the state's tribes as a first step toward creating an inter-tribal appeals process for disenrollees. (OP: Money over morality won Ahnuld was worthless)

At least nine tribes were represented at the July 14 demonstration and are
perhaps a testament to a growing controversy in which increasing numbers of
the state's tribes are finding themselves left without tribal membership.

The tribes at the protest represented a fairly balanced geographical cross
section of the state and have formed an organization called California
Indians for Justice. Organizers said this demonstration represents the
first step that the group plans to take and claim that they will
demonstrate at various tribal casinos as well as the U.S. Congress in
Washington, D.C.

Though questions of Indian policy and issues are usually handled by the
federal government, organizer Laura Wass, who works with the Fresno chapter
of the American Indian Movement, felt it was important to start in
California.

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