Disenrollment Documentary You're NOT AN INDIAN To Debut at Palm Springs Film Festival

Tribal disenrollment is a process by which a Native American individual or entire families lose citizenship or the right to belong within a Native American tribe. This has become a norm in many tribes that have opened casinos.

We've been writing about tribal disenrollment on this blog since 2007.  My family was disenrolled by a corrupt enrollment committee of the then Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians.  The tribal chairman is Mark Macarro, who is now the President of the National Congress of American Indians.

A new documentary film on tribal disenrollment YOU'RE NO INDIAN weighted heavily on the most egregious tribe of disenrollers in California, the Chukchansi Band of Indians from Coarsegold and the Washington based Nooksack tribe will premiere at the Palm Springs Film Festival 

PLEASE check in with us as we find out more about this documentary and the disgraceful effects on Native Americans stripped of their belonging.

Nooksack 306 Have Received EVICTION NOTICES. Forced Removal Creates New Trail of Tears in Washington State

 Several Indigenous families disenrolled from the Nooksack Indian Tribe — and subsequently served with evictions from Nooksack Tribal housing — opted to leave their homes voluntarily last week rather than face removal by Tribal law enforcement after a nearly decadelong dispute.

The families have rented their Nooksack-owned homes since the late 1990s and early 2000s through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, with the goal of Eventual Tenant Ownership.

But since the families were part of more than 300 people disenrolled from the Tribe in 2016 — the legitimacy of which the families have long disputed — the Nooksack Tribe has been working to evict them. The families self-identify as Nooksack but Tribal leaders say they were incorrectly enrolled in the 1980s and have not provided adequate proof of their lineage, which the Tribe requires as eligibility for the families to live in Nooksack-owned housing.  

THE UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR has been involved, unlike Deb Haaland and Joe Bidend

I just yet another official communication about the dire situation of the elders facing eviction by the Nooksack Tribe. I urge the Nooksack Tribe to stop the forced eviction scheduled today of 3 families, and find a more humane solution. I also urge the Federal Government and…

— UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing (@adequatehousing) November 29, 2024