Gabe Galanda: The BIA's BLOOD TROUBLE

Native American Justice Warrior, Attorney Gabriel Galanda gets to the heart of the Bureau of Indian Affairs recent decision to end issuance of CDIB.  The BIA has made some EGREGIOUS mistakes on INDIAN BLOOD 

As Gabe mentioned on his twitter: "I have no doubt that if the BIA carries out its proposed plan to cease issuing CDIBs, many more Indians will be disenrolled and internecine warfare will destroy many more tribal communities."

First, we never defined ourselves according to blood degree until the U.S. foisted that racial formation/fiction upon in the late 1800s and most notably via the IRA in 1934. The BIA should not get it twisted in suggesting that the acts of defining Indian blood or issuing certificates of any kind were traditionally any aspect of tribal sovereignty.

Although some tribes have “638’d” the issuance of CDIBs, as the letter alludes, if a practice wasn’t indigenous to us, it’s disingenuous to dub it an act of “self-determination” today. It is instead an act of delegated federal/colonial power. Disenrollment is another example of this dynamic. OP: Disenrollment is the stripping of tribal citizenship practiced by many casino tribes (Pala, Pechanga, Redding, Nooksack)

Second, as Paul Spruhan has explained in his seminal scholarship on CDIBs, the BIA has been issuing CDIBs since the 1930s, albeit without any Congressional authority to do so. Rising indigenous activist Emilio Reyes has uncovered the BIA’s current CDIB “policy.” READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Gabriel Galanda Require Due Process for ALL Native Americans Targeted for Disenrollment

Ethics in Indian Country Law should NOT be an OXYMORON...

Gabriel Galanda
Champion for Native Justice

On Wednesday, April 4, 2017, at the National Native American Bar Association's (NNABA) Annual Meeting, which is being held in conjunction with the Federal Bar Association's 2018 Indian Law Conference, at TALKING STICK RESORT, Gabe Galanda will deliver the "Update on NNABA Formal Ethics Opinion No. 1: 'Ensuring Due Process For All Native Americans Targeted For Disenrollment.'"

Nooksack Police Chief Michael Ashby SUED for Assault On Nooksack Tribal Council Member

Carmen Tageant

Nooksack Tribal Interim Police Chief Michael Ashby has been named in a lawsuit brought forward by current Nooksack Tribal Council member Carmen Tageant.

The Seattle law firm Galanda Broadman leads the case.

Tageant alleges that Ashby, formerly a police officer with the Ferndale Police Department, physically assaulted and battered her in Deming as she attempted to file for reelection to the council a few months ago.

“As Ms. Tageant approached the front door of the Elections Board Office, defendant Ashby saw her, with application materials in hand, and locked the front door,” court documents state.

NFL Commissioner WHICH HAS RACIST TEAM in DC, Says TRUMP Doesn't RESPECT the NFL!

WOW, Roger Goodell, DO YOU DESERVE RESPECT?  Your LEAGUE supports a RACIST themed TEAM...

From 2014 and Gabe Galanda...it's ALL about the MONEY...

Great commentary by Gabe Galanda on the Redskins issue.  Moral Persuasion is needed, just as it is on matters of disenrollment

Bank of America is the “exclusive sponsor” of the Washington Redskins.  Bank of America is also an  exclusive lender–in fact, the leading lender–the $28 billion Indian gaming industry.

Bank of America has paid millions of dollars to Dan Snyder to serve as the “Official Bank of the Washington Redskins.”  Bank of America has received many millions more from Indian Country in gaming deals. Bank of America is so very content to have it both ways, remaining on the sidelines of the Redskins mascot debate

Indian Country now balks at Nike and FedEx‘s Redskins sponsorships. But the hundreds of tribes that bank with Bank of America, and that collectively tout billions of dollars in purchasing power, speak little of Bank of America’s own use of the Redskins mascot or unholy alliance with Dan Snyder.

Simply put, cash is king. Indeed, while Indian country scorns Snyder’s Original Americans Foundation and rejects his blood money, tribes accept donations from Nike’s N7 Fund and tribal casinos continue to do mega business with BofA. It’s all shades of grey, or green.

This status quo will prevail until the money fleets from Bank of America, Nike and FedEx, the NFL, and in turn Dan Snyder.

Maybe Indian gaming money will be the first to go. Maybe not. But only when the money goes, will the name change.

Can Donald Trump FAIL to UPHOLD Federal Trust Responsibility To the Same Magnitude as Barack Obama?

We KNOW that former President Barack Obama's administration FAILED to protect the individual Indian from harm by their tribal leaders.  Can we expect Donald Trump to fail as miserably?  Why do our leaders IGNORE THEIR MORAL RESPONSIBILITY?

WHO can be the BIGGER FAILURE on
Trust Responsibility to Native Americans

We write about tribal disenrollment most often, but this goes deeper, including coverage of health care and all the benefits that should come to ALL Indian people.

As noted Native American attorney Gabe Galanda wrote last year:

Native America Calling: Disenrollment and Re-Enrollment Show 3/15 SHOW EMBEDDED

Native America Calling is doing it's annual show on Disenrollment on 3/15 at 10 am PDT.   This years episode includes Robinson Rancheria Chairman Eddie Crandell, who brought back members who were disenrolled under the late Tracy Avila.  The restoration of the tribe's honor is good for Indian Country.

LISTEN HERE NOW:

Call in:   1-800-996-2848


The Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians granted tribal membership back to 60 people who were disenrolled nine years ago. The action is a departure from a recent wave of disenrollement among some tribes in the west. 

Disenrolled members are no longer federally recognized tribal citizens and as a result lose benefits like health care, percap income and even housing. The Nooksack Indian Tribe is suing the federal government over sanctions imposed over election disputes stemming from disenrollment. 

Sovereignty gives independent tribal nations the ability to determine their members. But campaigns against disenrollment are aiming to change opinions on this perfectly legal act. Is mass disenrollment an idea whose time has come?

FOR MORE ON TRIBAL DISENROLLMENT,   CLICK THIS LINK

Obama Failure on Tribal Disenrollment Justice Department Avoids Conflicts - Galanda

Here's an excellent indictment of the Obama Administration for avoiding the human and civil rights abuses BY tribes against their own people via tribal disenrollment, by attorney Gabe Galanda.  Failure of the disenrolled to continue to press our  politicians, leads to those same politicians not caring or rather unwilling to expend any political capital against big money Indian tribes.

We will have a letter requesting a policy statement from the Department of Justice later today. Please plan on sending a copy for each of your family members.

MONEY QUOTES:

More problematically, Interior and the BIA fail to appreciate that the tribal power to determine membership—or more traditionally, kinship or belonging—is distinctly different from the power to disenroll. The former is a matter of inherent tribal sovereignty. The latter is a matter of federal delegated plenary power that the Congress delegated to the Secretary of the Interior, and in turn, the Secretary has now delegated to tribal governments. This distinction is critical, and lost on most all of Indian Country due to the mistruths espoused on this topic by the federal government and others.

 

Indeed, the BIA’s Indian Affairs Manual explains: “When enrollees lose their membership they also lose their right to share in the distribution of tribal assets. Since the Secretary is responsible for distribution of trust assets to tribal members,disenrollment actions are subject to approval by the Secretary or his authorized representatives. Any person whose disenrollment has been approved by the Area Director acting under delegated authority may appeal the adverse decision as provided in 25 C.F.R. § 2.”    

Instead of honoring those policies, or federal law, Interior honors a selfish decision made by a few BIA senior bureaucrats during the Bush Administration;

But the Obama Administration has failed to doanythingto help fix today’s federally caused, tribal disenrollment crisis. Not only is it the federal government’s fiduciary obligation to all Indian peoples to do so, but it is the morally correct thing to do.

 

Read more at: Galanda on Disenrollment