The Fight AGAINST Unjust Tribal Disenrollment MUST Be Fought from Many Fronts

As we are nearing the next & possibly final STOP DISENROLLMENT DAY
Do we fight?  Do we hope? Do we pray for justice or SEEK JUSTICE for our ancestors?  Do we wait and see while our elders die without justice? 

What say YOU?  What have YOU done to raise awareness?

I've been writing this blog to expose the corruption of Tribal Disenrollment for Ten YEARS.  As most of my regular readers know, my ancestor, Paulina Hunter was an Original Pechanga Indian, disenrolled 106 years after she walked on in death.

Native Americans MUST Exercise COMPUTER ACTIVISM. Help San Pasqual People Restore Their Rights

The TRUE San Pasqual people have been a petition to demand action from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs on the return of the rightful San Pasqual tribal members to their position in the tribe. This is NOT a "membership issue", this is a restoration of their rights, they are entitled to, which were usurped by what Al Sharpton would call "white interlopers".

By signing this petition, you will have exercised COMPUTER ACTIVISM, something we can all do from the comfort of our own homes.    Your signature on this petition will make a statement, one that will be received by Kevin Washburn.   DON'T let this opportunity be wasted.    Sign now, get your spouse to sign and any kid that has an email.

SIGN THIS PETITION to Give San PASQUAL DUE PROCESS

Take a look at these articles about San Pasqual:

San Pasqual Lawsuit
San Pasqual Split
San Pasqual Must Lose Right to Run Valley View
San Pasqual Members DENIED their Civil Rights says BIA

Cedarville Tribal Disenrollment Shooting a FAMILY AFFAIR -UPDATED

A woman who opened fire at the headquarters of a Northern California Indian tribe killed her brother, nephew and niece, police said Friday.   THAT is how serious disenrollment is.   At Pechanga, Frances Miranda oversaw the disenrollment of her own family.

The alleged killer, Cherie Rhoades

Cherie Lash Rhoades, former chairwoman of the Cedarville Rancheria tribe, killed a total of four people and critically wounded two others on Thursday during a meeting at tribal headquarters about evicting her and her son from tribal land, authorities said.

Those killed included the suspect's brother, 50-year-old Rurik Davis, her niece, 19-year-old Angel Penn and her nephew, 30-year-old Glenn Calonicco, Modoc County Sheriff Mike Poindexter said.

The other person killed was identified as Sheila Ross, 47, who was not related to the suspect.

WILL CONGRESS now have hearings into disenrollment of Native Americans?  Senator BOXER, Senator Feinstein, STOP all disenrollment.

UPDATES:  SacBee is reporting: A woman suspected of killing four people at the headquarters of an Indian tribe that was evicting her and her son from its land had been under federal investigation over at least $50,000 in missing funds, a person familiar with the tribe's situation.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/#storylink=cpy

Disenrolled Saginaw Chippewa Seek Federal Recognition

A group of Mt. Pleasant-based Native Americans, including 66 removed from the rolls of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe in November, are seeking federal recognition of the original three bands of American Indians that first settled in Isabella County in the mid-1800s.

No one has disputed that most of those behind the effort are Native American descendants of the historical three tribes, but they claim to have been disenrolled from the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe for historical quirks linked to inappropriate rulings and poor record keeping by the federal government.

Among those leading the effort is Ben Hinmon, a former Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Council member whose grandmother, born on the Mt. Pleasant reservation and placed in the Mt. Pleasant Indian School in 1906 at the age of 8, was posthumously stripped of membership in November.

Removal of the late Malinda (Pontiac) Hinmon from Tribal rolls also stripped membership from Hinmon and 44 of his relatives, who are among 66 removed from Tribal membership rolls late last year.

At least 700 to 900 and up to 1,000 Native Americans who trace to those historic tribes, but are not members of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe, could gain federal recognition under the latest effort, Hinmon said.

To illustrate the record-keeping and federal administrative quirks, Hinmon points to a photograph of his grandmother and her sisters. While his grandmother is no longer a Tribal member, one of her sisters is the grandmother of newly-elected Tribal Chief Steve Pego.

“What I’m doing is defending my family and their inherent right to be a member of the Swan Creek, Black River and Saginaw Chippewa,” Hinmon said. “It’s a matter of blood.”

Those original three bands, who settled on federal land set aside for them in Isabella County beginning in the 1850s, were later formed into the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

But because older federal records could not be located, and because the Bureau of Indian Affairs was allocated only $2 million to reform all tribes in the nation, federal authorities instead formed the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe as a group of “Indians living on a reservation” and relied on later residency rolls for membership purposes.

“We were not disenrolled because of blood quantum,” Hinmon said. “We were disenrolled because we didn’t fit the model of Indians living on a reservation.”

Hinmon and Chad Avery, a Mt. Pleasant resident with close relatives who are members of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe but who has never been on the rolls himself, met with federal officials in November to begin the effort of seeking federal recognition of the historic bands.

At issue, they claim, are hundreds of Native Americans whose ancestors lived on the Isabella Reservation after 1855 but who had moved in the ensuing years. In the 1930s, federal administrators picked records from 1883, 1885 and 1891 as key to determine official membership in the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe because earlier records could not be located.

Grand Ronde Tribe Spares 16 from Disenrollment; 5 Council Members Vote NO

From their FACEBOOK PAGE: 

We are so happy for our friends and their families who were spared disenrollment from Grand Ronde at last night's Tribal Council meeting. While our own family continues to fight this heart wrenching battle we are comforted to know that, in this case, 5 members of Tribal Council made the right decision and voted NO to disenroll. Keep hope alive! 

Pechanga and Pala Disenrollment News Video From KCBS 2 in Los Angeles

Re-POST: KCBS Channel 2 reporter CRISTY FAJARDO reports on disenrollment for greed and power tonight. Pay special attention as to how WEAK the responses are from the two tribal chairmen, Mark Macarro and Robert Smith! They can lie and obfuscate with ease.

Here is the video:

What the Bureau of Indian Affairs IGNORES in failing to Protect Native Americans From their OWN TRIBE

I culled this from the Nooksack 306 Facebook page. It's a rundown on what the Nooksack Tribe is stealing/denying/taking from those they are working to disenroll. It denotes lack of DUE PROCESS, Penalties without judgement, Termination of Employment and impending loss of homes. The BIA should be protecting Native Americans from all this.  Sally Jewell and Kevin Washburn are abdicating their responsibility.   Sen. Maria Cantwell should be holding hearings in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Tomorrow, December 19, 2013, marks the one-year anniversary of the date the Kelly Faction started this hate-filled disenrollment effort against us. Over the last year:

• At least four members of us have been automatically disenrolled, without any hearing at all, despite the Kelly Faction’s prior promise in open court, and a Tribal Court Order, that “no person will be disenrolled prior to the completion of the meetings before the Tribal Council” – those meetings have not even commenced as a result of a Tribal Appellate Court litigation stay.

• At least thirteen members of us have been fired from our jobs with the Tribe by the Kelly Faction, without cause, or recourse.

• 64 Nooksack of our children were humiliated when the Kelly Faction denied them a $275 school supply stipend, merely because they are “proposed for disenrollment.”

• All of us were denied $250 in Christmas support, for the same shameful reason.

• Some of us have been denied Tribal public housing, for that very same reason, and 28 expect to have the homes we own taken by the Kelly Faction if we are terminated.

• 37 of our Tribal Elders face termination and a loss of health care and housing.

• The Kelly Faction has refused to hold a single public meeting of our Tribe, despite clear Tribal Constitutional requirements for (1) regular meetings of the entire Tribe on the first Tuesday of each month and (2) multiple special meetings of the Tribal Council requested by Tribal Councilpersons and various Tribal members.

• The Tribal Court Judge has dismissed two lawsuits brought by our family, believing that the Kelly Faction cannot be sued for any constitutional or civil rights violations as a mater of the Tribe’s sovereign immunity; the Judge has otherwise refused to stop any illegal behavior on the part of the Kelly Faction.

• U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn, as federal trustees to us and all enrolled Native Americans, have not even acknowledged receipt of a petition signed by 900 Indians in Washington State, requesting federal intercession on our behalf.
We wish these circumstances of hate and genocide on nobody.

Kevin Washburn, BIA, Has Open Letter from NOOKSACK 306

Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn was sent a letter from the Nooksack 306, the latest embarrassment to Indian Country with pending disenrollment from the Nooksack Tribe of Washinton State.
It is TIME for the BIA and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, headed by Senator Cantwell to take a look at the violations of civil and human rights in Indian Country.

.

Good Afternoon,

I am writing in regards to a couple of actions that the Nooksack Tribeis taking against enrolled Tribal members.

On August 28th, 2013 a letter was sent to a couple of tribal members informing them that they are no longer being considered eligible for housing because enrollment status is not certain. The certainty of
this these tribal members as of today is that are recognized by the federal government as an enrolled tribal member.

Also, at the end of August enrolled tribal members, recognized by the federal government were denied the return to school funds. It is unclear if these funds were taken from the JOM funds, but members were asked to complete that form.

In my opinion I believe these actions are clearly in violation of the rights, if not other violations of the members needing housing and the children that were excluded from receiving funds.

In your positions of being advocates for all tribal members I respectfully ask that you investigate the legitimacy of these actions.

Sincerely,
Michelle Roberts
Nooksack Tribal member #880