Tribal Disenrollment Retrospective Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria, OUT, Then Back In, Then OUT Again Sixth in the Series

 “As far as we’re concerned, we would rather not be involved in enrollment issues,”  “But if an issue comes up, we have to comply with their laws.”
Dale Risling  - Bureau of Indian Affairs

Cahto Tribe's 
Gene Sloan

Gene and Alice Sloan have been fighting for their rights for 25 years.  After wrongdoing was discovered, former tribal chairman Gene Sloan was disenrolled.  Their crime?  Exposing the criminal activity

For years, tribes in California and across the country have been kicking out members – sometimes over objections that those being “disenrolled” have legitimate claims to being part of the tribe. In most cases, the federal government can do nothing, and hasn’t tried.

That’s what makes the Sept. 22 federal district court ruling against the Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria so unusual. The appeals court ruling essentially told the tribe to let 22 members back in, or risk losing most federal benefits. The tribe has 60 days from the ruling to file an appeal.

Ninth Circuit Overturns BIA Sloan Family Ruling On Laytonville Rancheria Disenrollment Case

  The 9th Circuit on Wednesday narrowly overturned a ruling that would have forced the small Cahto Tribe in northern California to re-enroll 22 members.

     The federal appeals panel in San Francisco said the tribe's governing documents do not allow the Bureau of Indian Affairs to review the tribe's decision to disenroll members.

     The Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria has fewer than 100 voting members and occupies 200 acres in Mendocino County. In 1995, it voted to remove 22 people from its membership roll, all members of the Sloan-Heckler family.

     The tribe claimed the Sloan-Hecklers were ineligible for membership because they were affiliated with other tribes and/or accepted money from a settlement involving the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the Yurok Tribe.
     However, the family reportedly did not enroll with either tribe.

     Some speculated that the tribe wanted to shrink enrollment to boost payouts from its Red Fox Casino to existing tribe members.

     The tribe's attorney asked the BIA to "honor the action taken by the tribe ... and recognize the existing tribal members." The agency instead referred the matter to the tribe's executive council.
     It echoed this hands-off approach when disenrolled member Gene Sloan appealed the tribe's action in 1999.
     But in 2000, the BIA's superintendent and regional director said the agency would not recognize the tribe's decision to disenroll the Sloan-Hecklers.

     The Interior Board of Indian Appeals, which has jurisdiction over agency decisions, reversed, saying "BIA officials lacked decision-making authority in the circumstances."

     Nonetheless, the BIA explicitly took up Sloan's appeal in 2009. It refused to recognize the disenrollments and ordered the tribe to put the disenrolled members back on its membership roll.
     The tribe challenged the action in federal court, saying the BIA's involvement violated the Administrative Procedures Act.   
   
     A federal judge upheld the agency's decision as "not in excess of its authority," and the tribe appealed.
     "We hold that the tribe's ordinance is unambiguous and that it provides a right of appeal only for rejections of enrollment applications, not for disenrollment decisions," Judge Michael Hawkins wrote for the three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit.

     "Nowhere in the tribal documents is there a grant of authority to the BIA to review appeals from disenrollment decisions," the panel concluded.

Learn More on Disenrollment, Ethnic Cleansing in Indian Gaming Country at these Links:

Gaming Revenue Blamed for Disenrollment

disenrollment is paper Genocide

CA Tribal Cleansing

Tribal terrorism

TRIBAL TERRORISM includes Banishment

Federal Court Rules AGAINST Laytonville Rancheria Disenrollment: Sloan/Hacker Family WINS!

The BIA stood up for one family of disenrolled, (while leaving thousands undefended) but even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then. Congratulations to the Sloan/Hacker family for winning.

Gene Sloan speaking at "Indian Day" Civil Rights Rally
2005
http://tribalcorruption.com/

Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria (the “Tribe”) seeks an order under the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”) vacating and reversing the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (“BIA”) administrative decision that ordered the Tribe to re-enroll twenty-two members of the Sloan/Hecker family who were disenrolled by the Tribe in 1995. A hearing on the pending cross motions for summary judgment was held on May 23,
2011. For the reasons stated below,

Plaintiff’s motion for summary udgment is denied, Defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted,and the BIA’s decision is affirmed.

This has been a 16 year struggle.   DO NOT GIVE UP THE FIGHT for YOUR RIGHTS.   And Amy Deutschke, stand up for the rest of disenfranchised people in Indian Country.