NCAI's Credibility at Risk: Failure to Create Task Force to Protect Tribal Citizenship Rights Draws Criticism

We protested last year at the NCAI Marketplace, and confronted NCAI's Vice President Mark Macarro over his tribe's denial and ending of tribal citizenship.  

The adoption of Resolution 20-001 by the NCAI spearheaded by noted Native Armerican attorney Gabriel Galanda was a positive step towards protecting Tribal Citizenship rights, but the failure of the Executive Committee to create the task force suggests that there may be issues with the organization's commitment to its own resolutions.

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is the oldest, largest, and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization in the country. It was founded in 1944 and represents tribal governments across the United States.   Do they deserve the respect?

Stop Disenrollment RALLY at NCAI Marketplace in Sacramento. WE ARE STILL HERE fighting for Restoration of OUR NATIVE RIGHTS

The National Congress of American Indians have been ABSENT in the struggle for the restoration of tribal citizenship of 11,000 Native American, since the turn of the 21st century.   Therefore, we will rally at their vaunted Marketplace to draw attention to the decades old fight.   Here is a flyer for you to share 

PLEASE, if you are local to the Sacramento area, STAND WITH US.   SOVEREIGNTY is being wielded as a CLUB, to beat the powerless.  Do they care about non casino Indians?  NOT BY their actions of hiring a TYRANT, Mark Macarro as their Vice President

Can FAWN SHARP, NCAI President Speak Out on Disenrollment When She Has Disenrolling Chieftain Mark Macarro As Vice President?

Secure our traditional laws, cultures, and ways of life for our descendants.  

       MISSION STATEMENT of the NCAI

 
We thought we had a coup, when Redding Rancheria disenrolled Cam Foreman got National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp to release a statement on disenrollment, after Cam got Secretary Deb Haaland to mention that in a public forum.

I was pushing hard to get more, so hard, that President Fawn Sharp BLOCKED me on Twitter (@opechanga).

Stifling discussion by blocking
those who expect Fawn to LEAD?

NCAI FINALLY RECOGNIZES the RIGHT to BELONG, After Ignoring the Individual Indians for DECADES

THE Spirits of our ancestors and find a bit of hope today, from an unlikely source, The National Congress of American Indians. 

Today, for the first time in its 76 years,  resolved to affirm the inherent sovereign right of Native Nations to decide who belongs as citizens, and to recognize the Indigenous human/civil right to belong, free from discrimination. NCAI will form a Task Force.

Recognition of the right to belong, needs to HAPPEN.  We can't have a one term enrollment "committee" decide who is Native or not.

READ THE RESOLUTION

NCAI Marketplace 2020 Truth and Reconciliation Convention Passes Resolution PDX-20-001

Report from NCAI Marketplace 2020 from Gabriel Galanda:

Led by  @NCAI1944

President Emeritus and Jamestown S'Klallam Chairman Ron Allen, Resolution PDX-20-001 was unanimously passed out of the Jurisdiction and Government Subcommittee and now heads to the Litigation and Governance Committee.

Still waiting on a progress report, but here are some sponsors and supporters that we need to thank.  Please, do so

 PRESSURE only works if it is APPLIED...

After DECADES of Disenrollment Avoidance, NCAI Finally Brings Resolution on Protecting Tribal Citizenship

We have written for years about the National Congress of American Indians avoidance of the question of tribal diseenrollment, which strips the rights to belong of over 10,000 Native Americans  Read Pechanga Casino News Report.... to see video of what's happening.   Now, indigenous attorney Gabriel Galanda writes that NOW, after hundreds of elders have walked on without justice, the NCAI is bringing the issue up.

But, is it to protect tribal citizens from the abuse of their own corrupt leaders?  WHO PROTECTS THE DISENROLLED from the ABUSES of disenrollment? At Pechanga, their own hired expert confirmed that MY ancestor had more right of belong to Pechanga than ANY OTHER FAMILY.

NCAI will convene its annual meeting on Monday and consider a Tribal citizenship protection Resolution, at the urging of a broad coalition of former NCAI Presidents, Native Nations, inter-Tribal organizations, and Indigenous leaders, educators, and advocates.

Indigenous Belonging & Tribal Citizenship Resolution Circulating Through NCAI

 Indigenous Attorney Gabriel Galanda of the prestigious Galanda Broadman law firm had this message on his twitter feed.   Let's hope for some good discussion, and resolution the recognizes the abuse of over 11,000 living Native Americans.

Remember, SOVEREIGN RIGHT does not make the action right.

@NCAI Indigenous Belonging & Tribal Citizenship Resolution now in circulation. Supporters thus far:

Former NCAI President Ron Allen
Robinson Rancheria
National Urban Indian Family Coalition @janeencomenote
UC Boulder's First Peoples Worldwide
Arizona Law's @iplp@ProfEagleWoman

— Gabe Galanda, Indigenous Rights Lawyer (@NDNlawyer) October 19, 2020

Fawn Sharp, 3rd Female to lead NCAI IGNORES 11,000 Natives Disenrolled in her State of Indian Nations speech.

Fawn Sharp, new President of the National Congress of American Indians and the third woman to lead the Native American advocacy group, picked up where here male predecessors left off IGNORING TRIBAL DISENROLLMENT





HEY, it's ONLY ELEVEN THOUSAND NATIVE AMERICANS. THANKS FAWN

NCAI AGAIN IGNORES 10,000 NATIVES Culturally Homeless Due to Disenrollment

ANOTHER YEAR of SILENCE on the #StopDisenrollment Issue this year of the 76th Annual Marketplace in Albuquerque NM.  This year is at least the 15th year of refusal to acknowledge the abuse of Natives BY Natives

For years, we have reported that the National Congress of American Indians has stood by in silence, while over 10,000 American Indians have had their civil and human rights abused by Tribes who have disenrolled their people.  

Related Links:   NCAI Silent over a Decade  and NCAI, NIGC and NARF MIA on Dismemberment

NCAI: Will They FINALLY Stand UP AGAINST Tribal Disenrollment ANSWER: NOPE

For years, we have reported that the National Congress of American Indians has stood by in silence, while over 10,000 American Indians have had their civil and human rights abused by Tribes who have disenrolled their people.  

Related Links:   NCAI Silent over a Decade  and NCAI, NIGC and NARF MIA on Dismemberment

September 28th is the deadline for submitting resolutions to the NCAI for the 2019 year and THERE IS NOTHING ON THEIR AGENDA on TRIBAL DISENROLLMENT of NATIVE AMERICANS
They found some time for

Indianz.com EXPOSES SEXUAL HARRASSMENT at the NCAI SHAMEFUL

John Dossett
Photo from: NCAI

In an earlier post, we were hoping that the NCAI will FINALLY stand up for the over 10,000 disenrolled in Indian Country today.  But, if they take so long to stand up for THEIR OWN EMPLOYEES in the #MeToo era, can we REALLY expect them to do anything? 
(h/t to Johnnie Jae for pointing me here)





You're a pretty young Native woman, beware
Women come forward at National Congress of American Indians
An Investigation by Kevin Abourezk and Acee Agoyo

The highest-ranking attorney at the National Congress of American Indians has been reassigned in the wake of sexual harassment allegations, an investigation by Indianz.Com has found.
John Dossett has been employed by the nation’s oldest and largest inter-tribal organization since 1995. And up until last month, he was serving as general counsel, NCAI’s senior-most legal position and one with widespread influence in Indian Country, from policy matters in the executive branch and legislation on Capitol Hill to high-profile U.S. Supreme Court cases.

NCAI SILENT OVER a DECADE on Disenrollment, Instant Comment on Mashpee Wampanoag Ruling by Trump Administration

Interesting how quickly the NCAI came out against the decision by the Department of Interior on the Mashpee Wampanoag people. Days... yet for over a DECADE, they've been completely SILENT on the abuses BY TRIBES on the disenrollment issue in fact MISSING IN ACTION. Over 11,000 Native Americans should have provoked some action, a comment, a discussion at their meetings, but NO. NOTHING.  Please read and share

NARF, NCAI and NIGA

Professor David Wilkins, who has written extensively on disenrollment, calls out Native American organizations that we've written about who've buried their heads in the sand to avoid the topic of Indians abused by their own tribes.


Open letter to the leaders of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), Native American Rights Fund (NARF), and National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA):

Dear Native Leaders,

Each of your organizations, founded at critical moments in native history–NCAI in 1944, NARF in 1970, and NIGA in 1985– have and continue to play vital roles in the political, legal, and economic development of Native nations. I write you all now to request that you continue to remain vital and relevant by taking an unequivocal stand against spurious disenrollment practices that destroy the human and civil rights of individual native citizens and threaten the sovereign powers of all Native nations.

NCAI is the largest (over 250 member nations) and one of the oldest interest groups representing indigenous peoples. The organization was born during the turbulent period when the federal government was aggressively moving to politically and legally terminate over 100 tribal nations. NCAI fought against giving state governments’ greater jurisdiction over tribal peoples and their resources, and fought against relocation policies that compelled thousands of tribal citizens off their homelands and into major urban areas.

NCAI TRIBAL NATIONS POLICY SUMMIT: Another Major Event that IGNORES the ABUSES of NATIVE AMERICANS, BY Native Americans

Another year, and the same old story coming from the National Council of American Indians:  DEAFENING SILENCE ON DISENROLLMENT

The NCAI agenda is here with four and a half days of meetings and events and NOT a MINUTE to discuss the civil and human rights abuses OF Native Americans, By tribes such as Nooksack, Pechanga, Pala, Redding Rancheria.  This make a grand total of ZERO minutes the past decade. 

They couldn't even make time to CELEBRATE those tribes that have returned members to their rightful status, like Enterprise Rancheria and Graton, or acknowledge the Cherokee Freedmen gaining their rightful status.

What does it take for the epidemic to reach the heights of this political organization?
 
ELDER ABUSE?   Nope, silence
CHILD ABUSE?    Nuh, uh, quiet
Apartheid?             Never speak of it
Voting abuses?     Shh, family secret
Fraud?                   Not our business

But by all means, let's give a FAKE, undocumented white woman to speak and save the Indian.  

Two years ago, the noted professor David Wilkins spoke about against the absence of the big named Native organizations in our post:  Native American Groups MIA on Dismemberment.....

Have they JUMPED the SHARK?

NCAI MARKETPLACE: Another Major Event that IGNORES the ABUSES of NATIVE AMERICANS...BY Native Americans

Another MAJOR EVENT for the NCAI (National Congress of American Indians) and another round of SILENCE by not discussing the corrupt and abusive actions of some tribes:  Pala, Pechanga, San Pasqual, Nooksack, Redding Rancheria, the Cherokee Freedmen issue to name a few.   

The NCAI  is alarmingly silent on the scourge of disenrollment that has ripped the hearts from Native People, much more than the moniker of a football team they railed against so vociferously.   Professor David Wilkins called them out...remember

REALLY, NCAI?   Have you called tribes who have disenrolled and spoke to them about the THOUSANDS of Native Americans who have had their heritage wiped away?    AT LEAST have the DISCUSSION, but alas, their AGENDA has no mention.....again

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

Gaming Revenue Blamed for Disenrollment
Disenrollment is paper Genocide
Read the ICT article on NOOKSACK here
CA Tribal Cleansing
TRIBAL TERRORISM includes Banishment
Nooksack Disenrollment

Tribal Leaders Don't Trust Lobbyists At Tribal Nations Conference. Can Holly Cook Macarro Only Wear ONE HAT?

Holly Cook Macarro, a Principal at IETAN CONSULTINGis miffed at a story in Indian Country Today about some tribal leaders that don't trust that she can attend a national conference as a member of the Red Lake Ojibwe tribe and not use some of her time lobbying for her clients.  Holly's firm gets $240,000 to lobby for her husband's tribe.  Do YOU believe she wouldn't mention his interests, even if he was there?

Many tribal leaders wanted Obama to put intense pressure on Democratic senators, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), to drop their bids to use a Carcieri fix to limit Indian gaming, as these tribal leaders maintain that the two issues are separate—land-into-trust is not just about gaming, after all.  (OP:  Limited gaming means tribes can protect their market share at the expense of tribes who would benefit by gaming)

At the same time, some tribal lobbyists thought the best strategy was to bargain with Congress in ways that would protect some of the lobbyists’ Indian clients from competition from other tribes. In a flurry of negotiations with Congress in late-2012, those lobbyists began to add new ideas to the table. What if off-reservation gaming were limited just in some areas, like California, asked one tribal lobbyist—could that gain favor with the rest of Indian country? Ietan Consulting, founded by Larry Rosenthal, former legislative director for U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.),  and Holly Cook Macarro, wife of Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians Chairman Mark Macarro was one of the lead lobbying firms pushing for a Carcieri compromise. The firm represents California tribal interests that would benefit from a narrowing of Indian gaming.

So, NOT ONLY is Pechanga not satisfied with stealing per capita from members they disenrolled, they want to keep other tribes from gaining gambling.  Pechanga has stolen over $400 MILLION from terminated members.

Sources say Rosemary Morillo, chairwoman of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians, couldn’t believe what had happened. Apparently, she felt tribal lobbyists with their own interests had been able to have more of an influence with the federal government than the elected tribal leaders of sovereign nations. And it had hurt Indian country’s economic and sovereign interests.

Sources have said that after the deal was dead, Morillo expressed her exasperation toward tribal lobbyists on a conference call set up by national Indian organizations with tribal advocates from around the country to assess the Carcieris ituation. She said they should be ashamed of themselves for their role in the failed Carcieri fix dealings. Their work had caused Indian country to lose its unity on an issue that should be a no-brainer, she said, since all tribes should be treated equally on land-into-trust matters.

Welcome to REAL WORLD Madame Chairman.  Other tribes don't see you as brothers, they see you as COMPETITION.  You are feeling the flea bites from the DOGS you lay down with.

More from Morillo:  Morillo thinks that if important Indian policy is going to pass Congress anytime soon, tribal leaders need to be present at such meetings.

“I think tribes need to take the time to send elected tribal leaders,” she says. “We’re making history here—when that invitation is extended, that’s a gesture that opens up a lot of doors. We need to make sure the doors that are opened help the tribal citizens, not the lobbyists.”

In an email that went out to many prominent Indian Leaders, Holly says:

Per Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain, Jr., I was appointed to attend the conference as a Red Lake Band member representative, not as a lobbyist.  Rob Capriccioso's off-base attempt to paint my attendance as anything other than as a representative of the Red Lake Nation is wrong.   I am concerned that Michael O. Finley, as an official of the National Congress of American Indians, would support a position that seeks to dictate who tribes can choose as their representative to a federal meeting.  Neither other Tribal leaders, the White House, nor the BIA should dictate who tribes choose to attend the Tribal Nations conference - that is an act of a sovereign nation and worthy of respect.  As I noted to Rob Capriccioso when he contacted me regarding this article, there were many non-elected tribal official attendees at the Tribal Nations conference.  VAWA activists, Law & Order Commission members, and many others - yet he chose to ignore those facts, which should have been included to provide Indian country with an accurate story.

Funny, it was HER HUSBAND, MARK MACARRO's Tribe, The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians that trampled on the sovereignty of the Ramona Band at a TASIN meeting, pulling out a Ramona Tribal employee, who was a terminated Pechanga Member and asking him to LEAVE the Pechanga Reservation as he had been banished.  Except they forgot to notify him.

Read about it HERE:  http://www.originalpechanga.com/2008/11/at-tasin-meeting-last-week-pechanga.html

Read the response to the banishment here:   http://www.originalpechanga.com/2010/05/airros-john-gomez-jr-responds-to.html

IETAN works for three tribes that have harmed THOUSANDS of Native Americans via disenrollment.  If you can't trust them not to harm their own tribal members, do you think you can trust their lobbyists?

Should all sovereign tribes be treated equally?? 

 http://www.originalpechanga.com/2013/10/treating-sovereign-tribal-nations.html

 

NCAI Elects New President Brian Cladoosby, from Swinomish Indian Tribal Community

After defeating Joe Garcia in a runoff, NCAI has a NEW President; Brian Cladoosby, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. Congratulations on the new position. Hopefully, he can work for those THOUSANDS of Indians that have been harmed by their own communities.

NCAI and NARF Advise Tribes to Stay Away from Supreme Court. NARF Refused to help Individual Indians With Corrupt Tribal Leaders.

 Susan Shannon has the story for NPR.    We went to NARF for help and they refused.  Do they care about individual Indians losing their rights at the hands of corrupt tribes?

The relationship between the Supreme Court of the United States and Native Americans has a rocky history and recent rulings have not gone the way Indian Country hoped. The Supreme Court, friend or foe, is charged with interpreting the law of the land.


“We clearly saw, as tribal leaders did, this developing disturbing trend in the U.S. Supreme Court to basically rule against Indian tribes and Indian interest in virtually any case that came to the Supreme Court such that the winning record we had had beginning in the 1970's, when the Native American Rights Fund started, had turned into a losing record where basically three out of every four Indian law cases argued before that Court resulted in significant losses,” Echohawk said.

“Tribal leaders wanted to try to do something about that so they formed this project and basically what we do is, together with the National Congress of American Indians, is to work with tribal attorneys and tribal leaders and Indian law professors and supreme court practitioners across the country on each of these cases as it approached the Supreme Court or gets accepted by the Supreme court,“ Echohawk said.

Juana Majel Dixon of PAUMA, discusses VAWA

Juana Majel-Dixon, the first vice president of National Congress of American Indians, of PAUMA discusses S.47, a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act: