Department of Interior HAS EMAILS on NOOKSACK Election Putting Their THUMB on the Scales to Thwart Justice

 

When the agency in charge of Indian Affairs, tips the scales AWAY from Justice, can their really BE JUSTICE in Indian Country?

Law 360 has the story up (payvwall) but essentially, former candidates for Nooksack council told the 9th Circuit that the Dept. of Interior illegally recognized a disputed group of Nooksack leaders, we wrote about that HERE in Aug 2018

The tribe, based in Washington state, has spent more than five years trying to kick hundreds of people off its rolls. The efforts were slowed by litigation and by the refusal of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to recognize the Nooksack government as legitimate.

But the tribe has turned the situation around, according to its recently-elected leader. Chairman Ross Cline said the dismissal of the lawsuit last week puts an end to a controversy that has attracted widespread attention in Indian Country and in the national media.

“On behalf of the tribal council and the Nooksack people, I am glad to report the successful conclusion of this dispute over tribal enrollment," Cline said after the decision was handed down on July 31. "Our people will now move forward on our journey of self-government.”

Attorney for the Nooksack 306 Gabriel Galanda has more details on his twitter account @ndnlawyer :

@USIndianAffairs

]changed department policy regarding Nooksack elections 'to accommodate inappropriate influence by a lobbyist,' [according] to emails between a DOI lawyer and the lobbyist in early 2018. The corruption at Interior seems stronger than that at Nooksack  Stay Tuned

NOOKSACK: Briefs are out in the Doucette vs Dept. of Interior

 



Doucette claims the BIA acted improperly (THEM? who would believe that? oh yea, THOUSANDS of us)   BIA says, what's a little quid pro quo amongst friends

The estimable Turtle Talk Blog has the briefs of the case we wrote about in 2017

US says:  Even if the Tribe’s attorney was encouraging the Department to

act more quickly in order to benefit third parties in another lawsuit that

fact does not make his communications with the Department improper

or otherwise undermine the propriety of the Department’s decision to

recognize the Council

Doucette says:   THE DISTRICT COURT ERRED BY NOT REQUIRING INTERIOR TO PRODUCE THE WHOLE ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD. “The whole administrative record,” as per 5 U.S.C. § 706, “is not necessarily those documents that the agency has compiled and submitted as the administrative record. The whole administrative record . . . consists of all documents and materials directly or indirectly considered by agency decision-makers and includes evidence contrary to the agency’s position.” Thompson v. United States Dep’t of Labor, 885 F.2d 551, 555 (9th Cir. 1989) (emphasis in original; citations omitted); see also Bar MK Ranches v. Yuetter, 994 F.2d 735, 739 (10th Cir.1993) (“The complete administrative record consists of all documents and materials directly or indirectly considered by the agency.”). The critical inquiry is what was before the decisionmaker “at the time of the decision.”9 Thompson, 885 F.2d at 555. Lobbyist Porter’s dogged requests that Interior aid his clients in Rabang I by March 9, 2018, were directly or indirectly before PDAS Tahsuda at the time of his decision on that very same day. ER 0096-0108, 0159. 

Washington State: Indians PROTEST NOOKSACK Tribe's Police Brutality

Armed police at NOOKSACK
Anti Free Speech, Brutality

Thursday, September 12, 2019, at 9:00 AM, Indians from throughout Western Washington will gather outside the Nooksack Tribal Court to protest the latest rise in Nooksack tribal police brutality and judicial abuse of process.

Families from the Nooksack Tribe and Lummi Nation and other Puget Sound tribal communities, will descend on Deming, Washington, in traditional song and civil protest.

The protest coincides with a 9:30 AM criminal court appearance by former Nooksack tribal member Elile Adams, who Nooksack Chief Judge Ray Dodge has persecuted since March 2017, when she sought a protection order against the father of her now 5 year-old daughter.

STOP TRIBAL DISENROLLMENT: Which is the BEST WAY to FIGHT for Our Ancestors?

As we are 7 months from the last   and possibly final STOP DISENROLLMENT DAY.  The  #stopdisenrollment movement helps draw attention, but what about the other 364 days of the year?

Do we fight the unJUST action, or do we JUST HOPE something will happen?

Do we pray for JUSTICE or actively SEEK JUSTICE for our ancestors?

Do we wait and see while our elders die without seeing their rights restored, knowing we didn't do ENOUGH? 

Department of Interior's Decision HARMS 300 Nooksack; Federal Judge Tosses RICO SUIT

A Washington federal judge on Tuesday tossed a suit by Nooksack Indian Tribe members alleging tribal officials conspired to disenroll them, saying that the federal government’s recognition of tribal leadership deprived the court of jurisdiction over those claims.

In an order Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s decision to reinstate recognition of the tribe’s leadership following a December election meant that he could no longer consider the tribe members’ claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

NOOKSACK 306 Lawyer Describes His Banishment HEARING Before ILLEGAL Council: WE'RE NOT HERE to ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS

This would be an example of a KANGAROO COURT.  Nooksack 306 Attorney Gabe Galanda puts his experience into words.  Bear in mind that the Nooksack Council currently seated is in VIOLATION of their own constitution.  NIGC should SHUT their casino down.  BIA should REVOKE their Constitution..

Yesterday at 2 PM I had my banishment “hearing”--- via freeconferencecall.com. Seriously.

25 minutes later, I was gone.

Only four Nooksack “Councilpersons” bothered to show up. A quorum at Nooksack takes five. But even if they had five, they would have still lacked quorum, because the terms of four of the eight on “Council” expired on March 19, 2016. So there really wasn’t a “hearing.”

Bob Kelly administered the “hearing.” None of the other on “Council” were brave enough to speak, or even introduce themselves. How traditional.
I introduced myself traditionally. I let it be known I am the traditional Speaker for 331 Nooksacks, including Bob’s two sons.

I started by asking a series of procedural questions, for the administrative record, as I explained. Bob--I referred to him only as Bob--refused to answer any question of substance.

I asked him, “Who’s the Hearing Officer?” He told me, in what would become like a line spoken by a parrot: “We’re not here to answer any questions, Mr. Galanda.”

#StopDisenrollment Movement GROWING Exponentially: PLEASE Spread the Word

The movement #StopDisenrollment began on February 8th.  Their Facebook Page grew from zero to 2,000 LIKES in less than four days.  AWARENESS of the crimes against tribal members, BY tribal leaders is growing.

The CHILDREN are harmed by disenrollment, as are our elders. Stripping of Citizenship is SO rare in America, that there is NOT one prominent case of that happening.

Original Pechanga's Blog Wishes You a Merry Christmas and New Years Wishes for the END of Tribal Disenrollments

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

May the New Year bring positive results for those of us who are struggling to retain or regain what is rightfully ours. 

May those who are harming their people see that doing the right thing, IS the right thing to do.

May we have others join our fight for justice

Paulina Hunter
PROVEN Original Pechanga
By Pechanga's Hired Expert

Tribes that have shamed their ancestors include:  The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, The Enterprise Rancheria, Redding Rancheria, Nooksack, Pala Band of Luiseno Indian, Mixed Blood Uinta Utes, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, San Pascual, Berry Creek Rancheria, there are more, please check the blog out and share......

Ethnic Cleansing In Indian Country - In Democrat Controlled States - Remember When They were for Civil and Human Rights

Indian Country Today has a piece up on ETHNIC CLEANSING.  We've been telling that story here for over half a decade.
Ethnic cleansing – the forced removal of a population from a designated piece of territory – is nothing new in America. The earliest example was the forced transfer of upward of 46,000 Indigenous Peoples from their homelands in the south during the seven years following the passage of Andrew Jackson’s 1830 Indian Removal Acts. The forced removal of tens of thousands of people an odious act by the dominant white settler society that was eager to grab indigenous lands. (Related story: The Battle for Hickory Ground)

But during the past decade or so, a growing number of American Indian tribes have implemented a new kind of ethnic cleansing – tribal disenrollment. Most often tribes try to eject members in order to maximize per capita payments from casino profits for the remaining members. But the Nooksack Indian Tribe’s council members have been accused of “cultural genocide” in a lawsuit challenging their attempt to disenroll hundreds of Nooksack citizens.

On March 15 attorneys from the Seattle firm of Galanda Broadman filed a complaint for equitable relief in the Nooksack Tribal Court against Chairman Robert Kelly, five other council members and other tribal officials for “act[ing] beyond the scope of their authority as tribal officers in their official capacities” in their attempt to remove 306 Nooksack enrolled tribal members. According to the tribe’s Constitution, members must be of Nooksack ancestry and have one-quarter Indian blood, the lawsuit says. “This is an action to prevent cultural genocide on 306 enrolled members of the Nooksack Indian Tribe, each of whom is of Nooksack ancestry and each of whom possesses at least one-fourth degree Indian blood,” the court document says. The attorneys also filed a request for an emergency injunction to stop the tribal council from implementing the disenrollment. The court will hold a hearing on the request on May 1.

Read the Rest of the ICT article here


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