Department of Interior Chooses AGAINST the Side of JUSTICE in Nooksack 306 Case.

Come on SALLY JEWELL.  Why is it so hard for your departments to DO THE RIGHT thing and protect the individual Indians against corrupt and in this case ADOPTED chairman?

The U.S. Department of Interior urged a Washington federal court on Friday to toss two Native Americans' heavily trimmed complaint challenging their tribe’s bid to raise its ancestry requirements, arguing the suit's remaining claim, made under the Freedom of Information Act, came too late.
In May, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones pared down a complaint by Rudy St. Germain and Michelle Roberts, who are members of the Nooksack Indian Tribe of Washington with mixed Filipino ancestry, over the tribe's membership standards. The move leaves only a pair of claims standing against the agency and the Bureau of Indian Affairs for alleged violations of FOIA and the Administrative Procedures Act.

MONEY:

"The real tragedy is that we had to sue the government at all," plaintiff Michelle Roberts said in the statement. "The BIA has a fiduciary and trust responsibility to act in our best interests, as enrolled Nooksack members. Forcing tribal members to file federal lawsuits in order to receive the most basic of documents — documents that they are entitled to under federal law — is clearly not in our best interests."


Only a claim under FOIA remained after the tribe members amended their complaint in June, but the FOIA claim included in the amended complaint was based on a July 2013 request that wasn’t submitted until after the original complaint was filed, depriving the court of subject matter jurisdiction, the government said.

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.

Senate Approves Sally Jewell as Secretary of the Interior

The Senate approved REI Chief Executive Sally Jewell Wednesday as the new secretary of the Interior by a vote of 87 to 11.

Jewell, 58, had faced tough questioning by some Senate Republicans during her confirmation hearing in early March. But in comparison to some Obama Cabinet nominees, she sailed through the committee and full Senate votes.

A Washington outsider, Jewell began her career as a petroleum engineer before moving into banking and, finally, taking the helm of REI, the outdoor equipment retail chain based in Washington state.