Native Justice: Letter To Senator John Barrasso, Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman, Asking For Field Hearings

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.   (Twitter: @IndianCommittee and @SenJohnBarrasso)  We NEED him to have hearings in Indian Country on the abuses of Native Americans, BY Native Americans.

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY)
Chairman

The Wyoming Republican said when he took the leadership of the SCIA that he looks forward to working with others to pass legislation that helps improve the lives of people across Indian country.
Barrasso has already held field hearings in Wyoming and Alaska.  Let's ask him to improve the lives of Native Americans by seeking justice.


Here is a letter than you could send the chairman:

Senator John Barrasso
30y Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Main: 202-224-6441
Fax: 202-224-1724
Tollfree: 866-235-9553

Dear Chairman Barrasso,

A report by the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) referenced the fact that internal tribal disputes “seem to be occurring more and more frequently”. Such disputes have resulted in the disenrollment, which is the stripping of citizenship in one's own tribe, banishment, denial of membership, loss of voting rights, and/or denial of health/medical benefits of thousands of Indians, including children and elders.

In response to the growing number of these types of disputes, the GAO felt it was necessary and appropriate that nominees to the Secretary of Interior be asked how they would address such issues. Since most of the civil and human rights abuses have occurred under Democratic leadership, I believe it is also important to know how your committee will work with individual Indians in trying to resolve or prevent such disputes.

The TRUST RESPONSIBILITY of the United States Government is NOT just to the chiefs, chairmen and tribal councils, it's to all Native Americans, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs has failed to uphold the trust responsibility to the individual Indian.

Your role as Chairman should be to help facilitate (1) internal tribal disputes that harm Native  Americans and (2) the protection and preservation of individual Indians’ basic rights in internal disputes. The BIA has abdicated responsibility and are leaving it to the IBIA to overturn their decisions.  In fact, the BIA may be culpable in some of the misdeeds, as we've seen in the San Pasqual descendants issue, where Indian Affairs has allowed NON natives to control tribal interests.

In addition, do you believe that tribal sovereignty and the protection of basic individual rights are mutually exclusive of each other?  
Should sovereignty be wielded like a club to beat the weak and defenseless?  

I eagerly await your response to the questions raised above, and look forward to you setting hearings for California, where the majority of disenrollments have occurred and finding true justice for all Native Americans who have been harmed by their tribes.

Respectfully submitted,

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.