9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Ruling

US News and World Report - Court rules for government in fight over tribal expulsions

By SUDHIN THANAWALA, Associated Press

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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs not to overrule the Pala Band of Mission Indians' expulsion of more than 150 members. The court said the federal agency reasonably concluded that the San Diego County-based Pala were operating under a tribal constitution that gave the tribe ultimate authority over enrollment decisions.

"In reaching our decision, we recognize with regret that plaintiffs will suffer severe and significant consequences from losing their membership in the Pala Band," Judge Milan Smith wrote for the three-judge panel.

But he went on to say that the federal government does not interfere in tribal enrollment decisions "in the absence of specific authority to do so."

Read More Here-->Court rules for government in fight over tribal expulsions

Native American Genetic Testing Extremely Problematic

Genetic Testing is effective at determining paternity but is unreliable when it comes to establishing one's "Nativeness", blood quantum, or tribal affiliation.  Depending on what anthropological theory you want to believe many Natives apparently crossed the land bridge from Asia/Siberia.  Some believe Polynesians migrated to South America.  While others contend there were Native Americans here before the apparent Mongolian/Siberian invasion.  Most Anthropologists believe in the "Out of Africa" theory meaning all homo sapiens originated first in Africa and then migrated throughout the rest to the world.

And, if you happen to submit your DNA to 23 and Me for testing you are likely to find out you are not only part African but are also 3% to 5% Neanderthal.

Here is a good article on Native American Genetic testing.  I will post an excerpt but encourage everyone to read the full article.

GENETIC MARKERS NOT A VALID TEST OF NATIVE IDENTITY

by Brett Lee Shelton, J.D. and Jonathan Marks, Ph.D.

Excerpt:

Tribes Do Not Differ From One Another In Ways That Geneticists Can Detect

Another issue is the widespread belief that genetics can help determine specific tribal affinities of either living or ancient people. This is quite simply false. Neighboring tribes have long-standing, complex relationships involving intermarriage, raiding, adoption, splitting, and joining. These social-historical forces insure that there cannot be any clear-cut genetic variants differentiating all the members of one tribe from those of nearby tribes. At most, slight differences in the proportions of certain genetic variations are identifiable in each group, but those do not permit specific individuals to be assigned to particular groups.

CONCLUSION

The concept of using genetic tests to prove Native American ancestry is of relatively recent origin, but there are many problems with it. Perhaps foremost of these problems is that to make a genetic test the arbiter of whether someone is Native American is to give up a tribe’s sovereign ability to determine its own membership and relations. But, even taken on their own scientific terms, these tests cannot do much to identify who is and who is not Native American, because they yield many false negatives and false positives. Therefore, they readily misidentify non-Native people as Native, and misidentifying Native people as non-Native, and the positive results they do yield are at best only probabilities. If these were medical diagnostic tests, they would never be approved or adopted.

But the most important argument against this type of testing to establish tribal affiliations is that biology (and genetics) track just part of our tribal inheritance. These DNA tests treat “Native American biology” as though all Indians were essentially the same. But in reality, it is our traditions that make us who we are, not just our biology.

Read Full Article Here-> GENETIC MARKERS NOT A VALID TEST OF NATIVE IDENTITY

Also:

Bitter Fight to Determine Who Is an American Indian Turns to DNA

By Kevin Taylor

Excerpt:

A thornier question for Cory, and for Laura Wass of the American Indian Movement, is finding due process for people facing expulsion from several central California tribes that are in casino-induced turmoil. This is a challenge when tribes, citing sovereignty, make arbitrary rulings and provide limited options for appeal. The federal government, despite lawsuits grinding through U.S. District courts, refuses to step in.

So the nice person in the lab coat just used a giant Q-tip to swab some saliva from inside your cheek. Does it go through some shiny, space-age machine that eventually spits out the answer: “Yup. Dude’s Indian” or “Nope. Dude’s lying”?

In a word: No. In a few more words: “Anybody who claims that they can find out if you are an Indian through DNA testing, that’s a fairy tale,” says Mills.

While there are different ways to use DNA to determine ancestry—even as far back as prehistoric times—tribes use a far–more specific, and less-anthropological, type of test. “The only way it’s really used is determining whether or not you are the child of the parent that you claim,” Mills explains.

Read Full Article Here->Bitter Fight to Determine Who Is an American Indian Turns to DNA

See Also:

Tribal Enrollment and Genetic Testing

NIGC Derelict In Its Fiduciary Responsibility to Individual American Indians

Good article in Indian Country Today.  Here are some excerpts.

h/t originalpechanga.com

Indian Country Today - NIGC Must Deter Gaming Per Capita Misuse

By Gabriel S. Galanda 3/1/16

It is easy to blame the Congress, the BIA,, and federal courts for allowing mass tribal disenrollment to flourish. They are all complicit.

But behind the scenes another federal entity plays a key role, especially in the increasing number of disenrollments tied to gaming per capitas: the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC).

Over the last five years, the NIGC has shied away from regulating gaming per capita distributions, and by doing so emboldened a growing number of tribal politicians to disenroll their kin to increase income for those politicians’ allies.
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More to the point, while the NIGC does not have authority over any tribe’s “enrollment decisions,” the agency does possess the statutory power—and indeed is mandated—to intercede in disenrollment-related gaming per capita misuse. 25 U.S.C. § 2702(2); 25 C.F.R. § 290.14(b). The Commission can and should regulate the money. Prior NIGC Chairmen understood that. The current Commission demurs.

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The NIGC’s deference to an intra-tribal system of check and balance in that context, is derelict. So is the Commission when it comes to the trust responsibility it owes to every single enrolled member of gaming tribes.

By the admission of former NIGC Chairman Harold Monteau, the NIGC owes a “direct trust (fiduciary) responsibility to American Indians”—meaning not merely to tribal governments, but to tribal members, including those who face disenrollment.  (emph. added)

Read Full Article Here-->Indian Country Today - NIGC Must Deter Gaming Per Capita Misuse

$80 Million Dollars Stolen

It's been 4 years since Pala's Executive Committee committed mass disenrollments.  162 people had their lives turned upside down along with their families.  Over the 4 year period Pala's Executive committee has stolen $80 million dollars from the disenrolled.

Where did it go?  Did PBMI members enjoy nice per capita increases?

Millions of dollars were invested in Pala Interactive which engages in online gaming in New Jersey.  Are PBMI members getting nice per capita checks from this venture?

What happened to the minor trust funds?

Everything just vanished into the black hole that is Theresa Nieto's accounting system.

Who benefited from the mass disenrollments at Pala?  It doesn't seem PBMI members enjoyed any benefit from it.  But it sure gave Pala's Executive Committee extra money to play with.

Meanwhile Private Jets, box seats, fancy dinners, new vehicles, and fancy golf carries on. Oh, and an RV Park.

1989 - American Indian Activist Russell Means testifies at Senate Hearing

 

 

 

Also in the news:

 

 

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com - Rick Cuevas : A Rebuttal to Duane Champagne's Recent Piece on Disenrollment 

Cristy Fajardo KCBS Video On Disenrollments

I was asked to repost this video since apparently many people have not seen it.  Robert Smith is briefly interviewed.



In other news:

washingtonpost.com - Grocery bags full of cash, a missing jet and the armed fight for a Native American casino


***WARNING***

Chairman Robert Smith, Chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians, Pala Band of Luiseno Indians, Pala Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pala Reservation, is monitoring your comments.  He is going to track your IP address and "take action" against any tribal member posting comments he does not like.

February 24, 2012 BIA Recommends That Pala Reverse Its Disenrollment Decision

On February 24, 2012 the BIA recommended to Pala's Executive Committee that it reverse its disenrollment decision.

24 Feb 2012 BIA Recommends Reversing Pala Disenrollments

Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs - Kevin Washburn on Tribal Enrollment Disputes

Indian Country Today Media Network published some quotes from AS-IA Kevin Washburn with regard to Tribal Membership Disputes.  I posted a few excerpts below but I recommend reading the whole article.  Click the link below to go to the full article.


indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com Washburn on Membership Disputes: Should US Trample on Sovereignty?

By Gale Courey Toensing

Emphasizing that he was speaking in general terms and not about any specific tribe, Washburn told ICTMN that issues surrounding tribal leadership and membership disputes “are the hardest questions that I face,” because they raise core questions about the fundamental meaning and practice of sovereignty.

“I think the question is, should tribes always be sovereign and self-governing? Or are there times when the United States should trample over their sovereignty and self-governance for some other purpose – the principle of justice or equity or something like that?” Washburn said.

“One can make a solid argument that the United States never has any business trampling on tribal sovereignty and self-governance, but that’s not satisfying to everyone because we all see occasionally a tribe doing something that well-thinking people outside the tribe disagree with. These are just agonizing decisions and I’m not convinced that the United States is better at making these decisions on average than tribes are at making them themselves,” Washburn said.

As sovereign nations, perhaps tribes should be looking to other authorities for conflict resolution, he suggested.

“There are other forums for deciding tribal disputes that might better serve tribes than the United States. A lot of what we see are human rights violations, at least arguably so, and the United States is not the only entity that has an interest in policing human rights violations."

Read More Here indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com Washburn on Membership Disputes: Should US Trample on Sovereignty?

In The News

There's been quite a bit in the news lately.

http://www.originalpechanga.com has been covering it.

In case you have missed some of it here are some of the items of interest:

HOUSE of CARDS, Netflix's Hot Show, Get's Disenrollment (Ethnic Cleansing) Right

Link to the original article:  What Netflix Series 'House of Cards' Got Right About Native America

Excerpt:

Each tribe determines who can be considered part of their tribe because they are sovereign nations. Much like how the United States decides who is a citizen, a tribal government determines their own criteria for membership. And, unfortunately for some, those requirements can change over time leaving tribal members tribeless.

What's the reason? Well, as with the "Ugaya" tribe in House of Cards, recently, disenrollment has been related to allegations of greed by casino tribes (tribes that own casinos). The issue has been happening all across Indian Country since bingo halls and eventually casinos became a potential source of income for Indian tribes seeking a way to provide for their people.

read more here - What Netflix Series 'House of Cards' Got Right About Native America

http://www.originalpechanga.com has several posts on the killings that happened at Cedarville Rancheria.  You may have to go to older posts to get back to around Feb 20th to view the various posts.

There are many articles in the news.  If you do a google news search for Alturas several related articles pull up.  Here is a sampling:

LA Times - Woman accused of killing 4 at tribal meeting is due in court today

Redding.com - Alturas shooting related to missing funds

Christian Science Monitor - Alturas tribal shooting: Was embezzlement, eviction behind family revenge?

Epoch Times - Cherie Lash Rhoades, Alturas California Shooting Suspect, Known as Bully

And then there's Pechanga:

The Press Enterprise - PECHANGA: Woman suspected of homicide in casino shooting

Also visit http://www.originalpechanga.com  for more information on all the disenrollments taking place throughout the country.

Article on Tribal Member Disenrollments

This is an aticile published on mondaq.com titled Tribal Membership Revocations: Dialing For Dollars? written by Dennis Whittlesey and Patrick Sullivan.

The Article mentions Pala:

Pala Band of Mission Indians

 

The Pala Indian Reservation is in Southern California, and it houses the Pala Casino which opened in 2001. The casino has been immensely successful, to the point that each tribal member currently receives about $150,000 in per capita payments annually from gaming revenues, as well as housing subsidies, health care, and educational benefits. When the casino's revenues dropped in 2012, the Tribe's per capita payments dropped by $500 per month, and the membership grew disenchanted with the decline in each member's income. The drop in revenue resulted in financial pressure on members who relied on the payments, with the result that a long-simmering membership dispute flared into open hostility and ultimately a massive disenrollment revoking the membership of one-sixth of the Tribe's population.

The Tribe's membership rules require at least 1/16 Pala ancestry. Such "blood quantum" membership rules necessarily lead to an evershrinking tribal membership as members frequently marry outside the tribe. The dispute centered on a single woman named Margarita Britten, who is an ancestor of all of the disenrolled members. The Pala Executive Committee determined on its own that Britten's father was white and not Pala, meaning that all members tracing their Pala ancestry solely to Britten as a great-great-grandparent went from 1/16 to 1/32 Pala blood and no longer qualified for membership. With that decision, more than 160 Pala members were disenrolled, an action that cut off per capita payments, as well as access to health care and all other tribal benefits. Tensions continue to run high on the reservation, with the disenrolled claiming the decision was made solely to prop up per capita payments, while members not affected respond that the disenrollment was an overdue resolution of a preexisting problem.

As for appeals, the Pala leadership took care of that by terminating what might have been a venue for the ousted members to seek judicial relief. In California, tribes may voluntarily settle disputes in the Intertribal Court of Southern California, a tribal "circuit court" providing a neutral forum for appeals of tribal decisions. The Pala Executive Committee voted to withdraw from that court before enacting the disenrollments, so the decision was never subject to review in that court.

The Pala enrollment case was closed before it even was ripe for hearing in that court.

Read Full Article Here at Mondaq.com Tribal Membership Revocations: Dialing For Dollars?

Editorial By Rick Cuevas

Sierrastar.com - Do They Care?

By Rick Cuevas — Guest Commentary

We've read so much about the issues at the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians. Does anyone really believe that the three groups led by Morris Reid, Nancy Ayala and Reggie Lewis have the best interest of the tribe as their priority, or the best interest of themselves?

All three of these so-called leaders were proponents of the first disenrollments in the tribe in 1999 and 2006. They cut 800 tribal members from their heritage and rights as Native Americans. Is that what someone who purports to care about the tribe does? I think not.

These actions against their own people and those subsequent disenrollments documented by the Sierra Star, have led to violence and huge police presence to protect Chukchansi's shrinking number of citizens from their own leaders. Is this what was meant by tribal self reliance?

Read Full Article Here - Sierrastar.com - Do They Care?

Rick Cuevas runs  Original Pechanga's Blog

LA Weekly Article on Pala

Pala's Big Gamble: A SoCal Tribe's Casino Made Them Rich. But At What Cost?

By Ben Westhoff Thursday, Jun 20 2013

When city folk daydream about ditching the rat race and settling down somewhere peaceful, they imagine a place like the Pala Indian reservation. Nestled near the base of Palomar Mountain in north San Diego County and just a few miles east of I-15, it's 12,000 acres of gorgeous hilly countryside and red earth. Roadside stands sell oranges and avocados. Prickly nopal cactus grows like weeds, surrounding ranches populated by cows, horses and even the occasional buffalo.


READ MORE HERE Pala's Big Gamble: A SoCal Tribe's Casino Made Them Rich. But At What Cost?

BIA Recommendation February 24, 2012

The first 8 disernolled Margarita Brittain descendents appealed the Executive Committee's decision to disenroll to the BIA.  The BIA responded to the appeal recommending that Pala's Executive Committee reverse their decision.  Here is that recommendation:

Feb 24, 2012 Pala Disenrollments BIA Decision To Recommnend Re-enrollment

September 30, 2011 Letter From Robert Smith Acknowledges the 1/16th's

This is a letter mailed to all Pala Tribal Members on September 30th, 2011.  In it Robert Smith acknowledges the descendants of Margarita Brittain as 1/16th.  And yet 5 months later we were disenrolled for no reason.


September 30, 2011 Pala Band of Mission Indians Letter

A Vote For Robert Smith Is A Vote For More Disenrollments

Pala is facing its most important election in a long time.  The outcome of this election will determine Pala's future and fate as a tribe.  If Robert Smith and the rest of the Executive Committee are re-elected they will view it as tribal approval of the disenrollments.  They will feel emboldened and continue their plans to disenroll even more tribal members.

Right now Pala's Executive Committee is just sitting back and waiting.  They are waiting to see if the BIA will do anything.  It appears they won't.  They are waiting to see if NIGC will do anything.  It appears they won't.  They are waiting to see if the Federal Government will do anything.  So far it appears they won't.  The last hurdle really is this election and the General Council.  Once they secure another term they will be able to accelerate their plan.

I don't know if the People of Pala are aware (except the families of the disenrolled) but Pala's Executive Committee basically took the minor's trust funds.  Where the money went is not clear.  Some of the money from Vulcan was supposed to be in trust with the BIA.  It wasn't.  It was with the tribe.  The Per Capita money for the minors was in trust funds with Pala.  That was their money.  They were members over the years the money was put into trust.  Those trust funds should still be theirs.

The only way to reverse all this is to change the make up of the Executive Committee and return power to the General Council.  Word needs to get out.  All 162 disenrolled have fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins still enrolled.  They need to all be voting.  About half live off the reservation the rest live on.

It's no secret that in the past many Brittains living off the reservation voted for Robert Smith.  Not being able to go to General Council meetings they had to rely on meeting agendas and minutes to determine what was going on.  The consensus seemed to be that since the casino was doing ok Robert and the rest of the Executive Committee must be doing ok so they kept voting for them.

That's over now.  The mask is off.  The Brittains know they were betrayed by the Executive Committee.

It will be herculean task to defeat the current Executive Committee in the upcoming election.  But for the sake of the tribe it needs to be done.  If the Executive Committee is re-elected more disenrollments will happen.  Will your family be next?

Speak out at a General Council meeting against the Executive Committee's plans and your family could be targeted for disenrollments.  Do you want to continue living under that fear?  Vote in new people and move the tribe forward.  Reverse these shameful disenrollments and put Pala on a path to future prosperity.  If a change in leadership does not happen then the tribe will continue to be torn apart by the Executive Committee.

NC Times Reports Leroy Miranda Arrested

NC Times - PALA: Tribe's vice chairman arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public

By EDWARD SIFUENTES esifuentes@nctimes.com

The vice chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public at the tribe's casino early Saturday morning, according to the Sheriff's Department.

Deputies were called to the casino at 1:47 a.m., according to a Sheriff's Department report. Pala Vice Chairman Leroy Miranda, 46, was arrested shortly after deputies arrived at 2:56 a.m. Miranda was booked into the Vista jail at 4:13 a.m. and later released, according to the Sheriff's Department.
Officials at the Valley Center sheriff's station declined Tuesday to comment on the details of the incident.

Miranda was elected vice chairman of the tribe in 2001, one of six members of the tribe's governing council. He is the director of the Cupa Cultural Center, a museum on the reservation, according to the tribe's website.

Doug Elmets, a spokesman for Pala, said the tribe is reviewing the incident and declined further comment.

"The allegations are currently under investigation and the executive committee of the tribe will review the circumstances of the incident," Elmets said in a written statement.

Miranda was previously cited for allegedly soliciting a prostitute at the Happy Time Adult Book Store Nov. 6, 2009, in Moreno Valley, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of lewd conduct in February 2010.

Under the terms of the plea, Miranda agreed to pay a fine of $570, enroll in an AIDS education program, stay away from the Happy Time Adult Book Store and wear an electronic monitoring device, also known as an ankle bracelet.

The Pala tribe owns one of the largest casinos in the county, the Pala Resort & Casino, east of Fallbrook on Highway 76.

In recent years, the tribe has been embroiled in a bitter internal dispute over its membership. Tribal leaders have expelled 154 people who they say do not meet the requirements to belong to the 900-member tribe.
 
The feud goes back years, but critics say the removal of the tribal members was spurred by a failed effort to recall Miranda last year. Former Pala Chairman King Freeman, whose family members were expelled from the tribe, told the North County Times last year that the recall effort began after he learned about Miranda's 2009 arrest in Moreno Valley.

Miranda could not be reached for comment by phone Tuesday afternoon at the Cupa Cultural Center.

Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511.

NC Times - PALA: Tribe's vice chairman arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public

February 24, 2012 BIA Recommendation

The first 8 disernolled Margarita Brittain descendents appealed the Executive Committee's decision to disenroll to the BIA.  The BIA responded to the appeal recommending that Pala's Executive Committee reverse their decision.  Here is that recommendation:

24 Feb 2012 BIA Recommends Reversing Pala Disenrollments