Do Tribal Members Have Constitutional Rights?

Tribal Members have a dual citizenship status.  They are both citizens of the United States and members of their respective tribes.  Many tribes including Pala supposedly extend rights granted in the U.S. Constitution to tribal members.  But more and more it seems Pala's Executive Committee continues to punish its members for exercising their 1st amendment rights.

The 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Members sought to petition their tribal government for redress of grievances and assembled peacefully.  They were subsequently punished for this.  11 members had their rights stripped from them.

Now Pala's Executive Committee is seeking to exact even more punishment on its membership.

It is worth noting that Pala's Revenue Allocation Plan states in section 4. e. the following:

"Nothing contained in this subsection shall be interpreted to interfere with a member's right to freely express his or her views."

You can read it here:

10 Aug 2001 Pala Band PAGR

***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.

Paskenta

Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians audit alleges millions in mismanagement

Excerpt:

The audit, conducted by WilmerHale, a Washington, D.C. law firm, found that former council leaders "have fallen far short of their legal and ethical obligations to the tribe" by incurring expenses that include $17 million in private jet travel, $450,000 for tickets to the World Series, college basketball's Final Four and other sporting events, the Bee reported.

"Although the senior tribal administrators claimed that most of their spending was for reasonable business purposes, our inquiry suggests that serious questions exist about whether substantial amounts of tribal funds were actually spent for the senior tribal administrators' personal benefit," the Bee quotes from the audit report.

Read Full Article Here-->Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians audit alleges millions in mismanagement

***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.

Paskenta Completes Audit

I recommend everyone read the entire article.  I will post a couple of excerpts here.

Audit finds Corning tribe mismanaged millions in casino funds

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Sep. 2, 2014 - 10:17 pm
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The document, which was obtained by The Sacramento Bee and secured with a program that prevented it from being printed out or copied, details spending by council officials that raised questions about home improvements; at least one trip to Disneyland; trips by Lohse to watch her son Kyle pitch in the 2011 World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals; purchase of floor-level Sacramento Kings season tickets and tickets to the 2010 Masters golf tournament; and other items.

“Although the senior tribal administrators claimed that most of their spending was for reasonable business purposes, our inquiry suggests that serious questions exist about whether substantial amounts of tribal funds were actually spent for the senior tribal administrators’ personal benefit,” the audit states.

The auditors added that because of poor or, in some cases, nonexistent bookkeeping records and the refusal of some officials to cooperate with the audit, it is difficult to determine with accuracy the state of tribal spending.

However, the audit found a number of expenses that raised questions, including:

•  $93 million in investments over the last 12 years in companies, real estate or gold that were made without any comprehensive investment strategy. “Many of these ventures were unproven, high-risk, start-up companies,” the audit said. Crosby flatly rejected that finding. “A lot of these investments are long-term,” he said. “Was Apple successful right away?”

•  Excessive overhead and compensation over the last dozen years that ate up at least $61 million of the $191 million left over after tribal members were paid their distributions. (The audit said reviewers were unable to account for about $10 million in spending).

•  Payments of $819,000 to senior administrators for serving on the boards of tribal entities that the audit said were made without tribal council discussion or approval.

•  A penchant for travel that included using the private jet for dozens of short hops between Chico and Redding or Corning and Sacramento, instead of driving at much less expense. Other trips “appear to have been partially or wholly personal,” the audit found, including 134 flights to Glendale, Ariz., by the Lohse family over a 32-month span (a Lohse son and his family live in Glendale, the audit said); and 40 flights by the Crosby family to Provo, Utah, over a 28-month period (Crosby’s daughter attended college in Provo, the audit said). Crosby said frequent trips are the nature of economic development efforts and that they were for business interests.

Read Full Article Here -->Audit finds Corning tribe mismanaged millions in casino funds

***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.