Group wants federal leadership on Indian rights
Ousted members of the Pala Band of Mission Indians in North County say they want the federal government to give them greater protections from being removed from tribal membership rolls.
Hundreds of people have been expelled from local tribes in recent years. Many more have been removed from tribes throughout California and the country. Some of them believe that the removals are motivated by greed and politics inside some of the country's most successful gambling tribes.
Dennis Chappabitty, a Sacramento attorney who represents several members of the Pala tribe, said that disenrollment has become a widespread civil rights problem in Indian country, and that it's time for the federal government to step in.
"The shameful mass-disenrollment debacle at Pala calls for attention by the U.S. Congress to amend the Indian Civil Rights Act to give disenrolled tribal citizens a chance to have federal courts review the tribal record and determine if the process was just and fair," Chappabitty said.
The attorney is trying find a lawmaker interested in carrying a bill that would amend the Indian Civil Rights Act. The bill would allow federal courts to review diserollments to make sure that tribal governments, such as Pala, followed their own laws.
Chappabitty said he and representatives for the ousted Pala members are scheduled to meet with staff members for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista. Issa's district covers all eight of North County's reservations, including Pala.
Issa spokesman Frederick Hill said there was a meeting scheduled.
"As it stands, federal law recognizes tribal sovereignty and the right to self-governance and places the determination of questions related to enrollment with tribal governments," Hill said. "Whenever these questions arise, it is in each party's interest to ensure that the processes for considering enrollment questions are defined, transparent and undertaken in fairness."
A spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, whose district includes East County tribes, said that the congressman has no plans to carry such a bill and that he has not taken a position on the proposed legislation.
"The congressman would review legislation if it's introduced, but he doesn't have a stated position at the time," said Hunter's spokesman, Joe Kasper.
Enrolled tribal members in effect hold dual citizenship. They are U.S. citizens and citizens of their respective tribal nations. Federal courts have determined that, as sovereign nations, tribes have the right to determine their own citizenship criteria and the authority to settle questions of who belongs in the tribe according to its own laws.
Only a few tribes allow the federal government, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to settle membership disputes.
Under its laws, Pala allows the Bureau of Indian Affairs to review tribal enrollment disputes and the bureau can make recommendations, but the tribe retains the authority to make the final decision.
In one of the most recent disputes, the Pala tribal council determined on June 1 that eight of its members did not meet its membership criteria. The council said the eight members did not have the 1/16th Pala Indian blood quantum required by tribal law.
Those who were disenrolled say the council's decision was wrong and based primarily on a grudge between the tribal chairman, Robert Smith, and a former tribal chairman, King Freeman. All those who were disenrolled are members of King's family. King himself was not among those expelled from the tribe.
Pala recently sent letters to an estimated 120 other people asking them to prove that they belong in the tribe. Pala, situated about 15 miles north of Escondido, owns Pala Casino Spa & Resort, one of the largest Indian casinos in the region.
In January, 60 members of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians, which owns the Valley View Casino and Hotel in Valley Center, lost a three-year battle to keep their membership in the tribe.
More than 200 other tribal members have been disenrolled in recent years from the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians, which owns the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula.
Some of the disenrolled tribal members have sued in federal court to be restored as members of their tribes, but the courts have consistently ruled that they are powerless to do so.
In 2010, Judge Claudia Wilkens dissented from a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals majority decision in a case involving a group of ousted Pechanga members, saying that federal courts should be allowed to address whether the process followed by the tribe was fair.
"Here, appellants are not directly challenging the merits of their disenrollment, i.e., whether they are direct descendants from the original Pechanga Temecula people," Wilkens wrote. "Rather, appellants challenge under the (Indian Civil Rights Act) the manner of their disenrollment. The former would be barred by tribal sovereign immunity, whereas the latter is not."
Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511.