In a recent decision handed down by the federal appeals court, the judges determined that the Pechanga Tribe has complete authority to decide who will and who will not be a Tribal member. The interesting part about this decision was the language. The court stated flatly that the Tribe also did not have to follow any laws, including their own, when making enrollment decisions.
I would like to request a drug test for this particular Appellate Court. Clearly, these guys are not thinking about what impact their decisions will have on the rest of Indian Country and the thousands, even tens of thousands of Native Americans that are now at greater risk because the Courts have now emboldened those Councils that may have been sitting on the fence on the issue of disenrolling some members.
What is even more disturbing is the fact that an American Court is openly stating that a sub-group of people who are American citizens are above the laws of the United States and even above the laws of the Tribe if they should so choose. What? Where did the idea of total immunity from everything for the Tribes come from anyway?
The fact of the matter is, most Tribes are operated by people that have no training in governance, no background in creating governmental infrastructures, or in public relations. The Tribes tend to be autocratic, authoritarian, and even dictatorial in their postures towards the general public and especially towards their own people. The Court system just keeps giving them more freedom to do more damage to their own Tribes and to the reputation of Tribes everywhere.
It is a sad day in America when I can identify more fascist governments within 30 minutes of my home in California than exist in the Middle East. In another case from Washington state, their Supreme Court ruled that sovereign immunity extends to all businesses owned and operated by a Tribal government. This decision flies in the face of everything that I hold dear.
In the lawsuit, the Plaintiff worked for a business owned by a Tribe. During his employment, he was spit on by Tribal members who also worked there. He was taunted with comments like "can't wait to roast the white whale." He brought this clear violation of his civil rights to the attention of the bosses and they just laughed it off. After eight months on the job, he quit and filed a lawsuit against the company.
In their stunning decision, the Washington state Supreme Court has opened the door for unchecked violations against the citizens of the United States, citizens that are subject to the laws of this country and to the Constitution. Now, if this decision is allowed to hold up, Tribes can purchase major sized business ventures (such as the $965 M purchase of the Hard Rock Cafe's by the Seminole's of Florida) and suddenly everyone that works for this company has just lost all of their GUARANTEED CIVIL RIGHTS. How does any court in this country reconcile this huge, glaring and dangerous contradiction?
It has been a pet theory of mine that the government is all too aware of the damage being done by the Tribes. The policy that continues to grant the Tribes more authority with less accountability is causing many of them to run amok, abusing their authority at every turn, blackmailing their members with economic gains or losses, all the while the feds just sit there, watching and claiming ignorance or immunity. I think its ignorance.
While the Tribes are decimating themselves for the casino gold, the government has once again failed to fulfill its trust obligations to the Tribe and to the Individual Indians. This is the final act of the termination era when the government empowers the captives to turn on each other. Its a perfectly engineered plan, which means it happened by accident.
And all the while, the government, the public in general and the Tribes themselves play out their parts in this sad and perplexing drama and in the background the band just plays on...
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