California State Universities Must Draw the Line

The following text is a letter that I dispatched to the CSU Board of Trustees concerning a huge donation from Table Mountain Rancheria ($10M) for their new library complex.  The President of the University has announced he wants to get permission from the CSU Board to name a portion of the building after the Table Mountain Tribe.  This is unacceptable as long as the Tribe continues to deny their own people a place at the table.  This is unacceptable as long as Tribe's like Table Mountain and Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians continue to disenroll and ignore their brethren so that they can make more money.

And, it is even more unacceptable that public institutions like CSU Fresno turn a blind eye to the plight of the Native American's who have become victimized by these gaming Tribes.  These Tribes are not pillars of the philanthropic community.  They are only interested in their long term public relations goals: keep the public eye away from disenrollment, immunity from federal labor laws, immunity from federal civil rights laws and immunity from financial accountability laws.  The only way to do that is to keep giving spectacular amounts of money to the local communities so that they look like benevolant benefactors to the general public.  WELL, I'M HERE TO TELL YOU THAT THIS IS PURE FANTASY!  The Tribe's couldn't care less about the general public.  The only value any of the public has to a Tribe is the money they leave in the slot machines!  These Tribes don't care about their own, why would they care about anyone else?

To the CSU Trustee Board:

I want to address the upcoming request from CSUF President John Welty to name a portion of the new library after the Table Mountain Tribe.  This is a dishonor to the people of the Table Mountain Rancheria that are still denied membership in the Tribe.  It is not acceptable for the city and state agencies to accept large sums of money from the Tribes and not take into consideration the fact that these Tribes are dictatorships.  They do not stand for anything other than the status quo on the Rancheria’s.

In the case of Table Mountain, the current leadership under Leanne Walker Grant is one that is very well defined.  If a member of the Tribe speaks out against her in any way, they are promised to be bounced out permanently.  If a member of the Tribe talks publicly about the FACT that the Tribe will not acknowledge all of its legally qualified members, that member is promised to join their relatives on the outside looking in.  The members of TableMountain have an average income of nearly $1 million per year per member.  The 77 members of the Tribe are living like kings while their own family members (mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandma, and grandpa) are left to live in poverty.  The remaining 120+ Mono/Chukchansi descendants aren’t getting a dime from the Casino.

At the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians, the Tribe has spent the past three months holding “kangaroo court” hearings to disenroll members of the Tribe.  The total of disenrolled members to date is almost 25% of the total membership.  The Tribe states that they aren’t doing anything wrong and that the members who are being disenrolled don’t meet the qualifications of the Tribe.  That’s funny; these very members met those qualifications for the first fifteen years while the Tribe used their names for head count and federal dollars to operate the Tribe.  The Tribe currently has $50-$70,000,000 in the bank, and the Tribal Council along with a small faction within the Tribe has bent over backwards to trim the numbers down.  The urgency of their actions has been in anticipation of per capita distributions to the remaining membership.  Every member of the Tribe that has been disenrolled has added money into the pot for everyone else.

So, do you see why it is imperative that you do not acquiesce to the public relations payoffs of the Tribes?  I cannot emphasize this to you enough!  It’s bad enough that the CSU system is taking their blood money; it would be incomprehensible if you allow their name to go on any part of that building.  These Tribes practice “genocide on paper” with their actions and it’s up to the people of California and the US to not allow them to become glorified while doing it.

In the event that you aren’t aware of this, when a member of a Tribe is disenrolled, they lose their Tribal membership AND their federal recognition status.  This means that they are no longer eligible for federal Indian housing, education or health benefits.  They are now off the books.  In the meantime, their brethren are immune from any type of lawsuits against them.  Their brethren are allowed to discard any rules that the Tribe has followed in the matter of enrollment issues.  They are authorized to violate the civil rights of the Tribal member they are disenrolling.  They are insulated from public scrutiny by claiming “sovereignty.”  They are destroying families and they are destroying what remains of Native culture in California.

If you want to know how I know so much about this, it’s simple.  I was the Chairperson of the Enrollment Committee/Dept. for the Picayune Rancheria from 2003-2005.  My brother served on the Tribal Council from 2004-2006.  While I was on the Committee, I was given direction to begin an audit on the membership that would eventually lead to disenrollments.  We were supposed to utilize a new checklist format that was developed by my Committee for future applicants. This order came within weeks of the opening of the Chukchansi Gold Casino.  I refused to follow such a heinous order.  The committee wrote its legal opinion on why we could not apply rules that were written in 2003 to members who were accepted into membership in 1994.

The Tribal Council responded with silence for nearly one year, and then removed two of us, including me, from the Committee.  By 2006, the new Committee had completed their task of finding any reason or excuse to remove members from the Tribe.  Beginning in October 2006, the first 26 people were disenrolled and the disenrollments have continued ever since.  On October 30, 2006 I was disenrolled along with five of my seven immediate family members.  Two of my cousins aren’t being disenrolled (yet).

The Tribe cannot deny our Chukchansi lineage.  Our great-great-grandfather was a Treaty of 1851 signer for the Chukchansi.  The Tribe doesn’t have to give any explanation at all as to why they are doing what they are doing.  They are above the laws of the United States.  They are above the concept of human kindness and decency.  They are no longer living the way of our ancestors.  They are now fully converted capitalists who have no sympathy for the families that they are tearing apart.

What they do have are public relation firms that advise them on the best ways to win public support and admiration even while they participate in such vile activities.  I want you to consider whether you would name a wing of the library after a government that practiced apartheid, or ethnic cleansing?  Don’t be fooled into thinking that this isn’t the same, because it is.  What the Tribe’s are doing is “genocide on paper.”  The results are the same: fewer Natives to count and to provide services too but with less blood on the ground.  It’s a disgrace that cannot be honored with their name on a public building!  I can only hope that you can see past their smoke screen and prevent their name from adorning a public building in this State for as long as they continue to leave their own out in the cold.

Thank you.

BRYAN GALT

--If you agree with this statement, I ask that you write to the Board of Trustees, John Welty and the Fresno Bee to express your opinion.  The Native people who are being hurt by their own need your support!

BOARD OF TRUSTEES: '[email protected]'  JOHN WELTY: '[email protected]'  FRESNO BEE: [email protected]  BRYAN GALT: [email protected] (to let me know you support this stand!

Comments

[for all nations]

bryan...i sent letters immediately to the board of trustees and president welty concerning my vigorous disapproval of naming any portion of the campus after table mountain, or ANY tribe--including picayune rancheria of the chukchansi indians--which violates the human and civil rights of its own people...

[FEATHERHEAD]

Just stopped by to wish you a Merry Christmas, and to let you know I am still praying for you and your cause.