New Tribal Council Members for PRCI

In December, the election for three positions on the Tribal Council was held with ten candidates running for office, including one candidate who was disenrolled just days before the election.  Mary Martinez, a long standing member of the Tribe had been added to the absentee ballots for this election prior to her receiving her notice of disenrollment.  As a result, she received 60 votes on Election Day which were all disqualified.  These votes were simply thrown away.

The reason Mary Martinez was disenrolled was a violation of the Tribe's Constitution and enrollment ordinance. Mary qualified for membership as a Petitioner, which meant she could prove she was of Chukchansi Indian descent, and that she was signed up for membership by April 1990 which was determined to be the cutoff date for Petitioner's.  This was all that is required under the Chukchansi law for her to prove.  However, her disenrollment notice stated that the Tribe felt she should be a member of the Table Mountain Rancheria since she was born in that area, therefore she was to be disenrolled.

The election results weren't good overall for the incumbents Dixie Jackson, Morris Reid and Harold Hammond, Sr.  The top winners were Joe Alberta, Sam Lawhon and a tie occured between Morris Ried and Harold Hammond, Sr.  Sam Lawhon campaigned particularly hard on the enrollment issue making it his personal goal to make sure the audit continued.

At the Picayune Rancheria last week, a run-off election was held between Morris Reid, Vice Chairman and Harold Hammond, Sr., Member-at-Large of the Tribal Council for the Chukchansi Indians.  The winner was Harold Hammond, Sr.  Morris Reid had served almost continuously on the Tribal Council since 1989 with only a small break during one of the political upheavals that the Tribe went through during the early 1990's.

With the new Council comes no new hope for the "exiled" members of the Chukchansi people.  As the Council now stands, at least four of their members are strongly in favor of further disenrollments.  This is all that is necessary to create a quorum which will drive the wedges of distrust and hatred further into the hearts of the Chukchansi people.

To make matters more challenging, one of the current Tribal Council member's does not qualify under the three areas of membership and will most likely be removed from office within a matter of weeks once the new Council is seated.  This will give the Council an opportunity to appoint another Council Member who is sympathetic to their point-of-view, making it impossible for any opposition to occur from within the Council's ranks.

If the promise of this Council is brought to fruition, it will be very likely that the Tribe will be reduced to less than 100 members before the end of 2007, from its peak of 1,227 in 2003.  That's a loss of 89% of the entire membership base in less than fifteen months (August 2006 to December 2007).  What explanation can any Tribal Government offer for this kind of loss and destruction towards their own people?  Can any amount of money paid in per capita to the remaining members purchase their souls back from the Creator?  Only time and the Divine can be the judges of that question. 

Comments

[FEATHERHEAD]

Can any amount of money paid in per capita to the remaining members purchase their souls back from the Creator? Answer, NO!Your soul was bought back by Jesus Christ, without money, without price,because he loves you!All you have to do, is accept it! It is a gift of God!