The resolution to support this Legislative Initiative was introduced to Lake County Democrats by Mr. Robert Edwards, a disenrolled member of the Enterprise Rancheria No. 1, of Maidu Indians. Mr. Edwards was Vice Chair of the Tribal Council. He and 70 other members of Enterprise Rancheria No. 1 were disenrolled in the winter of 2003.
We had hoped that our support, that a public endorsement and by notifying our legislators of the importance of this issue, that we would signal our belief that this action should result in enforcement of the legislation that allows American Indians the same civil rights, as well as the right to due process enjoyed by all Americans.
That legislation is the Native American Civil Rights Act that was enacted by Congress in 1968.
We support reform of the Indian Civil Rights Act in such a way that this would be possible. Our hope was to provide some of the 3000+ Indians in California who are being victimized by corrupt tribal governments the right to due process at the state and federal level.
The state of California must move to enact legislation that will insert the enforcement of the Indian Civil Rights Act into the gaming compacts.
The situation has now come to crisis in Lake County.
I am concerned about the possible violation of Indian civil rights happening at Robinson Rancheria.
When citizens voted for Indian gaming in California, they voted with the understanding that gaming revenues would improve the conditions of tribal people in the areas of jobs, health, education and general welfare on the Rancherias.
In what appears to be a “form of genocide” that is being committed by the tribal government at Robinson Rancheria, tribal people have lost jobs and health benefits, loss of elders assistance including a senior meal program, loss of education benefits, and the loss of tribal cultural identity as a member of one’s tribe.
I have asked our state and federal legislators open an investigation on the growth of human and civil rights violations in Indian country, so that these civil rights issues can be addressed.
I am urging citizens in Lake County to contact our state and federal legislators to follow suit.
The investigation should start in California which has the highest disenrollment numbers in the nation. In California, according to the American Indian Rights and Resources Organization (AIRRO), over 2500 tribal people have been disenrolled from their tribe; nationally, over 7,000 Indians have been disenrolled, denied or whose lives have been impacted by a disenrollment issue affecting the status of their Indian citizenship.
Congress needs to review the intent of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968; possibly enact new legislation to beef up enforcement of the act. Congress Members must look at mandating the Bureau of Indian Affairs to refuse to recognize a tribal government or do business with a tribal government that is obviously violating the Act.
The Martinez decision has weighed heavily on enforcement of the Indian Civil Rights Act — tribal courts are nonexistent in most California tribes; thus subjecting tribal members to exhaust an appeal process under the jurisdiction of the very tribal leaders who caused and made the decision to enact disenrollment.
California’s history on the treatment of its original habitants is unsavory, to say the least. Today, California Indians are being subjected to human rights abuse inflicted upon them by their own people. I am sure there are many human and political causes for the behavior of tribal people committing such abuse on their own people; however, such human rights abuse is a direct manifestation of the U.S. Government’s role in its enforcement of Indian policy that has lead them to do what we are witnessing today.
Such human and civil rights abuse is not acceptable in the United States of America, leader of the free world.
Rebecca L. Curry lives in Kelseyville.
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