Pit River People

An Organization of Madesi Band Pit River Indian Descendants

Fighting for Traditional and Civil Rights

7/30/06

Greetings

We arrived at the Pit River Indian meeting in Burney Saturday, 7/29/06 to discover:

1.  It had been moved to the Tribal office due to a wedding in the Community Room.

2.  Only the Tribal Council (Band Councils), Gene Preston and a Sergeant at Arms would be in the room with Hazel and I.  Apparently an agreement was made in an earlier Council meeting that officers and enrollment committee people would be excluded in an attempt to break the impasse in the enrollment committee.  They kicked Gloria out of the building even though both Hazel and I requested her as a witness.

3.  The Council had agreed before hand to look only at their interpretation of the Constitution and determine whether we were at least 1/4 blood or born of enrolled parents and not worry about family lineage.

We finally started about 10:20 AM with Gene being extremely clear that he, the Sergeant of Arms and the Sheriff if needed, would quickly kick out any disruptive person.  That worked - this is only the second meeting I've attended down there in 20 years that was 'civil.'  Seven Band Council people were there and the Elmore family controls 3 firmly and usually can influence the 4th to go along with them.

Once Gene laid out the guidelines in a PowerPoint presentation, I knew we were in trouble.

Hazel and I each had 30 minutes to present our genealogy and the group listened politely, but it was apparent that 4 of the members were not going to be swayed by anything except the second coming, and I wouldn't bet hard cash on that.

They (they being a majority of 4 controlled by the Elmore family and apparently with Gene Preston's support) read the constitution as requiring a person to be either 1/4 blood, or born of enrolled parents, period.  They believe the language in Section 2 is a qualifier and "He/she is listed as a Pit River Indian on the 1928 Census roll and is at least 1/4 Indian blood or descendant thereof," is secondary to Section 1 and does not stand by itself.  They disregard the language in the Enrollment Ordinance and consider the Constitution as the controlling document.  They believe the 1983 list of people eligible to vote on the constitution is the primary document, if you or a parent were not on that list, then the only other way to gain membership is to be 1/4 or more blood quantum.

They also twisted the outcome of a full Tribal Membership vote around 2002 where the Tribe rejected a proposed change to drop the 'descendant thereof' language from the Constitution and said the Tribe did vote to keep descendancy, but at the same time reaffirmed that it meant descendant of an Enrolled Member.  I strongly objected to this interpretation and was told, "Well, then sue us," by Gene.  At this same 2002 election the Tribal Membership voted for a motion to require family trees in all enrollment files.  They interpreted that to mean everyone must have a family tree in the file to document lineage from an Enrolled parent.  I again pointed out that the motion didn't have that additional language and only spoke of requiring a family tree in the file - no impact.

There were several major flaws in their logic of trying to use only the 1983 Enrollment list as the only document and Hazel and I did our best to object to this interpretation.  If that was the intention of the people who drafted the Constitution, then why are the other criteria even listed?  I could go on and on with this point, but that may be for legal counsel to review.  Hazel and I were not going to have any impact at the moment.

We were also told that the purpose of this meeting was a 'hearing' and that the Council's decision would be final.  I asked how they could pick and choose parts of the Constitution and Ordnances to follow and ignore others such as the due process, notification, appeal procedures, etc., and was again told that the Council's decision would be final and, "Then, you may have to sue us."

The only support I heard was from Willard who pointed out that the Shadley and Orr families had been very helpful in the 1960s when he and a few others were fighting to form the Tribe and he felt what was happening, "Just isn't right."

About 11:30 AM Hazel and I were told that our part of the meeting was over and we are excused.  Gene explained that they would call in the Enrollment Committee next and then the Council would vote and we would be notified of their decision.  I am not optimistic and fully expect to be notified that I am disenrolled.  I also expect the Council to disenroll everyone on Matt's 235 plus hit list and not provide due process. 

So I laid awake a good chunk of the night thinking up next steps - most of which legal counsel would not condone - but here are some thoughts I'm willing to put into writing, assuming some miracle didn't occur on Saturday afternoon:

I think it is time for our attorney, David Shaw, to have a conversation with Sam Hough of California Indian Legal Services to find out what advice he is giving the Tribe.  The Elmore family believes that Sam approved their interpretation of the Constitution - however a witness at that meeting told me it was only one of several interpretations that could be made and that Sam's point was the language was not clear and was conflicting.

1.  If I receive a letter of disenrollment, reply with objections to the process and demand a hearing as outlined in the Ordinances.  I suspect the Tribe will ignore any requests I make, or any threats legal counsel might make, but it is important to document the process in case we do get a 'day in court' at some future time, or if by some chance Council would grant another hearing, work very hard to get all the Band Council people there and pray for a 6 to 4 vote in favor of us.

2.  Appeal to the membership through a letter published in the paper and direct mail to the Madesi Band list (I have about 1/2 their valid addresses) and point out that this new interpretation of the Constitution puts a lot of people at risk of disenrollment and beg that they elect Band Councils at the August elections who will denounce the disenrollment and support descendancy, and that this whole issue is simply a power grab by one small family within the Madesi Band and they better put a stop to it.

3.  Begin an Initiative Petition (requires 50 signatures) to put the disenrollment issue to a vote of the full Membership and reverse the Council and be prepared to help with a local campaign to 'get out the vote.'

4.  Begin a recall within the Madesi Band of Matt and June or other Elmore family members if they get elected  (this would be done after we see the outcome of the August elections) and campaign like hell to get a level headed person in that position.  This is a real long shot and it would only change one vote on the Council, but would send a signal.

5.  Draft an Initiative for a change in the Constitution to clarify descendancy from Pit River as a standalone qualifier for Membership.

We have many friends down there and I think time is on our side as more people are willing to stand up to the Elmore family - the time and place will have to be right, and they will have to support each other to have the courage to fight this.  Remember, most of our friends have to live down there, drive the roads and get assistance from the Tribe.  They do not like to incur personal risk or put their families in jeopardy.  This is a serious issue and blood has been shed in the past and probably will be again before this generation that believes they are the one and only true Pit River people and should be in control of their kingdom, passes on.

I would encourage us to keep supporting our family attorney and hope other family members join in.  There is a larger issue of disenrollment in many of the gaming Tribes and there could, and I will be so bold to predict that there will, come a day when civil rights of Indian people are protected by the federal courts.  We already have the pledge of Sen. Reid of Nevada to introduce and push for this legislation.  It will take time but there is a growing concern about many Tribes whose leadership have succumbed to greed.  We need to keep the legal wheels grinding and make sure you document every piece of correspondence with the Tribe.

Many years ago an Indian Elder gave me the advice to ,"Always walk in balance."  That is challenging along this twisted and pothole strewn path...

I'll continue to fight the fight, both local and with the new AIRRO group - I trust you all have the patience, perseverance and good old Shadley/Orr/Shough/Taylor, etc., stubbornness to walk the path with us.

PS:  Just got a call reporting that one of our 'friends' in Burney is saying that the Council vote to disenroll us 'must go before the full membership for a vote' because we have not committed fraud or any other specific act mentioned in the Constitution as grounds for disenrollment.  I don't believe the Council will go for this - but as I said earlier, we do have a fair amount of support and there are people constantly working on our behalf.  (No report of any actual vote Saturday.)

I've also asked to try and clarify a couple of points:

1.  Did the Tribal vote about keeping the words 'or descendant thereof' in the Constitution really mean descendant only of an Enrolled parent, or did the Tribe understand it to mean descendant of any Pit River ancestor?

2.  Did the people who drafted the constitution have the broad meaning of 'descendant thereof' of any Pit River ancestor or did they mean the Article III, Section 1 to be the controlling language and that only 1/4 blood or people of Enrolled parents could become Members?