Is casino driving deep cuts in Chuckchansi tribal rolls?

Democracy and Due Process don't exist in Tribal Governance.

Is casino driving deep cuts in Chuckchansi tribal rolls?
By Marc Benjamin - The Fresno Bee


The Chukchansi tribe disenrolled 57 members last month -- including a former tribal chairman -- and sent 200 more disenrollment notifications last week to thin the tribe's ranks further.

Disenrollment not only means loss of Indian identity, but also the loss of much-needed financial allowances that stem from Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino revenues.

The Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians has cut more members than any of California's 106 tribes, said Laura Wass, a Fresno-based representative for the American Indian Movement.

Chukchansi has cut 800 people from its rolls in two other purges in the past 10 years, Wass said.

In recent years, more than 2,500 Californians either have been dropped from Indian rolls or denied membership on the basis of bloodlines, said Wass, who has closely tracked the issue.


Ancestral bloodlines are cited, but the real motive is money, Wass said.

"There was no such thing as disenrollment before casinos," she said.

But an attorney representing the Chukchansi tribe said the only motivation is to make sure that only those people who are eligible by ancestral connection are on the tribal rolls.

There's no doubt that disenrollment can be costly, however.

Those cut from the Chukchansi tribal rolls lose a monthly check of $287. Elders lose a food allowance worth more than $300 a month. Members also lose clothing and educational allowances for their children.

College students lose scholarships, and senior citizens lose utility allowances if they are disenrolled.

Chukchansi isn't the only local tribe to challenge claims to tribal membership. Table Mountain Rancheria rejected claims from about 160 people on the basis of bloodlines, Wass said. The tribe's size was reduced to about 80 members about 10 years ago, she said.

Chukchansi once had more than 1,800 members, bolstered in the late 1980s and early 1990s by a federal policy that paid tribes more money for services provided by the tribe on a per-capita basis, Wass said.

In the years before casino revenues, about the only way someone would be disenrolled would be for disgracing the tribe, such as committing a major crime, she said.

The most recent letters from the tribe's committee that oversees disenrollment were dated Nov. 15. The next day the tribe announced plans to restructure the terms of $310 million in bank notes that paid to build the casino. Rob Rosette, the tribe's attorney, said the two issues are unrelated.

Rosette also denied that Chukchansi members are being disenrolled so others might gain financially.

Disenrollment occurs when a tribal council decides people don't have bloodlines that are specified in their tribal constitution, he said.

It's not something the tribe takes lightly, Rosette said.

"They are following their written law to a tee," he said. "It's not arbitrary. It's objective, and it is well-founded in the law."

Tribal documents say that a person can be disenrolled if it "is more likely than not that the member is not eligible for enrollment under the tribe's constitution."

And Chukchansi disenrollments are final, Wass said.

Some tribes have an appeals process through the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, but Chukchansi isn't one of them, she said.

The family of longtime tribal member Jack Roan was disenrolled in October.

"We submitted documents that Jack Roan's daughter was full-blooded and spoke fluent Chukchansi, but they refuse to acknowledge her," said Nikah Dondero, 32, a descendant.

In her comments at her disenrollment hearing, Dondero said: "I know this disenrollment is wrong. We are taught to take care of our elders, children and youth, not to disenroll them!"

The October disenrollments passed by a 4-3 vote. Remaining Chukchansi tribal members will decide in December whether to re-elect four tribal council members, two who favored the disenrollments and two who opposed them.

Another disenrolled Roan descendant, Gilbert Cordero, was formerly a tribal council chairman. His son, Nolan Cordero, said he knows the most recent disenrollments will not be the last.

"The people who are our friends and are still members need to vote for the right people so this doesn't keep going on," Nolan Cordero said.

Disenrollment is a political tool used to remove enemies from the tribe, said Kenneth Hansen, an associate professor at Fresno State and an expert in American Indian politics.

"It's just about politics, and the people selected to get the boot are perceived to be troublemakers or vote against a tribal chairman," he said.

Many people lose out financially, Hansen said, but the financial losses are less important than the identity and traditions the disenrolled lose after being part of the tribe their whole lives.

"Disenrollment is a civil rights violation," he said. "You are exiling dozens of people because they live on the wrong side of the hill or you say they were never an Indian."

But U.S. civil rights laws don't extend onto Chukchansi tribal land, which is a sovereign nation, he said.

"The way this is done doesn't reflect due process in any meaningful way," Hansen said.

"One family representative gets a short period to argue their case. It's a kangaroo court."