LAKE COUNTY >> A group has filed a petition in federal court in an attempt to prevent more than 130 Elem Pomo Indians from being exiled through disenrollment and banishment. The group claims the action includes all of the of Elem Indian Colony residents. They argue the exile would leave an empty 52-acre reservation.
Despite disenrollment and banishment becoming widespread, especially in California, it would be unprecedented for a tribe’s entire residency to be exiled, according to attorney Little Fawn Boland who represents the group of 30 people listed in the lawsuit against the Elem Colony Executive Committee, the tribal council.
A Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, submitted on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California — Eureka, pursuant to the federal Indian Civil Rights Act, alleges restraint on the plaintiffs’ liberty, and asks to prevent that restraint.
“Nobody questions our ancestry, because who we are can’t be questioned — we descend from Elem Pomo ancestors and founders,” Robert Geary, who faces disenrollment, said. “This is instead a feeble attempt by non-resident members of the Elem Colony to exact control over tribal monetary resources without wanting to live here, and even at the risk of terminating our entire colony.”
According to petitioners, all but one of the tribal council members live outside the reservation.
The families facing disenrollment include the last on-colony speaker of the Southeastern Pomo dialect; keepers of the colony’s two roundhouses; four Vietnam war veterans; and those who have led the colony’s efforts regarding the Superfund cleanup of Clear Lake and to regain control over Rattlesnake Island, a sacred Elem religious site. Tribal members say they are being targeted because they voted against the Elem Colony Executive Committee.
“Our relatives living on the outside are trying to cut the tribe off at the knees,” Geary said. “We won’t let them.”
On March 30, the Elem Colony tribal council issued an “Order of Disenrollment” to as many as 61 adult tribal members, under an ordinance, entitled “Tribal Sanctions Of Disenfranchisement, Banishment, Revenue Forfeiture, and Disenrollment and the Process for Imposing Them,” dated May 9, 2015. Disenrolled tribal members would no longer qualify to receive tribal funds and services such as housing and health care.
Under the ordinance, disenrollment also includes the penalty of “banishment” and is “[the] penalty by which a member of Elem is permanently removed from the membership roll of Elem for all purposes.”
The Elem Tribal Constitution requires such an ordinance to be approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary, but Bureau of Indian Affairs Superintendent Troy Burdick confirmed that it has never been submitted for federal review and approval.
The order includes six pages of allegations that the accused tribal members violated “the laws of Elem,” yet makes no allegation whatsoever that they are not properly enrolled as Elem Indian Colony of Pomo members, Boland said. While those adults’ 71 children and extended families have not been served with disenrollment/banishment papers, if the 61 adults are disenrolled/banished, their families will be exiled too.
In early April, Elem tribal chairman Agustin Garcia said the council had no comment regarding disenrollment. Adding that if the council wanted to make a statement, it would do so through a letter from its attorney.
At this time it is unclear who will be defending the federal suit, Boland said. Last week, the Elem Colony Executive Committee’s longtime general counsel, Tony Cohen, publicly stated that he withdrew his representation in a blog post.
He said that in his 35 years practicing Indian law, “I have always worked to improve the lives of tribal members and have never helped tribal governments to be oppressors.”
In the post, Cohen details his limited involvement and said that when he was asked to amend an ordinance to include disenrollment, “I strongly expressed my opinion that disenrollment is wrong as a punishment.”
Cohen said he would no longer be involved unless it was to help both sides figure out a way to work together.
