Gaming compacts in California don't address child support issue

Thursday, September 2, 2010  

Some tribes in California share gaming revenues with their members but the money can't be used to cover child support payments.

Christina Brown was married to a member of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians. A state court ordered the man to pay child support but she doesn't have access to his per capita payments.

"The court ordered him to make all these payments,” Brown told Capitol Weekly. “But I couldn’t garnish them."

Only the Yurok Tribe has a compact that requires enforcement of child support laws. And only the Quechan Nation has voluntarily started to establish a program that would help enforce child support laws on the California portion of its reservation.

"It would be really nice if a tribe stepped up," Cheryl Schmidt, a gaming activist, told Capitol Weekly.

Get the Story:
Women claim tribes won’t enforce child support (Capitol Weekly 9/2)