A judge for the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe in Michigan delayed a decision in a disenrollment dispute that could affect hundreds of people.

The tribe is seeking to remove two elders, two deceased members and 40 living descendants from the rolls. If they are ousted, up to 400 more could be on the chopping block.

“I’m going to take some time. I don’t want to do anything from the bench I’m going to regret," Judge Patrick Shannon said in court on Wednesday, The Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun reported.

In addition to a blood quantum standard, the tribal constitution requires lineal descent from someone who appeared on one of four base rolls. But in the 1980s, some people were enrolled after tracing their ancestry to a sibling of a person on one of the rolls.

The tribe now contends that anyone who was enrolled as a "collateral" descendant has to be removed.

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Judge delays ruling on Tribal disenrollment (The Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun 10/31)