Last week, we gave props to Netflix series, "House of Cards" for dedicating two episodes to a real-life problem plaguing Indian Country – Tribal Disenrollment.

Imagine having your citizenship taken away from you. That's what happens when a member of a tribe is disenrolled, or kicked out, of their tribe by their tribal government even if no criminal accusation was ever made. In the past, this happened when members of a tribe committed an offense of some sort, but it was rarely permanent. These days, it's happening more and more – often by wealthy casino tribes. Less people in the tribe, more money for remaining members. And, unlike in the past, these decisions aren't being reversed.

As the New York Times reported, "In recent years, experts say, [tribes have] begun routinely disenrolling Indians deemed inauthentic members of a group. And California, with dozens of tiny tribes that were decimated, scattered and then reconstituted, often out of ethnically mixed Indians, is the national hotbed of the trend."

Data on tribal disenrollment is hard to come by because no one – including the Bureau of Indian Affairs – wants to touch such a contentious topic, according to David Wilkins, a Lumbee Indian and professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota Law. However, according to Alice Langton-Sloan of the American Indian Rights and Resources Organization (AIRRO), 11,000 individual Indians' civil rights were violated by their tribe in the U.S. between 1997 to 2009. She has seen an increase in tribal disenrollments since 2009, affecting hundreds more. At least 39 tribes in California and several tribes from 15 other states have disenrolled some segment of their population.