Gabriel Galanda: The tide is turning against tribal disenrollments

This spring there has been a surge of tribal public opinion against the practice of tribal disenrollment. The tide of tribal public opinion is dramatically turning on that non-indigenous mode of Indian self-termination, and those tribes and tribal leaders who extinguish their kin.

This month, Ryan Dreveskracht said our piece by publishing an Arizona Law Review article, “Curing the Tribal Enrollment Epidemic: In Search of a Remedy,” which Prof. Williams describes as “the most important, and most thoroughly researched and argued treatment of the tribal disenrollment available in literature . . . a must read for all of Indian country.”

Meanwhile: Hollywood, through Native actors, is increasingly portraying Indian Country through the negative light of disenrollment—most recently in the show The Red Road, starring Jason Mamoa. Leading tribal—and tribally owned—media outlets like Indianz.com, Pechanga.net, Native News Online, and Indian Country Today Media Network, increasingly allow free speech to reign over the once-taboo subject. Indian law blogs Turtle Talk and Law360 have gotten in on the act too. And with every like, share and tweet, social media Natives are saying “enough is enough.”