The Nooksack Tribe of Washington is trying to remove 306 people from the rolls. Photo from The Nooksack 306 / Facebook
The Bureau of Indian Affairs cannot hide behind tribal sovereignty when it comes to disenrollment, Harold Monteau, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe, argues:
The entitlement of Native Americans to benefits and services from the United States, as trustee for Indian Persons and Indian Tribes, cannot be terminated without due process of law on the part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The fiduciary duty of the U.S. Government cannot be so easily disavowed by the BIA when to do so involves the enforcement of a legal standard of “blood quantum” or “membership”, whether it is by the BIA or by a surrogate, such as an Indian Tribe. Those standards made their way into Federal Law at a time when the policy of the United States was to work towards the termination of the Indian Tribes and the Trust Responsibility by enforcing policies that would cause the eventual disappearance of Tribes and disbursal and disappearance of individual Indians “into the mainstream” of society. Such a policy comports with no “fiduciary” standard known to western jurisprudence. A “trustee” cannot facilitate the “disappearance” of a “beneficiary” any more than it would comport with Fiduciary Responsibility to bring about the demise of the beneficiary in order to terminate the duties of the trustee. Such a policy meets the definition of Genocide. The BIA cannot point to any U.S. Statute that permits the BIA to terminate its trust responsibility to Tribes and Indians based upon a “blood quantum for membership” requirement. Similarly, there exists no U.S. Statute that requires the BIA to terminate “its” trust responsibility based upon the actions of a Tribe in “disenrolling” a “birthright” descendent of an Indian Tribe by utilizing a “surrogate” to enforce a former U.S. Policy that does not comport with fiduciary standards or comport with International Laws (Conventions) to which the U.S. is a signatory.Get the Story:
Harold Monteau: BIA Betraying Its Trust Responsibility for 'Disenrolled' (Indian Country Today 3/14)
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