Over the last decade, lawyers--predominately non-Indian lawyers--have devised a set of plays to "win" the mass disenrollment of Indian citizens. The plays are drawn up, even scripted, behind closed tribal doors, to further advantage offending tribal leaders on what is already an uneven political and legal playing field. If you see or hear any of these plays being called, pay close attention. Or you and yours may be the next to play defense against disenrollment.
Enrollment Audits--the beginning of a mass disenrollment effort (see "Auditing Tribal Sovereignty")
Battle of the Experts--engaging non-Indian, hired-gun genealogists or anthropologists (those who Vine Deloria, Jr., rightly called "culture vultures") to discount a family's lineage and disrespect the ancestors
No Magic Words--avoiding federal habeas corpus review under Poodry and Sweet by not saying "banished"
Provisional Disenrollment--denying equal rights to those members who are merely proposed for disenrollment, typically starting with the deprivation of gaming per capita monies (see "Tribal Per Capitas and Self-Termination")
Posthumous Disenrollment--disenrolling the dead, perhaps without notice to the living
Audibles--changing the rules of engagement as they go, to advantage those doing the disenrollment
Disenrollment Moratorium--once the politically unpopular members are disenrolled, impose a moratorium to prevent the disenrollment of those who accomplished the disenrollment
Galanda Broadman is an American Indian owned law firm dedicated to defending Indian rights. The firm has represented nearly 500 disenrollees in disenrollment proceedings and contoversies since 2013.
