Indian Lawyer Amber Penn-Roco Joins Galanda Broadman

Galanda Broadman has deepened its bench by adding another Indian lawyer: Amber Penn-Roco. Amber, an enrolled member of the Chehalis Tribe, comes to the firm as an Associate after a three-year stint at K+L Gates, Seattle’s second largest law firm.

“Amber is one of the best and brightest young Indian lawyers around,” said Gabe Galanda, the firm’s managing partner.  “As our tribal law firm continues to grow, we remain very grateful to our tribal clients for the trust they put in us and the opportunity to fight for Indian Country.”

Amber’s practice focuses on complex land and environmental issues and multi-party litigation involving tribal sovereignty, torts and hazardous materials.  Her experience also includes work on transactional matters, including entity formation, environmental compliance and permitting.

Prior to working at K&L Gates, Amber worked in the Native American Unit of the Northwest Justice Project, which strives to afford access to justice to low-income tribal populations. She has served as a Governing Council Member of the Northwest Indian Bar Association.

Amber is a graduate of University of Washington School of Law, and Washington State University (summa cum laude).  While in law school, she served as President of both the Native American Law Students’ Association and the Minority Law Students’ Association.

Galanda Broadman was recently named to the 2014 Edition of U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms,” in the arena of Native American Law.  The six-lawyer firm, which styles itself  “An Indian Country Law Firm,” is dedicated to advancing tribal legal rights and Indian business interests.  With offices in Seattle, Washington and Bend, Oregon, the firm represents tribal governments, businesses and members in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters, especially in matters of Indian Treaty rights, tribal sovereignty and taxation.

Seattle Tribal Lawyer to Again Teach Minority Lawyers How To Build a Book of Business

On March 27, Gabe Galanda will help teach the King County Bar Association's annual Building a Book of Business: For Attorneys of Color program in Seattle. He delivered the same teachings last year.

KCBA's Diversity Committee is proud to host this annual seminar designed to give recently admitted attorneys of color the skills they need to advance in their careers.unique program is a closed door session where you will learn to effectively market yourself and acquire new clients for your firm. You'll gain valuable networking contacts and receive guidance from some of the most well-respected and successful leaders in our region's minority bar community.

In 2010, Gabe co-founded Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an American Indian owned law firm with six lawyers, and offices in Seattle, Washington and Bend, Oregon. Prior to that. Gabe founded the Tribal Practice Group at Williams Kastner, where he was a "first ballot" equity partner and an elected member of the firm's Board of Directors. Gabe has been named to the prestigious "40 Under 40" listing by Puget Sound Business Journal, and the "Native American 40 Under 40" listing by the National Center for American Indian Economic Development.

Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is the Managing Partner at Galanda Broadman.  He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California.  Gabe can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com.

An Essay on the Federal Origins of Disenrollment

Disenrollment is not indigenous to Native America.  It is a creature of the United States. The origins of tribal "disenrollment" are traced to the United States’ paternalistic assimilation policies of the 1930s.  (Federal Indian rolls and removal therefrom date back even further--to the early 1800s.)

In 1934 the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act (“IRA”), wherein the federal government took an extremely active role in framing tribal membership rules.  The IRA contained a definition of who would be recognized as an indigenous person by the federal government: The individual must be a descendant of a member residing on any reservation as of June 1, 1934, or a person “of one-half or more Indian Blood.”  25 U.S.C. § 476.

The United States’ intent was to limit membership “to persons who reasonably can be expected to participate in tribal relations and affairs.”   Office of Indian Affairs, U.S. Dep't of the Interior, Circular No. 3123 (1935), reprinted in 2 Am. Indian Policy Review Comm'n, 94th Cong., Task Force No. 9 Final Report app. at 334 (Comm. Print 1977).  The IRA also urged tribes to adopt a constitution and included a boilerplate that tribes were encouraged to adopt.  And because tribal constitutions were subject to federal approval, the IRA definition of “Indian,” including its blood quantum requirement or some variation thereof, as well as concepts of "disenrollment," found their way into most tribal constitutions, even those that did not adopt the boilerplate IRA constitution.

In fact, even those tribes that opted to forego adopting a constitution were often persuaded to adopt these concepts somewhere in their organic law as a “consequence of the [federal government]’s control over federal services and tribal monies.”  Suzianne D. Painter-Thorne, If You Build It, They Will Come: Preserving Tribal Sovereignty in the Face of Indian Casinos and the New Premium on Tribal Membership, 14 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 311, 341 (2010).

Thus, “while it is true that membership in an Indian tribe [wa]s for the tribe to decide, that principle is dependent on and subordinate to the more basic principle that membership in an Indian tribe is a bilateral, political relationship” under which the United States had set the terms.  Margo S. Brownell, Who is an Indian? Searching for an Answer to the Question at the Core of Federal Indian Law, 34 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 275, 307 (2001).  The Indian Self-Determination Education Assistance Act of 1975, additionally required that tribal governments devise formal membership regulations, in order for the tribe to receive certain federal self-determination funding.  The United States suggested such regulations, which like its boilerplate IRA constitutions, included notions of blood quantum and disenrollment.

In all, for the last 80 years, the United States has set the terms of tribal membership, i.e., "Indian," "blood quantum," "membership," "base rolls," and of course "disenrollment."  And for good measure, tribal acceptance and implementation of those unconscionable terms have been conditions precedent to self-determination funding since the 1970s.

Despite having invented disenrollment and foisted it upon tribal governments, the United States now suggests that it has no "business trampling on tribal sovereignty and self-governance" by interceding in tribal disenrollment disputes.  Or, as Nooksack Councilwoman Michelle Roberts -- a member of a the Nooksack 306 -- put it to Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn: "It is Frankenstein in Indian country that the United States has created, and now ignores."

Galanda Broadman is an American Indian owned firm dedicated to advancing tribal legal rights and Indian business interests. The firm represents tribal governments, businesses and members in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters, especially in the areas of Indian Treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, taxation, commerce, personal injury, and human/civil rights.

Galanda Broadman Named Washington State Gaming Law Firm of the Year

Corporate INTL has named Galanda Broadman the Gaming Law Firm of the Year in Washington, for the second consecutive year. The awards commemorate those lawyers who have been successful over the past 12 months and who have shown excellence not only in expertise but in service.

For all of Corporate INTL's awards, they undertake detailed research via Corporate INTL's independent research and editorial teams. Corporate INTL then creates a shortlist of up to 5 potential winners in each category. The shortlisted firms are then reviewed by an independent awards panel in each country with the eventual winners chosen by that independent panel.

Galanda Broadman is an American Indian owned firm dedicated to advancing tribal legal rights and Indian business interests. The firm handles various Indian gaming transactional, regulatory and litigation matters.

Tribal Civil Rights Lawyer Ryan Dreveskracht Publishes Indian Voting Rights Article

Ryan Dreveskracht has published an important Indian voting rights law review article, "Enfranchising Native Americans After Shelby County v. Holder: Congress's Duty to Act," in the National Lawyers Guild Review.

Ryan argues that Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act "is both an appropriate and necessary measure to prevent ongoing voting discrimination targeting Native American citizens, and concludes that "Congress not only has the power to compel preapproval of state voting legislation that is applicable to Indian Country, but it has an obligation to do so."

Ryan Dreveskracht is an Associate at Galanda Broadman, PLLC.  His practice focuses on representing businesses and tribal governments in public affairs, energy, gaming, taxation, and general economic development.  He can be reached at 206.909.3842 or ryan @galandabroadman.com.

Gabe Galanda Stumps Against Interior's Land Buy Back; Serves as Professor in Residence

This week, Gabe Galanda visited the University of Arizona College of Law in Tucson for a speech at the 2nd Annual Tribal Lands Conference, and a Professorship in Residence at the Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program. Gabe's speech at the Conference, which was themed "The Cobell Settlement Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations," was titled: "The Perils of Indian Law Buy Back." He explained that "while Interior’s plan disclaims any facilitation of forced sales under 25 U.S.C. 2204(a), the $1.55 Billion in 'buy back' monies will catalyze controversial intra-tribal forced sales."

Gabe further explained how any such forced sale could violate various federal laws, including the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the United States' trust fiduciary duty at common law, as well as international human rights law, including Articles 1 and 10 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Article 11 of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. His slides are available here, and his prior published commentaries are here.

During his Professorship in Residence, Gabe engaged indigenous law students during a program moderated by Dean Marc Miller, in the development series called "A Conversation With...," which features prominent law school alumni. He also delivered a lecture to Professor Ray Austin's class titled, "Tribal Economic Development: Looking Through the Prism of Indian Taxation & Sovereign Immunity."

In his lecture, Gabe explained very recent developments in federal Indian law regarding the powers of tribal taxation, sovereign immunity and territorial authority. His slides are available here.

Gabriel “Gabe” Galanda is the Managing Partner of Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. Gabe can be reached at 206.300.7801 or gabe@galandabroadman.com.

Law360 Quotes Gabe Galanda Re: Big Lagoon "Curveball"

Leading law blog, Law360, quoted Gabe Galanda at length regarding the Ninth Circuit's unprecedented decision in Big Lagoon, in "Tribal Casinos Face New Threats After 9th Circ. Curveball" (subscription required).

"The decision will allow states and anti-tribal groups to somehow collaterally attack other tribal projects that they find undesirable, many years — if not decades — after the fact," said Gabriel S. Galanda of
 Galanda Broadman PLLC....

"This decision will certainly further chill tribal lending for any new tribal economic development effort as well," Galanda said....

"This decision makes it even harder for tribal governments to greenfield Indian casinos, and that was already a near-impossible proposition due to the Supreme Court's recent anti-tribal decisions in Carcieri and Patchak," Galanda said.

Gabriel “Gabe” Galanda is the Managing Partner of Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. Gabe can be reached at 206.300.7801 or gabe@galandabroadman.com.

We Are Hiring An Associate

Job announcement here.

Disenrollment At Nooksack Via 1-800 Number, With "No Questions Asked"

Instructions for Nooksack disenrollment hearings: 1. Call a 1-800 number 2. "DO NOT call in late" 3. "Ensure that you use a landline" 4. Wait on hold "for 10 minutes to 2 hours" 5. Enjoy the "music" 6. State your full name and number for the record 7. Present your case in less than 10 minutes 8. "No questions will be entertained" 9. Await the "Tribal Council's decision in the mail"

Read, and believe, it for yourself, here.

Gabe Galanda To Stump On Perils Of Interior's Buy Back Program

On January 27, 2013, Gabe Galanda will warn about "The Perils of Indian Law 'Buy Back'" at the 2nd Annual Tribal Lands Conference at the University of Arizona College of Law in Tucson. Gabe has been a vocal critical of the program insofar as it might lead to individual Indian landowners' lands being taken forcibly or without just compensation. Gabe's nationally published commentaries since 2012 are here, here, here, here, and here, and his comments to McLatchy DC's News Bureau are here.

Indian landowners with commercially or otherwise desirable trust land interests, beware. Indeed, as Gabe worried and warned in 2012:

Above all, how will the United States protect against any improper federal-tribal governmental allotted land consolidation – meaning one in which tribal members do not want to lose their family’s land forever? Or in which tribal members have their own plans to overcome fractionation challenges and utilize their family’s land for cultural or economic purposes? Or, on the flipside, one in which impoverished tribal members will sell their land interests for less than fair market value merely in order to survive? What about the situation where the tribe with “a controlling level of interest” seeks 100% ownership of the land for some unjust reason? Indeed, as noted by the Village Earth blog, Interior’s proposal “does not address the concerns of many individual land owners who feel that programs like this take advantage of people’s desperation, forever divesting them of their lands for a small one-time payment, and transferring them to the control of Tribal Governments who may not use them for the benefit of their people as a whole.”

Gabriel “Gabe” Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. Gabe can be reached at 206.300.7801 or gabe@galandabroadman.com.