The California Valley Miwok Tribe – located at 10601 N. Escondido PL, Stockton, CA (As listed in the Bureau of Indian Affairs BIA/DOI Spring 2011 Tribal Leaders Directory), a federally recognized tribe eligible to receive and distribute services from the federal government – on Monday, March 26th, 2012, filed complaints with the California State Bar against Robert Uram and Matthew McConnell of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton and Thomas Wolfrum, Esq. The complaints cite to the continuing misrepresentations and falsehoods being perpetrated by these individuals on behalf of themselves and their casino-seeking, non-tribal, non-Native American clients.
The corresponding exhibits in support of the complaints are overburdened with various mischaracterizations, falsehoods, untruths and a completely fabricated history of the California Valley Miwok Tribe, created to give legitimacy to non-tribal members and individuals of questionable Native American lineage. Also included within the exhibits are the two final agency actions in favor of the Tribe and its recognized membership, by the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, whom were unconvinced by the charade being perpetrated by these individuals, due to the knowledge of the actual tribal history that has been in the federal government’s records all along and thus they gave decisions contrary to what the attorneys in the complaints were seeking.
The very fact that Mr. Yakima Dixie (in his court-ordered and videotaped deposition), when allowed to speak on his own behalf without being coerced or controlled, admitted that he in fact was not the chairman of the California Valley Miwok Tribe, that he did in fact resign and that he did in fact participate in the election in which Silvia Burley became the elected Chairperson for the California Valley Miwok Tribe – this means that not only did he not have authority to enroll new members as an individual, but due to the fact that the Tribe had a resolution form of government established under GC-98-01, he did not have the authority to enroll new members acting as an individual outside the authority of the established general council and also he had no authority to take such actions in a leadership role for he no longer was even the elected representative overseeing the affairs of the Tribe; which means, in a legal and tribal context, any actions Mr. Dixie took in representation of the Tribe from the date of his resignation, either in enrolling individuals into tribal membership, signing contracts on behalf of the Tribe, hiring individuals or attorneys to represent the Tribe or having talks, discussions and negotiations with individuals, business interests or governmental representatives on behalf of the Tribe is null, void and unenforcable.
Even with the revelations of these long known facts finally being admitted to, Robert Uram and Matthew McConnell of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton and Thomas Wolfrum, Esq., still fraudulently misrepresent, in all cases state and federal against the Tribe, that they in fact represent the Tribe in both venues in which they are currently litigating against the real Tribe and its tribal attorneys from Rosette, LLP. and Manuel Corrales, Esq. They litigate for individuals whom are not, nor have ever been recognized as members of the California Valley Miwok Tribe by either the federal government or the recognized tribal government or history of receivership of any tribal federally funded program to not only legitimize that they are, or have ever been recognized as tribal members or in fact that they are even Native American at all. This fact, along with Mr. Dixie’s long awaited admission, means that these litigators have now lost the very foundation in which this entire scheme had been built upon, in their quest to establish an Indian casino adjacent to the old Altamont Speedway in Alameda County.
The very fact that they have not dismissed their own cases against the Tribe or modified their complaints to represent their clients as individual interveners shows that they are continuing to conspire to commit fraud and try to confuse the courts in both the federal and state venues with felonious misrepresentations, in violation of the laws cited to in the Bar complaints accompanying this story.
Exhibit 1. State Bar complaints against Robert Uram and Matthew McConnell of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton and Thomas Wolfrum, Esq.
Exhibit 2. Exhibits in support of requested disciplinary actions to be taken against offending litigants.
