In these latest legal actions and filings, the California Valley Miwok Tribe, (the real tribe, its enrolled citizens and duly elected government) being represented by the law firm of Peebles Bergin Schulte & Robinson LLP, initiated these latest actions due to the ceaseless violations being committed against our inherent sovereign rights as a federally recognized Indian tribe.
In a decades long quest, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and their agents seek to overthrow a never terminated, organized federally recognized tribe for the explicit reason to mass enroll never before federally recognized or ever even tribally enrolled in any tribe, what can only be guessed at several hundred individuals. They themselves are using(Certificate Degree Indian Blood, CDIB card) a racist methodology unapproved for such task in trying to implement this action. In doing this, the BIA are superseding the powers of the United States Congress that have never enumerated such powers or authority to them.
A CDIB CARD DOES NOT ESTABLISH MEMBERSHIP IN AN INDIAN TRIBE, THAT IS ESTABLISHED ONLY UNDER TRIBAL LAW.
These legal actions are specifically being undertaken to halt the BIA’s intrusion into its government, citizenship and enrollment processes, its right to exist as an entity of self determination and to defend its right as a federally recognized sovereign tribe as protected by the United States Constitution, federal Indian law and treaty rights.
If the Bureau of Indian Affairs were to prevail in this quest, it will upend all tribes rights across the nation in matters of membership, sovereignty and self determination. It will destroy long standing customs and cultures, and you could be faced with no longer recognizing your tribes, because the BIA will have developed an illegal, racist and oppressive process that could replace your own friends and family with people you have never seen or that have ever been associated with your tribe before.
In essence, if we fail, you too someday could cease to exist as it would be in a disgruntled bureaucrats discretion to do so.
Click on the links below to access the PDFs:
Complaint and preliminary Injunction
– CVMT v Haaland (CDIB Matter) Sept 3, 2024
– ECF 1 Complaint Burley v. Haaland, 24-cv-02455, Dist. DC
– Certificate of degree of Indian blood – Wikipedia
