Just a few months after their casino reopened after being closed more than a year due to tribal violence, leaders of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians in California are reopening old wounds by threatening to remove their rivals from the tribal membership rolls.
Usually when tribes purge memberships rolls, the reason is because of residency or blood quantum (what percentage of their blood is tribal blood) or ancestry. This time, the claim is that the rival tribal members may be enrolled in another tribe, which would be prohibited under the tribal constitution.
The “other tribe,” is a rump council that claims to be the tribe’s legitimate ruling council, despite the results of a recent tribal election.
One Chukchansi member who has gotten a letter informing her that she was being “disenrolled” is Nancy Ayala, who led one of the factions last year that fought over leadership of the tribe and its casino, the Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino. That casino was closed in October of 2014 by the federal and state governments after one of the tribe’s factions led an armed incursion into the casino to seize financial records.
Ayala told the Fresno Bee last week, “They were promising it was a new day and let bygones be bygones, but that was to get the casino open.” She added, “There has to be some kind of healing and moving forward and it just isn’t happening. It’s the same stuff.”
Ayala says she has been keeping a “low profile” in recent months. She is not in the new rival council, which is led by member Luke Davis, who continues to contest the legitimacy of the federally recognized council. However, as a former leader of the opposition she has been targeted. As has Luke Davis. As have the Ramirez and Wyatt families. About 50 people are involved.
Ayala herself has been involved in disenrollment procedures against other members. She was chairman of the tribal council in 2011 that disenrolled dozens of members. She was also involved in the August 2014 armed takeover of the casino that was led by the Tex McDonald faction of the tribe—the incident that led to the 14-month closure of the casino.
How many disenrollment letters have been sent is unknown, but that number may be found out soon since the tribe has scheduled hearings for each targeted members to give them the opportunity to renounce their membership in the “other tribe.”
At one time the tribe had about 1,000 members, but over the last ten years has culled that number by half.
During the 14 months when the casino’s doors were closed, the tribe lost millions of dollars and 1,000 people were laid off.
Since the casino reopened the tribe has been active in lawsuits trying to prevent a neighboring tribe from opening a casino. The infighting that had plagued the tribe before the casino closed seemed to have receded somewhat. Until the disenrollment letters were sent out.
Tribal Chairman Claudia Gonzales told the Fresno Bee that about 12 letters were mailed to “distributees” which is the term for members of the tribe’s founding families. The letters say that the members are guilty of “dual enrollment” in the second council, which has appealed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Board of Indian Appeals to recognize it as the official and legal council. This second council established itself after the results of the election last year that seated Gonzales, and which that group declines to recognize.
That council that currently is recognized by the BIA recently approved amendments to the enrollment ordinance that spelled out eligibility rules for membership and limits disenrollment. It recognizes as members all those who were members in December 22, 2008.
Gonzales commented, “We are hopeful the new membership rules will remove any questions over who is eligible for membership and discourage further disputes.” She added, “The tribe has received credible reports regarding a handful of persons who may be dually enrolled in another tribe, which is prohibited by the … constitution. We can confirm there are currently investigations into these reports.”
Luke Davis, chairman of the rump council seeking recognition, commented about the disenrollment letters that he and other received. “By them disenrolling us is really adding fuel to the fire,” he said.
Another who has received such a letter is Sam Lawhon, 47, who has been a member of the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians since it regained federal recognition in 1983 through the resolution of the Tillie Hardwick Case. The federal government had terminated the tribe in the 1950s, only to recognize it three decades later.
Lawhon told the Sierra Star “Our family had twenty-two original members that created and voted on our tribe’s constitution in 1988,” Lawhon said. “The Tillie Hardwick case allowed 17 California Rancherias that were terminated by the federal government to the status they had at the time of termination – for Picayune Rancheria it was in 1958.” He sat on the tribal council from 2007-2009.
His wife, Kim, an elementary school teacher, taught the Chukchansi language to young members of the tribe for ten years. Their hearing has been set for August 23.
Ironically, the Amended Enrollment Ordinance, according to Gonzales, “allows us to expand the tribe by enrolling future generations.”
Lawhon said, “I am really disappointed by this council, though I should not be surprised. I attended a tribal meeting on July 25, where I was served a disenrollment hearing letter.”
He told the Sierra Star, “I believe these current disenrollment letters are just retaliation for the internal tribal dispute. I’m surprised Claudia thinks she can just say anything to the media, yet this is currently how the tribe is being run, with half-truths, secrecy, and lies. It has become a dictatorship.”
Madera County District 5 Supervisor Tom Wheeler, who as an outsider looking in has watched the intratribal feuding that led to the casino close and the loss of hundreds of jobs, commented last week, “Like many many people, I’m disappointed that the tribe is doing this (disenrollments) again. I was hoping that after getting the casino re-opened after the 14 month closure, they would put aside all the in-fighting … and let bygones be bygones for the overall good of the tribe.”
