9th Circuit Shrugs Off Nooksack Judges’ Harassment of Domestic Violence Victim

In an exercise of judicial realism, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals gutted the bad faith exception to tribal court exhaustion on Tuesday in an unpublished opinion.

Elile Adams maintains that Nooksack Tribal Court Chief Judge Ray Dodge and Pro Tem Judge Rajeev Majumdar’s assertion of jurisdiction over for the last five years has been in bad faith. She believes Dodge and Majumdar have harassed her through criminal investigation and prosecution and countless court appearances since 2017, when she first sought domestic violence protection from Dodge.

While they and the court clerks have conspired to deny Elile any opportunity to obtain habeas corpus relief from the Nooksack courts, she has “sought asylum” with the Lummi Nation by taking the extraordinary step of relinquishing Nooksack citizenship and enrolling at Lummi.

In ruling that Elile still must exhaust Nooksack court remedies, the Ninth Circuit was unconcerned that Dodge, Majumdar, and the clerks have sat on her pro se habeas corpus petition for nearly two years, upon the unethical ex parte advice of Nooksack Tribal Attorney and defense lawyer Charles Hurt. 

The Ninth Circuit judges recited but shrugged off that reality along with the following undisputed facts:

Nooksack Tribal Court Chief Judge Dodge and the Nooksack Tribal Court acted in bad faith by: (1) sua sponte initiating a parenting action against her; (2) ignoring a 2015 state court parenting order and its jurisdictional impact; (3) harassing her by requiring her to appear before Dodge at least twenty times in two years; (4) issuing a warrant for her arrest and causing her to be imprisoned because of her failure to appear at a July 11, 2019 hearing despite her public defender’s appearance on her behalf; (5) rejecting her habeas corpus counsel’s appearance before the Tribal Court; and (6) refusing to consider her pro se habeas corpus petition upon the ex parte advice of one of Respondents’ counsel.

The Ninth Circuit’s decision further show the extent to which federal courts are calloused about Indigenous human rights violations in Indian country.

The opinion also reveals the incongruent nature of Indian country domestic violence protection efforts. While at present Congress seeks to strengthen tribal court authority for the protection of Indigenous domestic violence victims like Elile, non-Indian men like Dodge and Majumdar are allowed to violate Indigenous women’s civil rights under the cloak of tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction.

Gabe Galanda Awarded ABA Spirit of Excellence Award

Gabe Galanda, along with George Adams and Nooksack 306 family members, in 2015

The American Bar Association Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession has named Gabe Galanda a 2022 recipient of the Spirit of Excellence Award.

The National Native American Bar Association nominated Gabe for the prestigious award, calling him “a civil rights warrior.” The award symbolizes the determination of racially and ethnically diverse lawyers who have not only navigated their own path to success but paved the way for those who follow them.

When asked to reflect on the importance of the Spirit of Excellence Awards and promoting a more racially and ethnically diverse legal profession, Gabe said:

Without Indigenous representation in the law, there will never be a guarantee to Indigenous citizens or residents of this country that they will be afforded the human rights protection that everyone else in this country enjoys. So unless there are Indigenous advocates, there will not be Indigenous human rights.

Gabe dedicates his award to the Nooksack 306, a group of Indigenous kinfolk in northern Washington state whose human rights have been violated by tribal political actors for the last decade.

Gabe will be recognized, along with Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven C. González, Kay H. Hodge, Carlos E. Moore and Oregon Supreme Court Justice Adrienne C. Nelson, during a virtual ceremony on Feb. 10 at 3 PM Pacific.

“These awardees have blazed trails and have encouraged and supported others to succeed,” Michelle Behnke, the chair of the commission, said when they were announced in September. “Most importantly, these awardees highlight for the world that diversity, equity and inclusion is not mutually exclusive to excellence, grit and determination.”

Gabe Galanda is an Indigenous rights attorney and the managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman in Seattle. He belongs to the Round Valley Indian Tribes of California, descending from the Nomlaki and Concow Peoples.

At Yale, Gabe Galanda Teaches of Neocolonial Tribal Per-capita and Disenrollment Practices

Gabe Galanda joined an engaged class of Yale Law School students on Wednesday to discuss the “Pros and Cons” of Indian Gaming with Stephen Pevar’s “Contemporary Issues in American Indian Law” class.

Gabe’s presentation focused on the “cons” of Indian gaming, providing a history of Indigenous kinship rules, federal Indian per-capita payments, and tribal disenrollment. His slides are here.

Gabe Galanda is an Indigenous rights attorney and the managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman in Seattle. He belongs to the Round Valley Indian Tribes of California, descending from the Nomlaki and Concow Peoples.