“One hundred fifty years ago, this was utopia — with no (social) classes, no rich, no poor, no starving people. Everyone lived together in 1,000-foot longhouses, and they knew the difference between right and wrong.” —NCAI President Brian Cladoosby, Seattle Times

Disenrollment is destroying the remaining vestiges of the American indigenous utopia.

By Jared Miller

“Because of the local ill feeling, the people of the States where [Indians] are found are often their deadliest enemies.” U.S. v. Kagama, 118 U.S. 375 (1886).

In a scathing opinion, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday condemned the State of Utah for ignoring decades-old law preempting state prosecution of tribal members on Ute tribal lands.

Tribal lawyers Gabe Galanda, Anthony Broadman and Ryan Dreveskracht were each honored by Super Lawyers magazine for 2015; Gabe as a Washington “Super Lawyer” and Anthony and Ryan as “Rising Stars,” in the field of Native American Law.

On Saturday, the Spokane Tribe of Indians General Council passed a Referendum that amended the Tribe's constitution to generally prohibit disenrollment. The new Spokane constitutional provision provides: "Except in instances where a citizen transfers enrollment to another Tribe, no Spokane Tribal law shall operate to strip citizenship from any person who has previously been recognized to possess citizenship . . ."

Anthony Broadman has published, "Gaming, Pot and Tribal Resistance As Economic Development," in this month's King County Bar Bulletin.

Rather than the sensational, even hysterical, writings about tribal recreational marijuana legalization since the Wilkinson Memo issued in December, Anthony gives the topic proper context.  An excerpt: