Nooksack tribe criticized over eviction of disenrolled WA families
DEMING, Wash. - It’s a fate Michelle Roberts wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy: eviction.
Roberts and her family members are running out of options as the Nooksack Tribal Council looks to move on from a disenrollment saga that has drawn rebuke from the United Nations, while the U.S. government sits on the sidelines.
Roberts, and her family members, are part of the group known as the "Nooksack 306," a group of men, women and children that were removed from the tribe.
While they self-identify as Nooksack and were raised with the knowledge that they were Nooksack, their citizenship and any benefits they’d gain through tribal membership were stripped away through the process of disenrollment in 2016.
"For someone to take away our birthright, to say we don’t belong here, it’s a tough position," said Roberts. "I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else."
In the U.S., individual tribes determine the procedures that people must meet to be considered a tribal member.
In the case of the disenrolled family members, disenrollment led to eviction notices on homes they’d lived in for close to 20 years. A lengthy legal battle has kept the families in their homes, but with options running out it seems that more eviction notices will be issued in the coming weeks.
The families who live in those homes contend that they own their houses, after paying into a federal low-income housing program for more than 15 years. Instead of the keys being handed over to them, they’re now paying rent on homes they believe they should legally own.
While the situation unfolds in real-time, officials from the United Nations have stepped in decrying what they’ve called "human rights violations" of the individuals involved.
The United Nations first issued a public statement in 2022, and have issued subsequent statements calling on action from the Biden administration.
The Nooksack Tribe paints a very different picture, saying the individuals that have been disenrolled were never rightful tribal members, accusing them of gaining power within the Nooksack creating injustices to hundreds of other Nooksack in years past.
The tribe has also called on the United Nations to retract its statements, with previous leadership stating that the details published were riddled with misinformation.
The homes the disenrolled Nooksack families live in have become the boiling point.
The disenrolled Nooksack families consist of a number of elders that say they have nowhere else to go; they’ve raised families and built lives in a cul-de-sac allowing their family to be together. Nooksack leadership says those homes are desperately needed for tribal members that signed up for housing and are waiting for a place to live.
"It’s sad that evictions are happening, but we have hundreds of families that need housing, including elders," Nooksack Tribal Chairwoman RoseMary LaClair said.
"The tribe has been really generous with the amount of time these individuals have had in the homes after disenrollment."
That time wasn’t easy on Roberts, and her elderly relatives facing eviction. During that time, elders have passed away while other members of the family have faced medical issues. Against that backdrop, there have been countless hearings, appeals, and pleas to governmental entities to step in.
That, however, is a difficult ask. As a sovereign nation, few have shown a willingness to involve themselves in the governmental workings of the Nooksack Indian Tribe.
At one point, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a department within the Department of Interior, launched an investigation of the attempt to evict nine individuals in 2022. As the Nooksack Tribe points out, they concluded that Nooksack, "complied with rental agreements and the Housing Authority procedures, as they relate to the eviction of the nine individuals."
However, Bryan Newland, the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, told FOX 13 Seattle that the Department of Interior does not support the manner in which the actions are being carried out.
"There is still time for the Nooksack Tribe to treat its community members with dignity and respect, and it is our hope that it will," said Newland.
With few legal options left for the disenrolled tribal members, the Tribe sent letters to the families with two options this month: agree to move out by the end of the year or face eviction orders after the offer expires on Oct. 31.
Images from Nooksack 306 of past instances of police officers serving eviction notices on elders following disenrollment proceedings.
In an 11-page document posted to the Nooksack website this month, tribal leadership made it clear they would move forward with evictions.
"The Nooksack Tribe understands that it may still take a few months for the seven individuals to move," the document read, outlining the group’s disenrollment, steps towards eviction, and its backlog of native families that currently do not have housing.
Disenrollment and sovereignty
Dozens of tribes across multiple states have purged thousands of people from the tribes, in what some have called an "epidemic" that extends throughout Indian Country. To be sure, it is a polarizing topic with sides arguing cultural purity versus a sense of belonging.
For those affected by disenrollment, it can mean the loss of identity on an emotional level, but on a dollars and cents level it can also mean a loss of benefits ranging from housing, to health care and educational support.
In the case of the Nooksack disenrollment, more than 300 of the tribe’s roughly 2,000 members were removed from membership rolls in the past decade – a group that accounted for roughly 15% of the tribe’s membership.
For those in power at Nooksack, tribal sovereignty is the end all, be all issue at question. Tribal leadership has made it clear: it’s important for those outside of the Tribe to respect their sovereignty.
The Nooksack Tribe is one of the 574 federally recognized Tribal Nations in the United States that have, with a few exceptions, the same powers as federal and state governments to regulate internal affairs.
"It gives us the right to govern ourselves, including the most basic right, the right to determine citizenship," said LaClair.
"Nooksack citizenship is not available to everyone; it’s determined by descendency. That is the rule adopted by the Nooksack people to govern themselves."
Tribal leaders have long argued that the disenrolled members were incorrectly enrolled to the Nooksack Tribe in the 1980s, and that they shouldn’t be entitled to tribal rights or benefits.
Opponents of tribal disenrollment say that tribal belonging was once a given; now it can be considered a political privilege.
The struggle isn't new. In California, Chukchansi tribal members have voted to expel roughly half of its members since a casino was opened in 2003. Closer to home, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde made similar moves to disenroll 86 members a decade ago.
At stake in the Nooksack case, is power within Nooksack and the properties in question.
Roberts had become part of the tribal leadership before the push to disenroll began. And the Nooksack chairwoman has made it clear that they have a backlog of elders that do not have housing since the Nooksack government owns the tribal property they want to move current members to the homes after carrying out evictions.
The prospect of evictions led the disenrolled Nooksack citizens to turn to the federal government for help, a rare move given the issues of sovereignty at play.
"I get it, I really get it," said Michelle Roberts. "Every tribe wants to have its sovereignty, and we want to respect that, but when they use that tool to abuse or bully select groups you are violating their human rights."
Federal officials have shied away from stepping into the fray, often citing Nooksack sovereignty.
Attorney Gabe Galanda, a lawyer who represented the families until Nooksack barred him from practicing in tribal court, has continued to request federal intervention.
"Part of the real tragedy here is federal and state officials who have the power to stop these evictions are playing political hot potato with the lives and livelihoods of dozens of Nooksack families," said Galanda.
Galanda has been specifically critical of U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the nation’s first Indigenous cabinet member, for not getting involved. As he told FOX 13 Seattle, by federal statute, she manages all Indian affairs, including Nooksack land and the tribe itself.
"She could still do something for the better to stop these evictions if she had the political will to do so," Galanda said.
Haaland has not commented, and requests to her office for comment on the story drew a response from a sub-agency.
Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Newland said that the agency does not support the evictions the disenrolled Nooksack citizens face, but he also said his agency doesn’t have the authority to intervene.
Similarly, there was a push for Senator Cantwell to step in and meet with the family or to exercise oversight to inquire why Secretary Haaland has not involved herself with the evictions. Cantwell has worked on the Senate committee on Indian Affairs, and has been a champion of the low-income housing tax credit program that the families took part in.
After a lengthy back-and-forth with Senator Cantwell's office, a press secretary said FOX 13 was welcome to use a statement she provided to the Seattle Times editorial board previously which reads, in full: "I hope the Nooksack Indian Tribe will work with their community members."
The tribe says that homes cannot, and will not, be conveyed to non-Nooksack members. According to them, the program was never meant to be rent-to-own. Instead, whichever tribal member was living in the home after 15 years could have taken ownership.
The tribe said that the families had years to prove their lineage, and have failed to do so. The families involved say they can prove it; the tribe simply won’t accept it.
What happens next?
The Oct. 31 deadline for the families to act is fast-approaching. However, it seems unlikely that the disenrolled Nooksack members will take the deal as it was offered.
A letter obtained by FOX 13 through the Nooksack Tribe indicates that the affected families hope to negotiate with the Tribal Council, stating: "the current Tribal Chair and Council inherited this terrible situation," before giving a counter-offer.
They ask that the families be allowed to live out their years in their homes until they pass away, in exchange the homes would return to the tribe upon their deaths – in return they would stop all legal efforts, and battles through public opinion, to combat disenrollment and evictions.
Full details of the initial offer made to the family have not been made available by either party. A statement from the Nooksack Indian Tribe notes that they're calling for, "individuals agree to leave voluntarily, leave the homes in satisfactory condition with the exception of normal wear and tear, and to remove their personal belongings, and agree to become current with all debts by that date."
According to Galanda, the initial deal that was offered would go beyond that public statement requiring the family to admit a number of things including that they were not Native.
"What the tribe is demanding of them to stay in their homes through the holidays is absolute insult upon injury," said Galanda.
"The injury is that their homes which they should own are being taken away from them. The insult is then to admit that they are not who they know they are – and who they have always been – which is Nooksack people."
Norma Aldredge, Roberts' aunt, said the entire saga has been difficult to stomach. She said that those who look to remove her from her home are out for themselves, and their own.
"I don't want to be angry," said Aldredge. "I just want to look at them and say, ‘What kind of people are you? Why are you like that? Why would you treat us like that?'"
As for Nooksack tribal leadership, they say the families have known about the process for years and that they had multiple opportunities to plan for a new place to live.
The timeline is unclear, but it seems without federal intervention, or a change in heart, eviction writs will be issued prior to the new year.
Galanda told FOX 13 Seattle that one elder even landed in urgent care in recent weeks after a family member brought moving boxes to their home. He insists that between older members of the family that rely on wheelchairs, to another suffering from dementia, it’s unlikely they can move.
When asked about the optics of the scenario, LaClair said her biggest concern is the safety of those involved. Specifically, neighbors and police officers may be called upon to deliver the eviction notices.
"I’m concerned about the safety of the neighbors and the safety of our employees because the safety of individuals comes first," said LaClair.
"I don’t want the safety or careers of police officers to be jeopardized. I don’t want this to happen on my watch. That’s why we have asked that they leave peacefully."
Those at Nooksack have made it clear, their focus is on the enrolled members of Nooksack. The concern at this point, is not those who were disenrolled or viewers from outside.
"For Nooksack – as for most sovereign nations – citizenship is determined by our constitution," said LaClair. "Nooksack citizenship is not available to everyone, it’s determined by descendancy. That is the rule adopted by the Nooksack people to govern themselves."
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