By Lorcan Stokes

The Nooksack 306, a group of over 300 Nooksack Native individuals descended from Annie George, have faced a long and arduous battle as they have been systematically disenrolled from their tribe. These disenrollments have disrupted the lives of families who have been part of the Nooksack tribe in Deming, Washington—just 16 miles from Bellingham—for generations. As September approaches, 21 of these members, or seven families and their homes located on Nooksack tribal land, are facing an imminent threat: eviction. According to Gabriel Galanda, an Indigenous rights attorney who has been representing the disenrolled members, this potential forced removal, a direct consequence of their disenrollment, will be significant for broader implications across tribes and tribal leadership in the United States.

"Not to be overly dramatic, but this case will help decide whether the first peoples in these lands have any human rights protection on their lands whatsoever," Galanda explained. 

The disenrollment campaign has its roots in 2013 when members of the Tribal Council, specifically the former tribal chair Robert Kelly, who is of Canadian Indigenous descent and was adopted into the tribe, asserted that Annie George, the ancestor of the Nooksack 306, was not Nooksack. Despite multiple records indicating otherwise, Kelly claimed that Annie George was Canadian Indigenous, like himself. Notably, at the time of his claim, Tribal Council Secretary Rudy St. Germain and Councilmember Michelle Roberts, both descendants of Annie George, were also serving on the council. 

Galanda pointed out that this maneuver was intended to eliminate a significant voting bloc that could have threatened the council's hold on power. Despite their efforts, the disenrollment ultimately failed to achieve the intended goal of maintaining control, as the tribal leadership still faced significant turnover in subsequent years.

"The thing about that, it hasn't worked," Galanda said. There's not a single person on an eight-person tribal council who is still in office. They've all been voted out. The chair position has turned over three times in the last 12 years. Still, by 2016, they accomplished their goal by disenrolling my folks without any due process."

Members of Nooksack 306, including Roberts, were featured in Converge's recent documentary, “Nooksack 306.” Galanda highlighted this as the first film about this notion of disenrollment, which he cites as a modern epidemic among Indigenous peoples.

"We have tribal politicians getting rid of their own kin," Galanda explained to host Trae Holiday on his recent appearance on The Day With Trae. "Typically, they do this to gain political advantage or sustain political careers, or to spread the goodies and the monies to people that they care about, rather than people that they want to ostracize or even exile from their tribe."

Galanda highlights that disenrollment taking place within Nooksack has become an increasing issue among tribes across the U.S. due to the distribution of what he calls "goodies": benefits provided by the tribal government, including jobs, housing, and financial payments through per capita payments or stipends. By reducing the number of enrolled members, the amount of these benefits that need to be distributed decreases, thereby increasing the financial gain for the remaining members. This effectively doubles the per capita payments for the remaining people, incentivizing them to support the current leadership and maintain the status quo.

"It's happened in nearly 100 places in Indian country, and it largely results from gaming. Gaming has created $40 billion in annual new wealth in Indian country, and it's created a greed mentality insofar as those gaming proceeds are distributed to tribal members," Galanda explained. 

As for Nooksack, the goodies are more broad than simply gaming money. 

"It's honestly as sick as back-to-school money for kids, Christmas money for families, housing for elders, management positions, employment opportunities," Galanda explained. "It's not just the gaming monies, but this attitude of getting rid of our people so that the rest of us thrive."

The disenrollment situation has placed seven families at risk of being evicted from their land and homes in the coming months. Galanda has highlighted the severity of the problem, noting that armed tribal police are prepared to evict elders from their residences. Galanda, who has cited these evictions as illegal, has faced significant obstacles in providing legal support. He has been barred from practicing law on Nooksack land and was forcibly removed by Whatcom sheriff's deputies during his last visit to Nooksack in 2022. This has further complicated the situation, leaving the affected families without direct access to legal counsel as they face the threat of displacement.

"They don't have a lawyer. It's not a legitimate court process, and we don't have anybody yet who's willing to step up," Galanda said.

Galanda has sought intervention from Washington, D.C., specifically calling upon U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who is herself Indigenous. Despite these efforts, Nooksack 306 has received no response from Haaland, and Cantwell's response thus far was to involve other members of the delegation. 

"We're hopeful that federal officials with jurisdiction will show some moral conviction and help protect these families from losing their homes and losing everything else," Galanda said. 

Continuing, he said, "The thing is Senator Cantwell, with oversight and jurisdiction on all these issues, more federal programs that I would care to name, can assert jurisdiction, can tell the Biden administration, as a fellow Democrat, to stop this, and then Secretary Haaland could stop it with the stroke of a pen. She has absolute authority over Indian affairs under federal statute and could take immediate action if she wanted to. That's what we're now seeking."

According to Galanda, the lack of federal intervention, even in light of the United Nations' condemnation of the disenrollment and evictions as unjust on multiple occasions, underscores a broader reluctance among officials to intervene in what is perceived as internal tribal matters.

"This is complicated. One, people don't want to invest the intellectual time it takes to figure this out or really scrutinize what information is being sent their way," Galanda said. Two, it's tribal sovereignty, so it's uncomfortable, and it makes people feel like they could be accused of being racist or anti-tribal, so they're just not going to get involved. And that's how this can happen." 

Still, critical federal laws have been put in place for situations like this not to happen, most notably the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA), enacted in 1968 to ensure basic civil rights protections on tribal lands, where the U.S. Constitution does not fully apply. Federal housing programs, which require compliance with the ICRA, are supposed to provide due process and protect against discrimination or unjustly evicting someone from their homes. The “Nooksack 306” documentary illustrates a failure to protect these rights, as disenrolled members, including non-tribal members with strong ties to the tribe, face eviction without due process from not tenancies but their own homes.

"When the tribal sovereign accepts federal housing funds, and those funds are tethered to federal law that says civil rights should be protected, they shouldn’t be allowed to hide behind sovereignty, politicians, or bureaucrats," Galanda said. " You have to honor the law, which says these monies are predicated upon human rights protection, and that's where they're falling."

Galanda notes that aside from the lack of recognition from federal officials, public support from other tribes has been notably subdued when it comes to publicly denouncing the disenrollment. This highlights a norm in Indian Country where one tribal nation refrains from criticizing another. 

"I think the idea is that we've had it so hard, we've been so oppressed and persecuted, that we're just not in a position to criticize each other," Galanda said.

In private, it has been a different story.

"The most powerful tribal leaders in the region have said, 'We completely support what you're doing. We have the same worldview as you. We hope you win," Galanda explained. "So there is organic, grassroots in our tribal support. It's just not public."

The outcome of the Nooksack 306 case has broader implications for indigenous rights in the United States. It raises fundamental questions about the extent to which tribal members are protected under federal law and the accountability of tribal governments. With a lack of intervention from federal officials, this is a trend that could be seen in more tribes around the United States.

"If the United Nations intervention twice, going on three times, is unsuccessful, in addition to everything else we've done for the last 12 years, there's either Indigenous human rights in Indian country, or there isn't," Galanda said. "It stands for either proposition, and we will find out."

Continuing, he said, "Can you be disenrolled without due process? Have all of your rights taken without due process, and then have your home taken without due process or tribal compensation or not? If you can, then we are in a very sad situation for tribal members on tribal lands because that means any tribal politician could, with the snap of a finger, do the same thing that's happened here to people they don't like."

To stay informed about the ongoing struggle of the Nooksack 306 to protect their homes and cultural heritage, follow their updates and advocacy efforts on social media here. Watch the video below to see Galanda’s most recent appearance at Converge’s Black Media Matters Studio.