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California Casino Boom Sparks Tribal Infighting

"In recent years, at least 10 of California's 39 gaming tribes, including many in Northern California, have kicked out members or denied them a share of casino profits that often exceed $50 million a year.

"…Most of the outcasts are being told they aren't Indian enough to qualify for casino cash because they don't meet enrollment requirements based on long-dead ancestors. Others have been expelled after trying to sue tribal members, questioning a tribe's finances or otherwise crossing those in power.

"Many California tribes have a history of nasty infighting, but some Indian leaders say gaming revenues have upped the ante -- and the venom, as blood relatives accuse one another of greed and deceit.

"…Beleaguered officials from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs frown on the disenrollments, but say they're powerless to act since each gaming tribe -- whether it has five members or 500 -- is a sovereign nation free to decide who's a member and who cashes in.

"…Jacob Coin, executive director of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, defended tribes' rights to make enrollment decisions, noting that sovereign Indian nations have just as much right as the United States to set their own citizenship standards, `and it's a right that no other country in the world questions.'

"In the wake of gaming, tribes have been besieged by would-be members, many of whom can't prove they're Indian, let alone related.

"But some California tribes are expelling people who already were members -- or at least assumed they were.

"…`There's nothing traditional or cultural about this,' added Amelia, a Chinook/Cowlitz Indian. `It's all based on greed and meanness to the bone, and they should be ashamed to call themselves

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