A former chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians was disenrolled from his tribe, effectively ending his political existence as a Native American.
As is usual in Indian Gaming Country, the reasons for his disenrollment were over “heritage” disputes. In this particular case, there was a blood quantum provision involved. Why tribal officials arbitrarily elected to hold off on checking his blood quantum status until after 19 years of service as chairman is beyond me. The fact that anyone waited to check his heritage, or that of his family’s, for so long (or the decades previous) is interesting is well.
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