Chapter 4- Open letter from Bob Foreman (cont.)
Throughout my family’s disenrollment Tribal Attorney David Rapport and Tribal Attorney/Tribal Chairwoman Tracy Edwards create a facade that my family received due process, and that the decision handed down by Tribal Council in my family's disenrollment was a fair and an independent one.
David Rapport of Ukiah, said the tribe had altered the enrollment procedures out of a concern for fairness and because the decision affects so many tribal members, Rapport said. “They're sort of bending over backwards to try to deal with this,” he said. September 18, 2003 Redding Record Searchlight article titled Rancheria Threatens to Oust Family.
The enrollment procedures David Rapport was referring to was a resolution passed by Tribal Council outlining procedures for our disenrollment hearing. The reconsideration resolution states:
“A hearing Officer shall be impartial, having no personal or financial relationship with the Tribal Member or the Tribe, except as a Hearing Officer or a legal advisor on hearing practices and procedure”
The Tribal Council hired a hearing officer from California Indian Legal Services (CILS) to preside at my family's disenrollment hearing.
Tribal documments show that while the Hearing Officer was CILS' Director of Litigation, one of CILS' litigating attorneys at that time was David Rapport. Attorney David Rapport acted on behalf of the enrollment committee at our hearing.
“our Tribe is a Tillie Hardwick Tribe, you know that. I think that’s why Barbara Murphy, our CEO, has been so supportive of CILS. It’s one of the major contributions we make every year.” Summer, 2002 California Indian Legal Services newsletter profiling CILS Board member Tracy Edwards, Redding Rancheria's Tribal Attorney/Tribal Chairperson.
Tribal Chairperson Tracy Edwards said Saturday's meeting will be a fair and impartial hearing, presided over by a hearing officer with no connection to the tribe. Redding Record Searchlight article titled Tribe likely to boot Foremans, September 25, 2003.
According to CILS' website , CILS has been an Indian controlled non-profit devoted exclusively to the cause of Native American rights and its board members place a high priority to secure and protect the full civil rights of California Indians.
With three Tribal Council members also sitting on the enrollment committee, Foreman family Attorney Mike Stuhff argued that these Tribal Council members were in conflict. Two of the three Enrollment Committee members were excused. This left convicted felon/Tribal Councilman/Enrollment Committee Member Jack Potter Jr. still eligible to vote at the hearing. Jack Potter Jr., the brother of Enrollment Director/ViceChairwoman Hope Wilkes, was anything but a non-biased jurer. His participation at our disenrollment hearing assured Redding Rancheria Tribal Officials the outcome they desired.
According to an arrest report for one of Jack Potter Jr's prior convictions, after being asked why he had given the arresting officer a false name, Jack Potter Jr. stated I always lie.
Jack Potter Jr.
At the hearing, my family provided reams of legal and contemporary documents, expert testimony of a mitochondrial DNA expert, a forensic pathologist and two PhD Anthropologists. All of the testimony established my mother Lorena Foreman-Butler as the daughter of Virginia Timmons. Tribal Attorney David Rapport provided NO plausable evidence on behalf of the enrollment committee that would lead any reasonable person to dispute the maternal lineage of my mother. My family far exceeded the Reconsideration Resolution's preponderence of the evidence standard to retain our membership.
With convicted felon and Tribal Councilman Virgil Baker Sr. sleeping through a good portion of testimony of world renowned Mitochondrial DNA expert Terry Melton, my family had no chance of receiving a fair hearing.
Tribal Attorney David Rapport and Tribal Enrollment Director Hope Wilkes falsely stated that every member of the Redding Rancheria had to have an original Birth Certificate. My family could not produce an original birth certificate for my mother because she was born at home in 1916 when Indians in Northern California were not allowed into hospitals.
Ten months prior to our disenrollment hearing, my family provided Tribal Council with my mother's Court Ordered Delayed Birth Certificate issued by a State judge. Tribal Council rejected this birth certifiacte. The same Tribal Council four months prior to my family's disenrollment hearing accepted a Court Ordered Delayed Birth Certificate for a grandniece of Tribal CEO Barbara Hayward-Murphy.
“Under the enrollment ordinance enacted by the Redding Rancheria, there is *no requirement that paternity be established through the use of an official birth certificate.” February 5th, 1996 memo from Tribal Attorney David Rapport to Tribal Council.
Ironically, prior to David Rapport writing this memo, Tribal Council executive session minutes read the sister of Tribal Vice-Chairperson Hope Wilkes had been enrolled into the Tribe with a very badly forged birth certificate. The person who accepted this forged birth certificate was Enrollment Director Hope Wilkes. The forgery turned up after an audit of the enrollment files just prior to the membership gettimg their first casino per capita checks.
Hope Wilkes
While other families who couldn't produce birth certificates were turned away, somehow the Foreman family's elder, Lorena Butler, was allowed in, Director of Enrollment Hope Wilkes said. “In my opinion, right there, they should have been asked to leave," Wilkes said. "The family knew they had to get a birth certificate.” Redding Record Searchlight article titled Tribe Defends Decision to Expel Foremans, February 19, 2004.
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