Read: DISENROLLMENT MATTERS, WHY YOU should care
These tribal expulsions, which started in the 1990s along with the establishment of Indian casinos, increased in numbers just as gambling revenues skyrocketed. Critics say the disenrollments are also used as a way to settle political infighting and old family and personal feuds. Most tribes base their membership criteria on blood quantum or on descent from someone named on a tribe’s census rolls or treaty records.
Grand Ronde officials previously said the tribe’s membership pushed for an enrollment audit, with the goal of strengthening the tribe’s “family tree.” They did not say how many people were tabbed for disenrollment. Prickett says her ancestor chief Tumulth was unjustly accused of participating in a revolt and was executed by the U.S. Army, and hence didn’t make it onto the tribe’s roll, which is now a membership requirement.