Gabe Galanda was privileged to testify before the twenty-nine Tribes in Washington State, and Governor Christine Gregoire and her cabinet, at the 2011 Centennial Accord on June 9. Gabe spoke of the progress the Tribes and State made in restoring the religious rights of Native inmates incarcerated in the State Department of Corrections, since those rights were infringed in 2010.
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
Gabe Galanda Featured in American Indian Report
Gabe Galanda is featured in this American Indian Report article: United Indians to Provide Religious Services to Native Inmates in Washington Prisons.
“It’s extremely important for Indian Country to work collaboratively with the DOC to ensure Native inmates can freely exercise tribal religion, particularly as a means of rehabilitation and preparing them for their return to tribal communities and mainstream society,” said United Indians Vice Chairman Gabriel Galanda.
United Indians will begin by conducting a needs assessment to determine what Native American inmates need in terms of Indian religion and spirituality. It will also administer the contracts and training of Native religious service providers, including the DOC’s Native chaplains, which, Galanda said, will bring some authenticity to the program. The types of religious services that it will provide include sweat lodge and change of seasons ceremonies, summer pow wows, drumming circles and one-on-one spiritual outreach to inmates.
Before this partnership, Native inmates in Washington prisons were being deprived of their religious rights, Galanda said. The number of sweat lodge ceremonies that they could participate in had been reduced; tobacco and other sacred herbs and medicines were banned as were frybread, salmon and other traditional foods used in spiritual ceremonies.
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
Federal Indian Consultation Right Extends to Tribal Members
Indian Country Today Media Network reports that Interior Sets Cobell Land Consolidation Consultations. This is a critical recognition by the United States that the federal Indian consultation right, meaning the substantive duty of the United States to consult with Indians about matters of tribal implication, extends to tribal members. That is especially true in regard to individual Indian-owned lands and other trust assets.
Pursuant to the Indian Land consolidation Act, and the Department Interior's Indian Land Consolidation Plan enacted pursuant to that statute: “Interior may acquire land from individual Indian owners to consolidate fractional ownership interests and thereby ‘lessen the number of owners.’” Cobell v. Norton, 225 F.R.D. 41, 44 (D.D.C. 2004). Sales of allotted land interests are governed by provisions set out in 25 C.F.R. § 152. “The common feature of all these kinds of Part 152 sales is that they require communication between individual Indian trust-land owners and agents of Interior.” Cobell, 225 F.R.D. at 45.
The fiduciary duty to individual Indians includes consultation, as “[c]onsultations . . . can roughly be understood as communication by Indian beneficiaries of their desires to the federal trustees who make ultimate determinations about what happens with the lands Indians occupy.” Derek C. Haskew, Federal Consultation with Indian Tribes: The Foundation of Enlightened Policy Decisions, or Another Badge of Shame?, 24 AM. IND. L. REV. 21, 31 (2000). This duty is triggered when an agency decision impacts the “value, use, or enjoyment” of Indian trust assets. U.S. DEP’T OF THE INTERIOR, PROTECTION OF INDIAN TRUST RESOURCES PROCEDURES MANUAL 13 (1996).
The federal Indian consultation right vis-a-vis tribal governments is alive and well, especially at common law. The right vis-a-vis tribal members is in only its nascent stage, legally speaking.
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
Washington State Corrections & United Indians Join Forces to Improve Tribal Religious Programs for Native Offenders
Gabe Galanda is featured in this joint press release from the Washington State Department of Corrections and United Indians of All Tribes Foundation.
The mission of United Indians is to foster and sustain a strong sense of identity, tradition, and well-being among the Indian people in the Puget Sound area. United Indians Vice Chairman Gabriel Galanda said the group is very excited about the opportunity to work with the DOC.
“It’s extremely important for Indian Country to work collaboratively with the DOC to ensure Native inmates can freely exercise tribal religion, particularly as a means of rehabilitation and preparing them for their return to tribal communities and mainstream society,” said Galanda. “United Indians’ oversight of tribal religious programming is a spectacular exercise of Indian self-determination, in a space where that is not often allowed—state prisons.”
Vail and Galanda will discuss this partnership in more detail at the Centennial Accord June 9. This Accord was established in 1989 between the federally recognized Indian tribes of Washington and the State of Washington, through its governor, to better achieve mutual goals and improve government-to-government relationships.
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
Gabe Galanda to Co-Chair 7th Annual Re-Emerging Northwest Tribal Economies
Gabe Galanda will be co-chairing the 7th Annual Re-Emerging Northwest Tribal Economies conference at Tulalip Casino Resort on August 4-5, 2011.
Indian gaming recently experienced its first decline in annual revenues due to the recession. The inevitable legalization of Internet gaming will further challenge Indian gaming's viability. Federal contract preferences for tribal small businesses are under siege by Congress. Meanwhile, state governments refuse to treat tribes like governments, as they seek to extract value from the reservation by taxing tribes in order to balance woeful state budgets.Still, with various federally-backed economic and tax incentives, there has never been a better time for investment and development in Indian Country. With tribes needing to diversify Indian economies to minimize tribal reliance on Indian gaming, Indian Country is looks to bring new industries to the reservation and also to joint venture with businesses off the reservation and abroad. In addition, the tribal private sector grows by the day, as Indian small and family-owned businesses take flight and permeate the tribal public sector and Corporate America.
Gabe will also be presenting on "Tribal Joint Venture Partnerships: The Latest Legal and Business Developments Shaping How Tribal-Private Partnerships Might be Structured to Maximize Sovereign Benefits for Both Parties."
Anthony Broadman will speak on "Indian Tax Update: What is New in the Arena of Indian Country Taxation?"
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
Montana Supreme Court Affirms Tribal Authority Over Probate of Reservation Fee Lands
The Great Falls Tribune reports: "Supreme Court ruling strengthens sovereignty in Indian Country."
The Montana Supreme Court has overturned a nearly 40-year-old precedent that has long been used by lower courts to determine jurisdiction in cases that stem from within tribal reservation borders.In a 36-page ruling issued last month, the high court ruled unanimously that tribal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over the probate of 'fee lands'owned by tribal members within the boundaries of reservations.
Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Plains Commerce did not dictate a different result, namely state court authority over the probate of tribal member-owned fee lands within reservation boundaries.
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
Tribal Economic Diversification: It's Happening
In line with business advice delivered by Gabe Galanda at RES 2011, about why tribes should diversify their economies, and precisely how they can attract private developers and investors to tribal lands, the Coquille Tribe of Oregon has attracted a Perpetua Power Source Technologies manufacturing facility to its reservation. Read the story: "Tribal money fuels Perpetua expansion." Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
Setting the Record Straight on Indian Taxation in Washington
Late this week, Washington State Republicans introduced three bills, seeking to balance the state's budget on the backs of Washington's 29 tribal governments. A legal and economic reality check is in order. Those bills are:
HB 2044 Concerning equity and fairness through the creation and regulation of electronic scratch ticket machines for nontribal gambling establishments.
HB 2045 Providing for fairness, equity, and transparency of tax preferences for federally recognized Indian tribes.
HB 2046 Concerning legislative involvement with compacts and compact amendments.
In support of those bills, Republican House members argue for "closing tribal tax loopholes." Here are some of the facts the Republicans either (a) do not understand, (b) do not care to understand, or (c) understand but do not care to help the public understand.
1. State taxation of Indian gaming revenues has been per se barred by Congress via the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. Period. Still, local Republicans aspire to require "the non-taxpaying tribal mega casinos to pay a tax on the profits they make from the exclusive games they operate." Until they can figure out a way to do that (they can't), they hope to allow the largest expansion of gaming in the state's history, over-promising new state tax revenues. Indeed, according to a commercial gaming industry expert, the proposal "would cut into sales tax revenues in other segments of the state economy."
2. Governments don't tax other governments. Instead, governments -- be they state, local or tribal -- work with each other to devise accords that reflect the needs of each government in relation to the services they provide the public. That is why, according to one study, “[n]early every state that has Indian lands within its borders has reached some type of tax agreement with the tribes” -- including Washington.
3. State and local governments are already adequately compensated for the services they provide to tribal members. Under the economics of “tax exporting,” it is frequently tribal governments – not state or local governments –- who bear a disproportionate financial burden associated with the services they provide.
4. Washington State cannot legally enforce its fuel and tobacco excise tax regime on Indian reservations, according to the U.S. Supreme Court. Washington v. Confederated Tribes of Colville Indian Reservation, 447 U.S. 134, 162 (1980); Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Potawatomi Tribe, 498 U.S. 505, 514 (1991). Therefore, heeding advice from the High Court, the state has entered into fuel and tobacco tax compacts with tribes, in part so it can collect something from reservation-based fuel and tobacco sales, instead of engaging zero-sum litigation and enforcement activities.
5. Ten years ago, researchers at the Evergreen State College opined that Washington tribal governments contributed an estimated $140 million annually to the state and local tax structure. Today tribal tax contributions to the state are likely far greater, due in large part to the diversification of Washington tribal economies beyond gaming and tobacco commerce. Tribes are already contributing their so-called fair share of taxes.
One can only hope that the facts will enter the legislative discourse about HB 2044, 2045 and 2046.
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. Gabe co-authored "Taxing Times in Native America," Washington State Bar News, January 2011. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
Balancing State Budgets on the Backs of Indians
The $175 billion state budget shortfall can "be traced to 15 years of state tax cuts," and red states, especially, continue to slash corporate income taxes. Meanwhile, Washington State Republicans propose closing "tribal tax loopholes" to supposedly earn the state $110 million every biennium, to be used for "education, public safety and services for the most vulnerable."
So let me get this straight: states continue to cut taxes on Corporate America through "thousands of credits, deductions, abatements and incentive packages," which guts revenues for state services; while proposing to close "tax loopholes" for tribal enterprises, which would gut revenues for tribal governmental services.
Make no mistake about it, the state tax man cometh to Indian Country. Be prepared.
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
Fox News' John Stossel Doesn't Know Jack About American Indians
Gabe Galanda is quoted at length in an Indian Country Today Media Network story about ignorant remarks that Fox News contributor John Stosell made about American Indians last week on live TV.
Gabe Galanda, an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes and an Indian law attorney said Stossel’s lumping together of Indians, Puerto Ricans, African Americans and Irish reveals a lack of knowledge about the sovereignty of Indian nations.“Stossel, like many Americans, fails to fundamentally appreciate that tribes are governments, not ‘groups’ of individuals as he says,” he said, pointing that American Indians are the only Americans who are indigenous to the United States and the only peoples to whom the U.S. owes a trust responsibility.
“The United States has historically done a disservice to Native Americans, by and through genocidal and assimilationist federal policies. As a result of federal allotment, assimilation and termination policies, which remain in force to this day despite Congress’ repudiation of those policies, some tribal communities are in fact worse off socio-economically than most other American citizens,” Galanda said.
In mocking Indians’ assertions about broken treaties and stolen land, Stossel shifts from speaking in the Indian voice when he says “we have treaties,” to speaking in the settler colonist’s voice when he says “we stole their land,” but it isn’t evidence of an identity crisis on Stossel’s part, Galanda said. “He’s confused. On the one hand, he recognizes the existence of Indian Treaties, bilateral agreements between sovereign nations, namely the United States and tribal governments; yet on the other, he refers to Indians essentially as special interest citizen groups.”
Despite hundreds of years of trust obligation to Indian people, the federal government has failed in virtually every attempt to ‘help’ Indians, Galanda said. With the exception of the last forty years of federal self-determination policy, federal Indian gaming, and contract preference policies in particular, the U.S. has failed in every effort to economically enfranchise Indian country, he said.
It's one thing to comfortably espouse right wing vitriol from republican pulpit Fox News. It's another to contribute "news" without having any idea what you are talking about.
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
