The Texas Attorney General has filed charges against three individuals who were running an elaborate citizenship scam. They claimed to represent the Kaweah Indian Nation, and were telling non-citizens that $400 would purchase a "tribal membership" in the Kaweah Nation. This membership supposedly carried the significant benefit of allowing them to circumvent the ordinary legalization process and entitling them to U.S. citizenship.
Of course, becoming a member of an Indian tribe doesn't circumvent the process of legalization. In addition to this, the Kaweah Indian Nation isn't even a federally recognized tribe. The
International Herald Tribune reports:
The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs denied the Kaweah group recognition in 1985 because it was not a real tribe. A Kaweah tribe did exist once, but is unrelated to the one that applied for recognition.
Big Gary, who forwarded me the story, notes that, "Prices for membership in the Big Gary Nation are negotiable." Last I checked, membership in the Museum of Hoaxes Nation was totally free. Plus, it entitles you to become a card-carrying citizen of reality.
Comments
The number of people who want to dwell in Reality has got to be even smaller than the number who want to be part of the Big Gary Nation.
There have been instances in the past where non NA's claim heritage for land and have no ties to land-rights, but I can't find any information on this case, and that's what worries me.
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From: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/21/america/NA-GEN-US-Immigration-Indian-Tribes.php
"An American Indian tribe not recognized by the U.S. government sold memberships to illegal immigrants..."
"The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs denied the Kaweah group recognition in 1985 because it was not a real tribe. A Kaweah tribe did exist once..."
"...Urbina said the tribe is not really telling illegal immigrants that they cannot be deported, but giving them identification and a certificate that they can show officials as proof they are members of the tribe."
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What we have here is a tribe that once existed until the euro-americans immigrated, settled in their land, probably killed nearly all of them, and told the rest they weren't a "real" tribe (this has happened in Oregon, until the tribes were restored federal recognition and therefore were really "Indian").
Later, it was contested, but denied because it was "unrelated" to the one that applied before. Does that have anything to do with blood-quantum/lack of records/unwillingness, or are these a bunch of Vietnamese people??
So, we have either the modern Kaweah people still being denied status so the government doesn't have to recompensate for what they did to them, or we have non-Kaweah fakers. If they are fakers, the worst that should happen is a bunch of people should have their money returned, probably be deported (as if the white people have right to stay here more?), and maybe fine the non-Kaweah for making trouble (how is a 69-year old man a "danger to the community" and needs to be imprisoned? (http://www.kbsd6.com/Global/story.asp?S=7041234). And, if they are really Kaweah descendants, it would be an atrocity!
What really needs to be investigated is if a non-Kaweah adopting non-Kaweahs into a group is illegal. Let's say I called myself a Martian, sold papers for $100 saying whoever paid is entitled to the paper which would make them a Martian. Is that illegal? As far as I could read Webber did exactly that, he wasn't getting around deportation (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/21/america/NA-GEN-US-Immigration-Indian-Tribes.php)
"There is nothing to hide. ... I wouldn't be doing it if it was illegal," Urbina said.
I hope these issues get cleared up and some old guy doesn't get thrown in jail to rot for the rest of his life with child murders and rapists.
-t0mmy