Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria v. Dutschke

This case touches on critical and sensitive issues of tribal membership that are generally beyond our review.because “[a] tribe’s right to define its own membership for tribal purposes has long been recognized as central to its existence as an independent political community.” Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U.S. 49 , 72 n. 32, 98 S.Ct. 1670 , 56 L.Ed.2d 106 (1978). This matter comes to us under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). The Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Ranchería (“Tribe” or “Cahto Tribe”) seeks to set aside a decision of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (“BIA”) directing the Tribe to place the names of certain disenrolled individuals back on its membership roll. The BIA issued its decision pursuant to regulations providing for administrative- review of adverse tribal enrollment actions where, as the BIA believed in this case, a tribe has authorized such review. ' See 25 C.F.R. § 62.4 .

The Cahto Tribe is a small tribe, with less than 100 voting members; twenty-two of them will remain disenrolled if the Tribe’s decision stands.. We pass no judgment on the disenrollment and decide only whether the'district court was, correct in affirming the BIA’s…