Case 3:11-cv-00622-RCJ -VPC Document 9
Filed 08/31/11 Page 2 of 11
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Council Members Elverine Castro, Lucy Lowery, Thomas Wasson, and a fifth council member,
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whose position was held by four different persons between 1990 and 2000, including William
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Bills. (See id. ¶ 4).
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At a February 2000 council meeting, Chairman Glenn Wasson reported to the Council
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that Vice Chairman and Council Member William Bills might not qualify as an Indian because
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of his adoption, and that he was interfering with colonial mail. (See id. ¶ 5). On February 22,
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2000, Chairman Glenn Wasson was stabbed to death on the steps of the Colonial Administration
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Building, and the United States has not yet arrested anyone for the murder. (Id. ¶ 6). Thomas
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Wasson (“Wasson”) and Bills both claimed the chairmanship: Bills because he was the Vice
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Chairman, and Wasson because he alleged (and reported to the WNA) that Bills was not an
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Indian under colonial rules. (See id. ¶ 7). The WNA declared the Colony to be dysfunctional and
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refused to recognize any colonial government in July 2000. (Id. ¶ 8). In December 2000, the
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Western Regional Office (“WRO”)—which manages Nevada, Arizona, and Utah—overruled the
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WNA, but the BIA has still not recognized any colonial government. (See id. ¶¶ 9–10).
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On August 16, 2002 a panel of judges convened and ruled that Wasson was the Chairman
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of the Colonial Council. (Id. ¶ 11). The Inter-Tribal Court of Appeals of Nevada dismissed all
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appeals on May 17, 2007. (Id. ¶ 12). In a federal interpleader action filed by Bank of America in
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this District to determine which faction (the Wasson faction or the Bills faction) had the right to
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use a colonial bank account, see Bank of America v. Bills, No. 3:00-cv-450, Judge Brian E.
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Sandoval ruled that the parties had exhausted their tribal remedies, that a federal court must
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enforce tribal court orders under ordinary principles of comity, and that the order of a special
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panel of tribal judges (the “Minnesota Panel”) to which the parties had stipulated controlled. (See
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Sandoval Summ. J. Order 8–9, Mar. 6, 2008, ECF No. 7-1).1 That case was reassigned to this
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The procedural history is actually more complex than reported by Plaintiffs and is fully
recounted in Judge Sandoval’s order. (See Sandoval Summ. J. Order 2–3). Bills first filed for
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