Pot Raid Has Pit River Tribe Fuming; Rips BIA

[bluedigger]

Last Wednesday, July 8, dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement agents, including officials from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), orchestrated a six-hour raid on two marijuana-growing operations on Pit River tribal land in the Northern California town of Alturas.

Officials confiscated 12,000 marijuana plants and over 100 pounds of processed marijuana, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

At the time, Pit River tribal authorities were reluctant to talk to Indian Country Today Media Network, although one tribal council member said he was unaware of any raids on their property. But now, the Pit River Tribe is talking, and it is fuming. “We are very disappointed with the decision of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as the lead federal agency, to descend on sovereign land with an army of nearly 50 law enforcement officers,” said Tribal Chairman Mickey Gemmill Jr. in a detailed press release. “That the BIA would take such a disrespectful approach to an Indian tribe on its own land is a serious assault to the tribe’s right to self-governance.”

The tribe claims that federal agents destroyed patients’ plants and seized confidential patient information. What’s more, people got hurt, according to Gemmill. “This action was especially appalling given that some tribal members were subjected to excessive police force, severely injured and arrested during the search,” he said.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/07/17/pot-raid-has-pit-river-tribe-fuming-rips-bia-161119