Tribal passports: The next step for American Indians?

March 2009, High Country News magazine

By Krista Kapralos

Two hours north of his home on the Tulalip Indian Reservation in Washington state, Les Parks was stopped at the U.S.-Canada border. A U.S. border guard eyed the bouquet of eagle feathers hanging from the truck’s rearview mirror, and Parks knew what was coming.

“What are those? Why do you have them? What were you doing in Canada, and why do you want to return to the U.S.?”

The questions came like bullets, Parks says, and grew harsher still when he gave them his Tulalip tribal identification card instead of his driver’s license or U.S. passport. Read more

Tribes seek greater clout

October 2006, The Herald

By Krista Kapralos

Tulalip Tribal elder Ray Moses keeps the stories his ancestors gave to him.

He tells how the whale pushes the reluctant salmon back into the rivers, how the beaver tried to woo the field mouse.

Moses, 75, saves these old stories, passes them on.

In his pocket he keeps another story. It too is from the past, but this, he explains, is also the future.

It is a folded, dog-eared copy of the Treaty of Point Elliott. He takes it out, holds it up in the sunlight, waves it at passersby.

“People don’t know that we have these rights. They need to know this.” Read more

Tribal leaders accused of smoke-shop tax scam

November 2008, The Herald

By Krista Kapralos

Leaders of the Stillaguamish Indian Tribe lived in luxury for four years while Washington residents were cheated out of more than $25 million that should have been collected as state tax on cigarettes, according to a federal court indictment.

Edward Goodridge Sr., his wife, Linda, and their son, Eddie Goodridge Jr., are accused of making at least $55 million between March of 2003 and May of 2007 by selling tax-free cigarettes at their Blue Stilly Smoke Shop. The elder Goodridge is former chairman of the Stillaguamish Indian Tribe. Eddie Goodridge is the tribe’s executive director.

Sara Milliron Schroedl, a relative of the Goodridge family and one-time tribal councilwoman, also is accused of sharing in the wealth. Read more