‘You’re No Indian’ Tribal disenrollment blasted in new film by Sandra Hale Schulman 7 days ago
Imagine your whole family lineage wiped out with a stroke of a pen. You lose your house, your job, your tribe.
A controversial new film, “You’re No Indian,” will officially premiere at the Dances With Films Festival on June 28 in Los Angeles. The film was originally slated to premiere in Palm Springs earlier this year but was canceled for unclear reasons.
Cardinal, a celebrated Métis actor with Cree, Nakota and Dene heritage, told ICT: “‘You’re No Indian’ is a powerful story that needed to be told. Our people are being erased, by our own tribal governments, and that truth struck a nerve. The stories in this film lit a fire in me. You see families broken apart, identity stolen, communities suffering in silence. I couldn’t ignore that. Many are too afraid to speak up, knowing they could be next. I joined this project to help lift their voices.”
Why has disenrollment become such a major issue?
“Disenrollment is not new,” Cardinal says. “It’s a modern-day extension of the same forces that have tried to erase Indigenous identity for generations. More than 11,000 people have already been disenrolled, and many more were never acknowledged at all. Their stories speak to a crisis hiding in plain sight. ‘You’re No Indian’ confronts that silence, revealing just how widespread, and devastating, this injustice truly is.
“It’s about the money,” director Flynn told ICT. “It’s unfortunately underreported – entire families and histories are wiped out with no recourse. We created this film to shine a light on this practice and amplify the voices of those affected. One person gets disenrolled and it wipes out the whole lineage.”
Flynn says he became interested in the story when he learned of the astounding amounts of money certain tribal members were receiving from casinos. That led him to hearing about
a certain tribal council that had hired an anthropologist and the anthropologist cited in favor of a family that was in question, and they were disenrolled anyway.
“That was the first time I heard the term ‘disenrollment.’ I found a few news articles about it. I have footage of one of the tribal chiefs just refusing to answer questions and stonewalling the subject. How do you get the other side when people don’t want to talk? Access was the most challenging part of this entire process, even with the people that were disenrolled. I’ve come to look at it as is the weaponization of fear. If you’re disenrolled, maybe there’s a little hope that if you keep your head down, maybe you will get back to the tribe. If you’re not disenrolled, you better not say anything because that could put a target on your back.”
Initially, only those who were in favor of disenrollment would speak to him, but he had a responsibility to tell a balanced story, so he did what he could to reach out to everyone.
“They don’t want those stories out there,” Flynn says. “People fighting to maintain their identity against the powers of greed, in many cases the last language speaker stood up for those who have been wrongfully disenrolled. They are victims of what many have called a colonial practice, the whole reservation system and all that. But it’s evolved now with the loophole of the casinos, which gives them a lot of wealth and political power. The fewer members that are in your tribe, the larger piece of the pie that you get. It’s hard to look at this as anything other than where you have a casino that’s large near a large population density, you see disenrollment.”
Flynn said getting anybody to admit it was the challenge.
“I think it would open them up to some kind of lawsuit. It would give them publicity they certainly don’t want. I hope people walk away with a deeper understanding and connection to the humanity behind disenrollment. It’s easy to kick somebody out if you don’t know them, that this isn’t an issue about policy or loopholes or politics. It’s about families and communities being torn apart. I want people to understand that this isn’t just like taking out an individual. It’s entire cultures, languages and traditions. What is any society without that? For the people that are Indigenous, I hope this inspires bravery, so they feel empowered to actually speak out. It’s that weaponization of fear that keeps people silent.
“You take out one person and there’s an infinite number of people that go out beyond that.
There are powerful people that don’t want you to see this film, but we’re not going to back down. We’re trying to start the conversation, get people to talk about this because it is not being talked about. How can you be an ally if you don’t even know about it?”
There are powerful scenes in the film such as when a disenrolled member hires a militia to storm the casino tribal office to protest. He had no recourse to appeal through any courts or governments.
“That’s my fear,” Flynn says, “that if this issue continues to grow unchecked, as more tribes realize that this is possible, it only takes a few to gain majority control of your tribal council. They can’t go to federal courts, right? They can’t go to a Supreme Court, they kick it right back, you’re a sovereign nation. This is your problem; you deal with it internally. They’re stuck.”
Flyn has numbers about how many people have been disenrolled. It’s over 11,000.
“Then there are tribes that close enrollment. If you didn’t enroll between this year and that year, regardless of your claim to heritage, well, sorry, and what would be the motivation, if not greed to have a smaller tribe? I firmly believe that a larger unified tribe is a stronger tribe.”
As for Tantoo, she concludes, “I want this film to wake people up. Change begins when we stop turning away. Speaking out about disenrollment is risky, but staying silent allows it to keep happening. We need allies inside and outside our communities who are willing to take a stand. I hope ‘You’re No Indian’ inspires that courage and forces real accountability.” ChristopherBlackwell
Sovereign Nation matters are a difficult thing to navigate legally. Technically they are all US citizens. And yet basically Anything that happens within the Reservation is off limits to outside authority, generally. Tribal matters are all internal.
Money is usually involved in all corruption regardless.
Are there going to be blockades to casinos and racetracks? The financial impact would effect the outside more than the inside.live long and prosper as best you can Jacque
A longtime friend of mine, dating back to high school, is a member of a tribe in MA. It is central to her families identity! For someone to arbitrarily steal it from them, erasing centuries of membership, would devastate them even if they continued their traditions in spite of it.
Having your family history and identity erased from existence is tragic and just plain wrong! I understand how tribes make and enforce their laws as sovereign nations, but they should still be allowed to sue in American courts to get their rights and heritage back! Especially if they've been booted out of the tribe that is its own sovereign nation.
on June 19, 2025, 3:04 pm
