reservation where he also lives. We successfully argued that the client's income, including the corporation income, was earned on his Reservation and because it was a tribally charted corporation it was exempt from state income and corporation tax.
Blood Quantum Clarity
Our Sacramento office was successful in getting the BIA to reverse a prior decision on a client's blood quantum. The BIA had told the client they had a policy of relying on the rolls compiled under the 1928 CA Judgement Act, considering those rolls the most reliable evidence of a person's blood quantum because the records were either personally verified or were verified by the local BIA Superintendent. However, the 1928 rolls only noted whether someone was full-blooded, ¼ or more, or less than ¼. The "verification" by Superintendents was also often a blanket document covering hundreds of individuals at once, calling into question the Superintendent's personal knowledge of any particular person.
The 1928 rolls noted our client's grandmother as only "¼+." The BIA initially said that meant they had to treat her as ¼, since the rolls did not elaborate further on what the "+" may have been. The client had evidence from other sources (previous Censuses, BIA probate records) showing that her grandmother was ½. Based on our arguments and the client's evidence, the BIA reversed its prior decision and acknowledged the grandmother as ½, which should enable the client to enroll in her Tribe.