UN calls on US to halt evictions by Native American tribe

DEMING, Wash. (AP) — Experts from the United Nations are calling on the U.S. government to stop the Nooksack Indian Tribe’s ongoing effort to evict certain families from their homes. The Seattle Times reports the unusual announcement by the U.N.’s special rapporteurs on adequate housing and the rights of Indigenous peoples is the most recent development in a long dispute over enrollment in the tribe based east of Bellingham, Washington. The U.N. experts say 63 people who self-identify as Nooksack are at risk of eviction from homes they’ve lived in for years, which were developed with federal funding. Tribal Chairman Ross Cline Sr. has said the families were incorrectly enrolled in the 1980s and cannot adequately prove their lineage.