Seven members of the United Auburn Indian Community – including a former chairwoman – are being stripped of casino payments of $30,000 a month or more and banished from tribal functions as a bitter rift consumes one of America's wealthiest gambling tribes.

The actions targeting a political faction of the tribe that operates the lucrative Thunder Valley Casino in Placer County are an apparent retaliation for a recent recall drive against all five members of the tribal council.

Documents obtained by The Bee illuminate intense divisions within the tribe, despite apparent net casino profits of $1.15 billion between July 2003 and January 2009.

The seven tribal members, among them former longtime chairwoman Jessica Tavares, were ordered banned from tribal lands and the casino for up to 10 years. They were told they may address the tribal council on Tuesday about suspensions of casino payments that range from six months to four years.

Tavares and her attorney, Fred J. Hiestand, said all seven were involved in gathering signatures for a recall drive against current tribal council members.

The tribal council last Tuesday accused the dissident members of violating tribal defamation laws through statements made in recall petitions and in the media. The council said the faction committed "libel and slander" by publicly criticizing United Auburn's $1 million sponsorship pledge to help keep the Sacramento Kings from moving to Anaheim.

The recall proponents also assailed the handling of a tribal financial audit and lambasted what they deemed the "unjust enrichment" of the tribe's attorney, Howard Dickstein, with payments of millions of dollars, including a cut of casino revenues. They accused the tribal council of cutting funds to a tribal school and drug rehabilitation programs.

The tribal council responded in blistering letters declaring that the dissident members had "caused serious damage to the tribe's reputation" and would be held responsible for putting the tribe's "economic security at serious risk."

The letters were signed by tribal chairman David Keyser and council members Kim DuBach, Gene Whithouse, Brenda Conway and Calvin Moman. A tribal spokesman said they wouldn't comment beyond the letters.

"We knew there would be retaliation because we have no support system within our tribe to help us," said Tavares, who was tribal chairwoman from 1996 to 2010. She said dissident members are being punished for making their grievances public.

A Tavares-led faction said Nov. 7 that it had gathered signatures from 75 of 186 adult tribal members to force a vote on removing the tribal council. But the tribe's election committee rejected the petitions, claiming some signatures were invalid and documents were improperly prepared under tribal rules.

The tribal council next voted unanimously to deny casino payments to members leading the recall bid for "repeatedly libeling and slandering the tribe and its agents."

Tavares said tribal members pushing the recall were exercising their constitutional rights. "And now that we've exercised them, we're banished?" she asked.

The tribal council's ire extends to two Sacramento political consultants, Steve Maviglio and Brian Brokaw, who worked with the rival faction. An attorney for the tribe, K. Greg Peterson, sent a letter accusing the consultants of making "defamatory allegations" and "malicious lies" and said "the tribe is considering filing a libel and slander action against both of you."

Hiestand, an attorney for Tavares and the consultants, fired back with a scolding letter, saying: "You appear unaware that governments – and the Tribal Council is indisputably a government – cannot be libeled" under the Constitution.

Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling at the University of Nevada, said the fight reflects divisions that can envelop tribes as immense profits magnify differences among members and generations of families. He likened the feud to a rift that led the wealthy Penchanga tribe of Southern California to expel scores of members.

"When tribes were impoverished, they had a lot of politics but little to politic about," Eadington said. "All of a sudden, they become very rich and politics becomes very dramatic. In Indian tribal councils, politics is often a blood sport and can be very divisive and very devastating."

Among the divisive issues raised in United Auburn's case are payments to Dickstein. The tribe's longtime attorney declined to comment through an associate.

The faction led by Tavares, who agreed to Dickstein's fee arrangements while tribal chairwoman, assailed the lawyer for taking in $26 million in fees between 2003 and 2009. Documents obtained by The Bee, including a 2008 legal services agreement between Dickstein's law firm and the tribe and a ledger listing tribal payments to Dickstein, said $23 million of that money came from an agreement to pay him 2 percent of net monthly casino revenues.

While tribes rigidly protect disclosure of earnings, the payments suggest that Thunder Valley took in net casino profits of $1.15 billion over a five-year, seven-month period. The resort added a 300-room hotel resort with a spa and amphitheater in 2010.

Eadington estimates that Thunder Valley may have annual gross revenues of $400 million to $500 million, likely outperforming "even the best properties" in Las Vegas.

Hiestand said tribal members receive monthly casino payments of $30,000, with higher payments going to tribal council members or members of other government committees. Members may also receive bonus checks of tens of thousands of dollars based on the casino's performance, he said.

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