Tribal families say their homes and gardens were left in ruins after law enforcement swept through their land without warning — a clash now at the heart of a federal lawsuit.
Armed with tractors and rifles, Mendocino County sheriff’s deputies stormed properties on the Round Valley Indian Reservation last summer — tearing up cannabis plants, flattening gardens and forcing residents from their land, according to a new federal lawsuit that accuses the sheriff of violating tribal sovereignty and destroying legal grows.
Filed April 29 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the lawsuit alleges that Sheriff Matthew Kendall — along with Humboldt County deputies and California Highway Patrol officers — carried out aggressive raids in July 2024 without notifying tribal officials or recognizing the tribe’s authority over its own land and cannabis laws.
The complaint accuses law enforcement of destroying buildings, marijuana plants and personal belongings — actions tribal members say left homes and gardens in ruins.
“The tribe has its own marijuana law enforced internally and the sheriff was fully aware of this before conducting the raids and destroying the claimants’ property,” said the tribe’s attorney, David Dehnert, in a statement Wednesday.
The suit names Kendall, Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal, a Humboldt deputy, CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee and the counties of Mendocino and Humboldt. It centers on a two-day operation that targeted 18 sites across the Round Valley Indian Reservation — a rugged area in northern Mendocino County that includes the town of Covelo and more than 36,000 acres of tribal trust land spread across scattered parcels.
Kendall declined to comment Thursday but said he would continue responding to criminal activity on the reservation.
Three residents whose properties were raided — April James, 48; Eunice Swearinger, 86; and Steve Britton — are plaintiffs in the suit.
James, who uses cannabis to make medicinal creams for arthritis and spinal pain, said deputies destroyed her plants and two outbuildings with a tractor on her property near Highway 162.
The next day, deputies showed up at Swearinger’s home and tore out her plants — flattening her vegetable garden in the process. Her grandchildren were there and watched as heavily armed officers stood guard, the lawsuit says.
Britton said he was forced to leave his granddaughter’s property while deputies raided it, destroying plants, equipment and cultivation structures.
Tribal leaders say the warrants didn’t disclose that the sites were on reservation land, and no one from the Tribal Council or tribal police was notified in advance.
Kendall later touted the raids in an Aug. 2 Facebook post, saying law enforcement seized more than 62,000 plants, 31,000 pounds of processed marijuana and several guns from what he called “the most egregious violators.”
“For every person who complains,” he wrote, “we receive calls of gratitude from many others including our elders and people raising children who have been afraid to simply walk through their neighborhoods.”
Days later, the tribe issued a cease-and-desist order. Kendall acknowledged it in a follow-up post — but by then, law enforcement had already cleared the grow sites.
At the center of the dispute is Public Law 280, a 1953 statute that gave California and five other states authority to enforce criminal laws on tribal land. But the lawsuit argues that the law doesn’t apply to regulatory matters like cannabis, and that Round Valley has the right to set and enforce its own laws.
This legal conflict is not isolated. Similar disputes have emerged across the U.S. as tribes navigate the complexities of cannabis regulation and tribal sovereignty.
In October 2015, federal agents raided Menominee Indian tribal land in Wisconsin, where tribal leaders said they were legally growing hemp under the 2014 Farm Bill. The federal government destroyed more than 30,000 plants — prompting a lawsuit and national debate over jurisdiction.
In March, a Minnesota judge allowed prosecutors to proceed with charges against a member of the White Earth Band of the Chippewa Tribe who reportedly began selling cannabis the same same Minnesota legalized adult-use marijuana in 2023. His tribally licensed shop was raided the next day — another flashpoint in the growing legal standoff between tribal laws and state oversight.
These cases underscore the ongoing challenges tribes face in asserting their sovereignty, particularly in areas where federal and state laws intersect with tribal governance.
The Round Valley tribe is seeking damages and a federal order blocking state and local authorities from enforcing cannabis laws on its land without tribal consent.
You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi.
