A five-member Northern California tribe has acquired tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in federal and state-administered funding regardless of years of allegations from its personal members that tribal leaders are exploiting its sovereign standing, in accordance with courtroom paperwork, letters, and audits reviewed by The Publish.
The Alturas Indian Rancheria dates again to the early 1900s in Modoc County. By 2005, solely 5 members remained: siblings Phillip and Wendy Del Rosa; their cousins, siblings Jennifer Chrisman and Joe Burrell; and an outsider named Darren Rose, who had been adopted into the tribe.
The group has acquired greater than $8 million in federal funding since 2013, in accordance with USAspending.gov, the federal authorities’s spending database.
The Income Sharing Belief Fund Distribution, which takes cash from the greater tribes and distributes a proportion to the smaller ones, has given the Alturas Indian Rancheria greater than $26 million since 2005 — every quarter it receives $275,000, in accordance with the Playing Management Fee and a courtroom judgement towards Rose in 2015.
Think about a fuel station, a on line casino, a concrete firm, a shifting truck firm, and a cigarette plant that every one function as tribal entities and Alturas Indian Rancheria allegedly brings in hundreds of thousands each month, in accordance with two members who’re sounding the alarm.
“They’re working these quote unquote tribal companies below the tribe’s title, but it surely’s their personal companies,” Wendy Del Rosa mentioned, alleging that each her brother, Phillip, in addition to Rose, have mentioned a number of occasions they don’t pay taxes. “They’ve instructed me that for years: We’re natives, we don’t pay taxes.”
Rose referred to as the allegations false, saying the companies are tribe-owned and the income go right into a tribal account.
“It goes right into a tribal account that the tribe owns and the tribe watches it,” Rose mentioned, including that “Phillip and I are each signers on it, however no, it’s a tribal account.”
Each Del Rosa and Jennifer Chrisman say they’ve been successfully iced out of the tribe, which continues to function by means of a enterprise committee that oversees all the choices and is helmed by Phillip and vice chaired by Rose.
“The Tribe just isn’t operated as a tribe, quite, as a enterprise for the only real good thing about Phillip Del Rosa and Darren Rose,” Chrisman mentioned in a signed affidavit reviewed by the Publish. “Hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of federal and state funds supposed for the advantage of all of the members have been embezzled by these two people.”
Del Rosa and Chrisman declare the 2 different members are treating the tribe as their private piggy financial institution, whereas utilizing the sovereign standing to skirt taxes.
Phillip’s spouse, Sarah, who just isn’t a member of the tribe however works as a tribal assistant and oversees the on line casino, referred to as the allegations false.
“The companies are established for the general betterment of the tribe,” Sarah instructed the Publish. There isn’t every other distribution or profit supplied to the tribe outdoors of that — that doesn’t routinely imply that Phillip and Darren are splitting every thing down the center and, you already know, working these companies to keep away from taxes.”
However in 2010, Rose’s ex-wife Wendy Frazier testified in courtroom that Rose acquired checks between $180,000 – $200,000 from the tribe each few months, and that the funds have been deposited into an Alturas Indian Rancheria account that he and Phillip managed.
Frazier additional alleged she believed Rose used the cash to purchase her a $50,000 Cadillac in money, huge gear, and a $250,000 RV.
A yr later, Sarah, who on the time was working because the tribe’s bookkeeper, submitted a sworn declaration alleging that Rose stole tribal cash and property, together with roughly $340,000 from a tribal account, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.
“When doing payroll, though Darren held a paid place as Vice-Chairman of the Enterprise Committee, he requested that his paychecks, amounting to $3000/pay interval, be made out to the Alturas Indian Rancheria so he wouldn’t must pay revenue taxes on the cash,” Sarah said within the sworn testimony reviewed by the Publish.
Sarah is now married to Phillip, who serves alongside Rose in overseeing the tribe by means of the Enterprise Committee.
Rose has additionally confronted scrutiny for his enterprise dealings prior to now. In 2015, a California choose discovered Rose violated state tax legal guidelines greater than 51,000 occasions by promoting untaxed cigarettes by means of two smoke retailers, costing the state greater than $443,700 in tax income.
The choose additionally discovered Rose gave evasive and deceptive testimony and had did not file tax returns for a number of years earlier than slapping him with a $765,000 civil penalty that was later upheld on enchantment.
“These two can’t simply get to have the ability to run freely and do what they wish to do after which lie and say, ‘oh, effectively, we’re serving to out each member of the tribe,’” Chrisman, instructed the Publish. “The tribe doesn’t profit from any a part of it, aside from these two.”
A 2013 forensic accounting evaluate, which was initiated by the Tribe in response to a Division of Justice grand jury subpoena, traced tribal cash flowing by means of companies managed by Rose and Phillip, flagging quite a few undocumented transactions and transfers that had “inadequate proof” of a professional tribal goal.
The report highlighted a $50,000 cost to the maker of Phillip Del Rosa’s dash race automobile engine, saying auditors discovered no proof it was a professional tribal expense.
The audit explicitly said it was “not requested to type any opinions about potential fraudulent exercise.”
Sarah disputed the report’s findings, saying “it was not a forensic audit” and that “that they had no proof of their findings.”
She supplied the Publish a letter from accounting agency Wipfli LLP stating it had issued unmodified, or “clear,” audit opinions for the tribe’s Grants and Contracts Fund for 2022, 2024 and 2025. Nonetheless, the letter didn’t embody the underlying audit studies, monetary statements or account data, nor did it tackle the precise allegations raised by different tribal members relating to tribal enterprise revenues or the alleged private use of tribal funds.
Rose additionally rejected the allegations from his fellow tribal members, telling the Publish all the cash comprised of tribal companies is reinvested again into the tribe, whereas arguing the businesses don’t herald practically as a lot income.
Each Del Rosa and Chrisman mentioned they haven’t seen any tribal advantages — whether or not that be monetary, well being care, or training — in additional than a decade.
Throughout COVID, the tribe, which on the time was listed to have solely 3 members by the federal authorities, acquired greater than $2.6 million — or roughly $886,233 per citizen, in accordance with a report issued by the Harvard Kennedy Faculty that analyzed US Treasury information.
“They took all of it and cut up it between the 2 of them,” Del Rosa instructed the Publish. “I haven’t seen one dime or service, no medical insurance, nothing, since 2014.”
Rose mentioned the pandemic-era funding was reinvested in tribal companies, quite than distributed amongst members like different tribes selected to do.
“We invested within the gasoline stations and the on line casino,” he mentioned.
Chrisman, who has terminal most cancers, signed a contract in 2012 relinquishing her voting rights in alternate for assured month-to-month funds and medical insurance — nevertheless, she instructed the Publish the well being protection ended just some months later.
“The truth that I’ve terminal most cancers, my husband, my children and my mother and father are in debt as a result of the dearth of insurance coverage. It’s greed at its most interesting,” Chrisman mentioned.
Rose argued solely staff of the tribe-owned Desert Rose On line casino get well being care, not the tribe itself.
However, a duplicate of the unique contract reviewed by the Publish and signed by the Tribe, granted Chrisman an employment settlement as an “Affiliate Gaming Commissioner” with “all advantages provided to different staff of the Desert Rose On line casino (“On line casino”), together with well being, dental, imaginative and prescient and life insurance coverage.”
Sarah maintains that solely staff of the on line casino can get medical insurance, which Chrisman just isn’t.
Chrisman’s brother, Joe Burrell, instructed the Publish he was additionally pressured into signing a contract that will relinquish his rights as a voting tribal member in alternate for a financial quantity.
“He tricked us. He received us good,” Burrell mentioned about Rose. “He seen a tribe that wasn’t all there, that wanted assist, after which he snaked in.”
Del Rosa instructed the Publish the Tribe of 5 has was a tribe of two with Phillip and Rose holding the facility, bringing in hundreds of thousands of {dollars} yearly and offering no tribal companies like well being care or training for the opposite members or group.
“It’s taxpayer funds, it’s put aside to help with tribal applications,” Del Rosa mentioned. “It’s not put aside to have two members go purchase luxurious properties in Hawaii and fly on personal jets.”
Property tax data present Phillip and Rose purchased a $4 million property in Hawaii again in 2025, itemizing the mailing tackle to the Maui assessor as 900 Operating Bear Highway, Yreka — which is the tackle of the tribe.
Phillip acknowledged there’s a trip dwelling however instructed the Modoc County File no cash from any tribal entity was used, quite it was bought with a financial institution mortgage.
Neither Phillip nor Rose truly lives on and even close to the reservation, as an alternative telling the Publish “there’s no financial profit for us to stay there.”
“The tribe has 20 acres, that’s all it’s,” Rose mentioned. “We journey there for enterprise if we now have to. Nobody lives there, nobody ever has.”
Del Rosa mentioned the state of affairs unfolding in Modoc County is a results of a 2012 choice from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) that acknowledged Phillip, Rose and Del Rosa because the governing physique of the tribe.
It was alleged to be on a restricted foundation to keep up authorities relations, however Rose and Phillip fashioned one other governing physique — the Enterprise Committee — which the BIA acknowledged on an interim foundation and stays in place to today.
Del Rosa mentioned she has repeatedly requested the BIA to withdraw recognition of the Alturas Enterprise Committee, but it surely falls on deaf ears.
“To briefly recap, the present acknowledged governing physique of the Tribe was appointed by the BIA over a decade in the past on “an interim foundation to make sure that important 638 Contract governmental companies are supplied to the members of the Tribe,’” Del Rosa’s legal professional wrote in a July 8 letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which the Publish has reviewed.
“No important governmental companies have been ever supplied to any members of the Tribe … This has to cease,” she mentioned.
The BIA did ship Rose and Phillip a stop and desist letter in June for “unauthorized industrial actions,” first reported by the California Globe.
The letter, which the Publish has reviewed, states Phillip and Rose are improperly working a fuel station, smoke store, and concrete batch plant on federal belief land that’s for the advantage of Indian landowners with undivided pursuits.
Nonetheless, Rose instructed the Publish they’re working with the BIA to finalize a lease settlement.
“We personal nearly all of the land and we management it and the BIA is aware of it,” he mentioned.
Each Del Rosa and Chrisman are actually calling on the federal authorities to revoke the tribe’s federal recognition, saying it’s the one resolution to ensure the tribe doesn’t misuse state and federal funds.
“I believe that’s the one strategy to cease them, as a result of they’re going to maintain doing what they’re doing,” Del Rosa mentioned. “They’re a tribe of two, despite the fact that there are different members, and so they’re simply turning into extraordinarily rich, breaking legal guidelines, you already know, no accountability.”
A sentiment echoed by Chrisman and her brother, Burrell.
“These two males function like every thing belongs to them, and no person ought to get something,” she mentioned.
“We’re a 5 member tribe, we’re small, we’re in Northern California — no man’s land, so no person seems at it,” Burrell added.
In an announcement to the Publish, the Division of Inside mentioned the BIA’s authorized authority to intervene in disputes is restricted by tribal sovereignty.
“The Division of the Inside honors tribal sovereignty and helps tribal self-determination,” the assertion mentioned.
