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 evicting residents, 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 deputies from Humboldt County and officers from the California Highway Patrol — 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 sheriff’s deputy, CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee and both counties. 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 thousands of acres of tribal trust land.

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 the 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.

The tribe is seeking damages and a court order barring state and local authorities from enforcing cannabis laws on its land without tribal consent.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi.