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ALAMOGORDO – Couy Griffin of Cowboys For Trump says he was “shocked” by his recent ban from Mescalero Apache reservation.

“I will always love and respect the Native American People,” read a post by Cowboys For Trump on Wednesday.

Two days earlier, Otero County Commissioner Griffin was banned from the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation by the Mescalero Apache Tribal Council after publishing two videos filmed on the reservation earlier in September to the Cowboys For Trump Facebook page.

Tribal President Gabe Aguilar said the videos not only contained false and misleading information about tribal leaders and members, but also were disrespectful to the tribe’s tradition.

“I feel I am obligated to represent the (Mescalero Apaches) if they call on me and (I) try to give them a voice,” Griffin said in response to the ban.

The Mescalero Apache reservation is a sovereign nation and not represented by Griffin’s District 2 seat on the Otero County Commission.

The first video posted on Sept. 14 showed Mescalero Tribe member Chris Valdez speaking about what he claimed was a contested workers’ compensation claim, and alleging it was mishandled by the tribe.

“When he couldn’t get the tribe to help, he called me,” Griffin said. “We brainstormed ideas. We had a good meeting and we left. I thought everything was fine. Then I saw the headline from the Mescalero Apache Tribe that I was banished.

“I was shocked when I saw it. I thought maybe the tribe should have maybe reached out to me and let me know some of the issues that they had before they went to the measures that they took.”

Griffin said that he intended to connect with tribal officials, but in its statement earlier this week, tribal officials said Griffin made no attempt to verify the information before publishing the video.

A second video published by Griffin shows him participating in a traditional Apache blessing, which tribal officials said Griffin disrespected with laughter and by politicizing it.

“(The laugh) was in no way pointed towards the ceremony or what was taking place,” Griffin said.

“I wasn’t the one that initiated it. It was one of the tribal members. I don’t know what I was expected to do. Was I expected to tell him to shut up and be respectful? I don’t know. That was my first experience in that situation,” Griffin said.

“For the tribe to ban me off of the grounds that they are, I don’t feel like it’s justified and I really question the legality of it.”

The tribe has the right to banish non-tribal members through a tribal council resolution, as per the Mescalero Apache Tribal Code.

“They banished Couy because the tribe doesn’t want to help me and they are going by rumors instead of facts,” Valdez said. “Couy Griffin is the only one out there trying to help me try to find a federal lawyer.”