Watch Pechanga and Pala Disenrollments Being Discussed on Local Los Angeles Television

 This was from 10 years ago...we got a bit of traction, but not enough.  Temecula area media has shied away   Share this post, so more people can see it, and fewer people can say, we didn't know.    

A Bloodless Erasure: Disenrollment and Corruption in Indian Country Should NOT BE Swept Under a Blanket

 A Bloodless Erasure: Disenrollment and Corruption in Indian Country

Across Indian Country, the quiet crisis of  disenrollment continues to unfold—one that does not rely on guns or soldiers, yet devastates Native families with equal permanence. 

Tribal disenrollment has become a tool of erasure, stripping Native people of their citizenship, identity, and connection to their ancestors. Entire families are removed from the rolls of their own nations, often after generations of recognized belonging, not because of cultural failure but because of political convenience and financial gain. This is a bloodless erasure, carried out through paperwork, see A PAPER GENOCIDE, closed hearings, and manipulated processes that leave lifelong scars and death without justice

If you erase your own ancestors, Mr. Macarro

 you don’t govern a nation — you manage a scheme.

Disenrolling Paulina Hunter 107 years after death isn’t sovereignty.  It’s corruption

While tribes rightfully defend sovereignty, disenrollment has too often been justified under its banner to shield corruption and silence dissent. In many cases, established tribal laws, customs, and due process protections are ignored or rewritten to achieve predetermined outcomes. Those targeted are denied fair hearings, access to evidence, or the ability to defend their lineage. Sovereignty was never meant to be a weapon against one’s own people, yet it is increasingly invoked to avoid accountability while tribal leadership consolidates power and resources.

The human cost of disenrollment is profound and intergenerational. Disenrolled citizens lose more than benefits—they lose burial rights, access to elders, participation in ceremony, and the ability to pass their identity to their children. Young people grow up watching their history erased and their legitimacy questioned, learning early that citizenship can be revoked not by truth but by politics. Communities fracture, trust collapses, and the cultural fabric that tribes fought centuries to preserve is torn from within.  See Faces of Disenrollment Paulina Hunter of Pechanga

This crisis demands honest reckoning within Indian Country and serious attention beyond it. Native media, tribal citizens, and federal policymakers must confront the reality that disenrollment, when abused, violates basic human rights and undermines the moral authority of tribal governance. Protecting sovereignty cannot mean abandoning justice. If Native nations are to thrive into the future, citizenship must be safeguarded, corruption exposed, and the voices of those erased must no longer be ignored.

Here are some points to ponder:

Native Media has done LITTLE to help

Native media must treat disenrollment as a sustained human-rights beat, not an occasional controversy. That means documenting patterns across tribes, tracking repeat actors, publishing investigative timelines, and centering disenrolled voices—not just official tribal statements. Editorial boards should stop soft-pedaling the issue out of fear of access or backlash and instead apply the same scrutiny they would to any government stripping citizenship without due process. 

Truth-telling is not anti-sovereignty; silence is.

---

Tribal Citizens

Tribal Disenrollment Has Become America’s Unspoken Human Rights Abuse, Why IGNORE the Civil Rights Abuses

The disenrollment of Native Americans from their own tribes is a civil- and human-rights crisis that demands immediate attention—not only from tribal communities, but from the federal government and the national media. Disenrollment is not a bureaucratic dispute or a cultural footnote; it is the forced erasure of people from their identity, history, and legal existence.

When governments and journalists remain silent, they become complicit in a system that strips Indigenous people of their dignity, their self-determination, and their basic human rights.

While disenrollment is not new, its acceleration in recent decades—particularly in California—has exposed a dangerous abuse of unchecked power. Thousands of Native Americans have been removed from tribal rolls through opaque processes, retaliatory actions, or shifting standards of “eligibility.” In my own case, Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro claimed that my ancestor was fraudulently enrolled—an assertion that, by logic alone, would cast doubt on the legitimacy of countless current members, as we saw in the documentary "You're No Indian". Yet these claims are rarely scrutinized by regulators or challenged by the press. Instead, tribal leaders are allowed to rewrite history without evidence, process, or consequence.

Disenrollment does far more than sever paperwork. It destroys lives. Disenrolled individuals lose access to health care, education, housing, and burial rights—often overnight. Families are torn apart. Elders are cast out. The Nooksack 306 eviction hearings stand as a chilling example of how disenrollment can escalate into mass displacement, with Native people being physically removed from lands their families have lived on for generations.  If this were happening to any other racial or ethnic group in the United States, it would dominate headlines and provoke congressional hearings. Why are 11,000 disenrolled Natives ignored.

This issue cannot be separated from the broader historical context. Native Americans have survived genocide, forced assimilation, land theft, and systematic oppression—much of it carried out or sanctioned by the federal government. Disenrollment perpetuates that same pattern of erasure, only now it is often executed internally, enabled by gaming wealth, political insulation, and federal neglect. To dismiss this as “tribal sovereignty” without acknowledging the human cost is to weaponize sovereignty against the very people it was meant to protect.

Tribal communities must recommit to transparency, democratic governance, and due process. Disputes over membership eligibility should be resolved openly, fairly, and collectively—not behind closed doors, not by silencing dissent, not by banning citizens for speaking out, and not by stripping voting rights on the eve of elections. Unity cannot be built through fear or exclusion.

At the same time, the federal government must stop pretending it has no role to play. The Department of the Interior oversees Indian affairs and has both the authority and the moral obligation to act when civil rights are violated. Looking the other way—shrugging shoulders, hiding behind legal technicalities, or “respecting sovereignty” at all costs—is not leadership. It is abandonment. Federal oversight was never meant to disappear the moment abuses became inconvenient.

The media, too, must step up. Disenrollment stories are rarely told, rarely investigated, and rarely followed. Silence allows these practices to continue unchecked. Journalists must ask hard questions, expose patterns of abuse, and treat disenrollment for what it is: a human-rights crisis happening in plain sight.  The New York Times was 10 years behind the times. 

Restoring disenrolled Native Americans to their tribes is not merely a legal or administrative correction. It is an act of justice.  Why is doing the right thing so difficult? 

It is a chance to confront modern forms of Indigenous exclusion and to repair damage that continues to ripple through families and communities. Tribal leaders, federal officials, journalists, and civil-society organizations must stop averting their eyes and start acting. Inclusion, accountability, and respect for human rights are not optional—they are the foundation of any community that claims to honor its people and its past, since time immemorial.

TRIBAL LEADERS SHOULD SPEAK OUT on Tribal Disenrollment, The Late Ramona Band Chairman Joseph Hamilton DID

 Readers, I am bringing archived posts from previous years forward.  SO MANY are anxious to learn about disenrollment after hearing so much about the documentary "You're No Indian" 

The Late Chairman Joseph Hamilton

Ramona Band of Cahuilla Chairman Joseph Hamilton speaks out about disenrollment. I have added some commentary and links.  Thank you for standing up, Mr. Chairman.

Lately, I’ve become concerned that another unhealthy legacy of federal Indian policy is becoming “tradition” in Indian Country.

I’m talking about disenrollment.

In Southern California, where my tribe calls home, disenrollment is common, in part because of big gaming revenues and internal power struggles. It is also a symptom of the breakdown of traditional tribal power structures.  Simply put, some tribal leaders listen to lawyers instead of elders.  OP: At  Pechanga, some of the corrupt splinter group leaders threatened to dig up our elders...



I am worried that in another generation the disconnect will become so great that tribal councils will view disenrollment as just another traditional political tool. I am worried that we are on the verge of enshrining a new Indian “tradition” of irresponsible and malicious disenrollment.

We must not let that happen.

Obviously, disenrollment involves tough issues. I know the deep pain disenrollment causes, as I have met and talked at length with those who have been kicked out of their tribe.

Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe in tribal sovereignty,   OP: Remember when Ramona's sovereignty was attacked by other tribes? which does include a tribe’s right to disenroll members. However, disenrollment is not an innate right of tribal peoples; it was foisted upon tribes by the federal government in order to extinguish us. But disenrollment is a tribal right nonetheless. I suppose a tribe has the right to extinguish itself, like some did in the 1950s, if it so chooses.   

Pechanga Tribe's Enrollment Committee During Disenrollments Were Incompetent or Deliberately Keeping People Out

Helping those followers of You're No Indian find more information, this from 2009:   CPP is/was the Concerned Pechanga people. a splinter group.

A commenter from the CPP faction of Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians routinely tries to shunt aside arguments of the Manuela Miranda family and Hunter family disenrollments as "simply correcting the errors in enrollment."

Well, the CPP had the perfect opportunity to put their money where their mouths were, but:

G-R-E-E-D  +  C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N  +  D-I-S-H-O-N-E-S-T-Y

=

C-O-N-C-E-R-N-E-D  P-E-C-H-A-N-G-A  P-E-O-P-L-E

At the most recent membership meeting, a dilemma came up: The tribal enrollment committee recently 'discovered' nine applications that were submitted prior to the unconstitutional moratorium.

That brings up a few questions:

1. What happened to these applications? How could they be "lost" in a very small office?

2. Who had access to these papers and how did they suddenly become "discovered".

3. How incompetent are the members of the disenrollment committee. (remember, they disenrolled more people in the past 10 years than they enrolled)

Well, instead of doing the "right thing" and enrolling the nine applicants. The 'right' thing in correcting the tribal rolls by adding those who submitted their applications as required. The enrollment committee brings the question to the people.

All of a sudden, the general membership can now rule on enrolling members? Remember, the corrupt tribal council has ruled that the membership had no authority to halt the disenrollments of the Hunter family.

Well, a raucus meeting ensues. At these meetings, you get to speak by lining up at the microphone. Here's what sources had to say:

The Chairwoman of the enrollment committee presented to the General Membership at the last meeting that they found 9 applications for enrollment that were submitted before the moratorium but were never processed.

They wanted to know what to do with these applications. (process into the membership or not) The people discussed them at the mic and some of the comments were "do we have to share our $$ with them?"

When it came to a vote it was an overwhelming "NOT to enroll them".

Okay, so the tribe was NOT concerned about correcting the tribal rolls, or, they'd accept these applications.  MONEY and GREED triumphed over what is right. Here is the kicker, GUESS which family the applications belonged to?

The enrollment committee was not allowed to say who these 9 apps were but everyone there knew (word leaked out) that they were all from the Murphy family!
That means that the tribe REFUSED to admit family of members ALREADY in the tribe! Was there a question about their lineage? IF so, shouldn't the whole Murphy family be evicted? After all, that family has NO lineal descent to a Pechanga person.

The members didn't want to do the right thing, which would have been to:
1. Enroll the members if they were valid, as the applications came in before the moratorium
2. Give per capita dating back to the moratorium which would have been somewhere near $1.4 MILLION dollars. to the nine.

So, when Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro said "it wasn't about the money". Was he lying?  (Were his lips moving?)

What say you?

You're No Indian Documentary Continues to Reap Film Festival Awards Please look for it

 Congratulations to Ryan Flynn and Santana Rabang for the continued success in their documentary You're No Indian, which is showing to sellout audiences, in theaters large and small.   It seems like everyone wants to see this film, which discusses the scourge of tribal disenrollment in Casino Indian Country

Make you think there was a reason why the Palm Springs International Film Festival PULLED this film even after it had two sold out showing scheduled

The latest awards

Ryan Flynn and Santana Rabang
Joanelle Romero Impact Award

Pechanga Resort & Casino Entertainer Trevor Noah Threatened with TRUMP LAWSUIT

 Last night's Grammy Awards had some fireworks.   Purported funny man Trevor Noah, last night made an outlandish remark about President Donald Trump and linked him to Epstein Island, a place he's NEVER BEEN    

You may remember Noah, from Comedy Central.  I remember him being a South African who performed at Pechanga's APARTHEID RESERVATION.   I wrote about that in 2018  Trevor Noah, South African Ignores APARTHEID to Perform at Pechanga Resort & Casino  and we wrote him letters asking him not to perform.  

Trevor Noah Apartheid Supporter

Here's a video of my cousin, who describes her black children being dragged out of Pechanga's tribal school    This was due to disenrollment of our family from the Pechanga Tribe, of which our great great grandmother was porn into, and we still have family living on that reservation in Temecula.

Funny/Strange how we can't get entertainers to stand up and refuse to perform.  It is a special kind of disappointment when venues refuse to confront the harm it has caused.  When venues deny the civil and human rights of their own people, they create a stain that no headliner should fully wash away. Artists like Trevor Noah build careers on authenticity, justice, and speaking truth to power, yet too often they perform on stages erected on unresolved injustice, like he did at Pechanga.  

That contradiction is especially painful when the artist’s own history stands in stark contrast to the practices of the venue. Trevor Noah, a Black South African born into the legalized racism of apartheid, performed at the Pechanga tribal casino—an institution we argue operates under an apartheid-like system after disenrolling its own tribal members.    For those who lived through or inherited the trauma of exclusion, watching that moment felt like a profound missed opportunity: a chance for solidarity that never arrived. When celebrated voices lend their presence without questioning the cost, it can feel as though injustice is being normalized, even rewarded. The disappointment isn’t just about who didn’t show up to denounce Pechanga's actions—it’s about the moral gap between the stories we applaud on stage and the realities we ignore behind it.  See LeBron James.... who gets a TWOfer, with China AND Pechanga

Sovereignty IS NOT A SHIELD FOR ABUSE, Tribal Leaders "OH YES IT IS" Native Youth MUST SPEAK OUT

 

THIS PICTURE IS HORRIBLE
Yes, so is TRIBAL DISENROLLMENT
AND ABUSE OF ANCESTORS

Sovereignty Is Not a Shield for Abuse yet, tribal leaders claim it is.  South Africa was a sovereign country, we stood against the apartheid system there.  
  
Disenrollment, Silence, and Power: Why Native Youth Should be Demanding Accountability

Ethical governments and businesses are expected to uphold basic human rights. History shows that when institutions abuse power, the world eventually responds—through boycotts, divestment, and public pressure.

Pechanga’s actions and those of all disenrolling tribes—denying civil rights, silencing dissent, and punishing families—are not meaningfully different from other systems of exclusion the world has condemned. Sovereignty was never meant to be a shield for injustice.  

You live in a time where silence is no longer neutral.

You understand transparency.
You understand accountability.
You understand that mental health, identity, and belonging matter.

You also understand influence—how conversations, social pressure, and moral clarity move change faster than petitions ever did.

Your elders may not hear this message online. But they will hear it from you.

Ask them:

• Why were families erased instead of reconciled?

• Why was dissent punished instead of addressed?

• Why was culture treated as a privilege instead of a birthright?

Respect does not mean obedience.
Tradition does not mean silence.

If Pechanga is to have a future worth inheriting, it must first confront the truth about its past.

City of Angels FILM FESTIVAL to Screen You're No Indian, The Documentary Disenrolling Tribes DO NOT WANT YOU TO SEE

 

The Ryan Flynn film tackles the important topic of Tribal disenrollment, the process by which an individual loses their right to be a member of a federally recognized tribe, which has impacted over 11,000  Native Americans and their lineages.    

If you've missed the screenings, NOW is your chance.  You can get tickets here 

Silence is NOT GOLDEN, it's COMPLICITY.   DO NOT BE SILENT

A THIRD SHOWING of You're NO Indian on Sale NOW, for Fresno CA. Chukchansi Tribe LOOKS DISGRACEFUL

 GO TO yourenoindian.com      It's having so much success, PLEASE pass it on!

SQUAXIN ISLAND TRIBE'S DISENROLLMENT RULED - - ARBITRARY and CAPRICIOUS

 This case has been resolved in tribal court, with the court ruling the tribe's decision was arbitrary and capricious.   You can see that decision here    You can read background here  And here is the video of the story here:

and   APPELLANTS are to REMAIN in the TRIBE!

Pechanga YOUTH, ASK QUESTIONS. Tribal Gaming Led to Tribal Disenrollment, Self-Reliance Was the Promise. Silence Became the Policy.

 

More than a decade ago, Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro stood before the people of California asking for support—support for Native American self-reliance. Most Californians understood that message clearly: gaming revenues would be used to strengthen Native communities, protect families, preserve culture, and ensure that no one was left behind.  Oh, yes, they promised to help California's budget, how'd that work out?

That promise helped pass referendum after referendum. Pechanga leadership became the public face of California’s Native nations. Voters trusted that self-reliance meant taking care of one another.

But at Pechanga, self-reliance came to mean something very different.

It came to mean shrinking the tribe by excluding rightful people.
It came to mean silencing dissent.
It came to mean: cash your check and don’t ask questions.

Power Without Accountability

Pechanga’s Constitution and Bylaws guaranteed open enrollment every January. Yet in 1997, the Tribal Council approved a moratorium on enrollment, claiming it was temporary—just long enough to “catch up” on applications. That moratorium never meaningfully ended.  Kind of link temporary taxes our government promises us, that we're still paying for.

When the Pechanga people exercised their right to self-governance in 2005 and passed a valid petition to halt disenrollments, the Tribal Council dismissed it—arguing that the General Council had no authority over enrollment matters.

So let’s be clear about what that means:

• The people can vote to keep people out

• But the people cannot vote to keep people in

That is not sovereignty. That is selective power.

The Human Cost of Disenrollment

Over time, Pechanga leadership eliminated nearly 25% of its own citizens.

CASINO TRIBE'S CREATED A PAPER GENOCIDE With Tribal Disenrollment There's a SONG about

My Cousin Kent Appel  "Amo'kat to many wrote and sings this song, with music to the tune of Indian Reservation.  You can here it here on YOUTUBE

 A PAPER GENOCIDE (LAMENT OF THE DISENROLLED INDIAN) WORDS BY 'AMO'KAT: To the tune of Indian Reservation, originally by Paul Revere and the Raiders  

WE WERE ONE INDIAN NATION
WHEN THEY PUT US ON OUR RESERVATION
WE WERE AT ONE WITH THE LAND
MADE OUR HOMES WHEN THERE WAS ONLY SAND

WE WERE ONE LAND WE WERE ONE TRIBE
NO CASINO JUST NATIVE PRIDE
BUT SOME OF OUR FRIENDS WE HAD FOR YEARS
CAUSED A PAPER TRAIL OF TEARS

How Pechanga Tribal Law Was Ignored — and How Justice Can Still Be Restored Part Three of Three

 PART THREE of THREE

How Justice Can Still Be Restored

The path forward does not require new law, outside intervention, or loss of sovereignty. Justice can be achieved through lawful, internal means. At least four options exist:

1. Immediate reinstatement of those disenrolled in violation of the 2005 law

2. Formal acknowledgment by the Tribal Council that the 2006 disenrollment lacked legal authority

3. Referral of the issue back to the General Council, where authority properly resides

4. A corrective resolution reaffirming the validity of the 2005 petition and restoring wrongfully taken rights

Each option respects tribal sovereignty, honors Pechanga law, and restores confidence in governance.

A Question for the Community

After the illegal disenrollment, assurances were made that “things would be made right.” Others stated they were not afraid of those who orchestrated the disenrollment.

If that is true, the question remains:
Why has tribal law still not been enforced?

This is not about revisiting the past for its own sake. It is about whether justice, law, and accountability have a place in Pechanga’s future.

Tribal law provides the solution. All that is required is the will to follow it.