Sunday, April 13, 2008

Pechanga Tribe: Bad Business Decisions, Lies and Discrimination

Pechanga has not had a good 12 months.

In building their $15 million venue SILK nightclub, they originally named it Jade, which was already taken by a Las Vegas nightclub, forcing a change.

They fired a tribal member, Larry Miranda, son of former spokesperson Jennie Miranda, who lobbied to keep her thief of a son on the job and paid, even though he STOLE from the tribe. He should have been disenrolled for acts against the tribe.

A child molestor, whom their enrollment committee took as facts his rantings from prison in the case of the Hunter family disenrollment, was released from prison and is back on the rez.

The Tribal Council authorized the payments of ENORMOUS sums of money, about $50 million MORE than any of the other three tribes paid to get Prop. 94 passed (only 54% approved this time vs 68% the first propositions) They got the same percentage as the other tribes in victory, but, up until the morning of the vote, the tribal council was unsure of their stance. So, they put a few commercials, with lies and omissions out for public consumption.

Now, the word is that due to 'business climate' the tribal members aren't getting the huge raise in per capita they were expecting. After all, they can't just get by on the extra $100,000 per year they got after eliminating the Hunter family from the rolls.

This year, they are trying to get the Temecula Indian Cemetary property, for FREE, when that property has the remains of many different tribes and is NOT a Pechanga historical property.

And, as of April 1, here is some more discrimination (from a 4/11 letter to the editor of the NC TIMES):

New policy will be remembered

For years I've supported the American Indian tribes by voting to give them the right to open and expand their casinos. At the same time, I've also been critical of the Pala Casino for only allowing those who lose the largest amounts of money in their casino to buy the best seats available for all the concerts that they have there. And yet at the same time, I've admired the Pechanga Casino for taking what I thought was the high road in always making their best concert tickets immediately available to everyone in the general public whenever they go on sale.

But as of April 1, Pechanga has changed its policy and now also only makes its best concert seats available to the people who lose the largest amounts of money in their casino. The rest of us have to wait until all the best seats have already been purchased before we get an opportunity to buy our own tickets. As I don't gamble and voted to support Indian gaming all these years, I'm outraged by this.

The reason these casinos even exist is because those of us in the community who don't gamble voted to give these tribes the right to open up their casinos. And this is the way they thank all of us for giving them this right? All I have to say is that this will definitely be remembered the next time we vote on any measures dealing with tribal gaming in California.


They also got caught lying about their acquisition of hundreds of acres of land, because they wanted to maintain it the way it was in historical times. Well, it turns out it's Victorian England times, you know, when golf was established. They are building a golf course on the land they said they wouldn't develop:

According to its stated purpose at the time, the tribe wanted to maintain existing cultural resources and native vegetation of cultural significance to tribal life, Silver said. Pechanga asserted in its application that given the "vast occurrence of cultural resources found on the site, no development is proposed." Based on that assurance, the Bureau of Indian affairs concluded in March 2001 that the proposed annexation would not harm the environment. By early 2007, however, the tribe was building a golf course on a portion of the land, Silver said. "This golf course development was especially troubling given the parcel's location within...the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan," Silver said. LIARS!

Now, the band has to shut down their Silk nightclub and the Eagle's Nest due to bad behavior from customers and Tribal Members throwing their weight around, amid numerous complaints. Well over $500K a week from sales lost, due to misbehavior. BAD BUSINESS!

People of Riverside County, time to head elsewhere? Be safe, don't go to Pechanga. If the Pechanga Tribal Council will cheat their own people as they did with Apis and Hunter Clans, do ya think they will hesitate to CHEAT YOU?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, greedy tribal members are upset that their per diems are not big enough yet. They are pointing fingers at each other, trying to blame someone. Look out members CPP will do anything to get more money. No one is safe from attack. Those people have no souls. One evil member said he expects to make 1 Million a year & will do anything to get to that point. What a shame, Pechanga has become such a mess.

Anonymous said...

What real indians do is take care of their own. Instead of a small group of greedy people controlling the will of the people. Real indians take care of their own. They look down the road for the whole. Not just a few.

The CPP is the root of all evil.

Anonymous said...

I used to go to Pechanga Casino quite often. But when I started hearing the stories about what the tribe has done to their people, I switched to Pala. It's a bit farther for me, but I wont' spend my money at Pechanga anymore.

OPechanga said...

That's the right thing to do Donte.. There are plenty of casinos close by, so if you go there, you won't be helping Pechanga gain from hurting their people.

Anonymous said...

I DO think that Pechanga would CHEAT the public. That's why I don't go there anymore, either.

Anonymous said...

You get scalped at pechanga, the new pechanga WAY!!!!!
Leave us your money, WHITE MAN!!!