Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Pechanga, What's in a Name?

From Orion the Hunter at: Pechanga.Info

Temecula Band of Luiseno Mission Indians Pechanga Indian Reservation est. 1882
Exva Temeeku-Pechaangayam-Payomkawichum

PREAMBLE We, the members of the Pechanga Indian Reservation, and Temecula Band of Luiseno Mission Indians, sometimes referred to as the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians, hereinafter referred to as "The Band", in order to promote and protect our customs, rights, interest, and common welfare, do hereby adopt this Constitution and Bylaws. This Constitution and Bylaws will supersede any Bylaws and Constitution written in the past.

Above I have copied word for word the title page of the constitution and bylaws and the introduction to this constitution which clearly shows that Temecula and Pechanga are and always have been used interchangably. Luiseno means the Indians of the San Luis Rey Mission and all true Pechanga people are Temecula (Pechanga) and Luiseno (San Luis Rey). The Luiseno can also be from tribes such as Rincon, Pauma, Soboba, La Jolla, Pala, and San Luis Rey (which isn't federally recognized). Plus in the first censuses of the reservation taken in the 1890's the reservation is called "The Temecula reservation,"
The Temecula reservation-San Luis Rey Tribe, or The Pechanga reservation; depending on what year the census was taken and names such as Macarro, Pico, Kengnish, Magee, Hunter, and many others are on all of these records. It sounds like the tribe is trying to rationlize more disenrollments as in both our disenrollment Record of Decision and in the Record of Decision against the Manuela Mirandas the disenrollment committee said that being of the Temecula Band is not good enough that Pechanga was a subset of Temecula. The constitution and bylaws says, "Applicant must show proof of Lineal Descent from origninal Pechanga Temecula people," but it there is no mention of about Pechanga being a subset of Temecula. This is just something concocted by the committee to try to justify their misdeeds. Ironically people from the same family lines put Temecula, Pechanga, or San Luis Rey on 1928 applications. In our case the disenrollment committee said that because a relative of ours put San Luis Rey on his 1928 application, that meant our true tribal affliation is San Luis Rey even though a lot of our other relatives put Pechanga or Temecula on their 1928 applications. The true irony of it all is that family members of enrollment committee members Ihrene Scerce, Ruth Masiel, Francis Miranda, and Bobbie Lemere put Luiseno or San Luiseno and ancestors of the Macarros put Temecula on 1928 applicaitons (not Pechanga).
The problem is they had and have the votes on the committee and the tribal council and I doubt if they are going to vote themselves out! The reasoning for kicking us out in 2006 even though a law to outlaw disenrollment was passed in 2005 was that the new law didn't change the enrollment requirements so I can see how they can keep people out with the same reasoning and kick more people out for the same reason.

It looks like they could actually kick out or keep out one family member and they could keep in another member of the same family line because one put Temecula or San Luis Rey and the other put Pechanga on 1928 applications.
But again, are committee members or tribal council members going to kick themselves out because of what someone put on a 1928 application or are they just going to pick on people who are not in power? I guess they could go back to those census records from the 1890's and kick out everyone who's ancestors were on records that say Temecula or San Luis Rey but that would mean the whole tribe would be disenrolled including themselves.

If the Temecula Band doesn't even follow their OWN constitution, why would the care about due process, civil rights or the US Constitution.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This shows what a joke the current leadership of Pechanga is!!
They make the rules as they go& act as judge & jury ignoring the facts. Way to go Pechanga. You suck.

Anonymous said...

What is also ironic is that the enrollment committee acknowledges in their Records of Decisions against two large family lines that the Hunter family have a land patent signed by President William Mckinnley that lists them as Temecula Indians and that the Manuela Miranda family are unquestionably direct descendants of Temecula Band headman during the mid 1800's, Pablo Apish.

But according to a slim majority on the committee and on the tribal council that information was not good enough.

If it is not good enough, than why is the tribe called, "The Temecula Band of Luiseno Mission Indians" in official documents as well as on the official seal of the tribe?

Another interesting fact is that the tribe's casino sits on part of Pablo Apish's land grant so maybe the tribe owes his descendants rent money for putting it on his land?

OPechanga said...

The leaders of Pechanga are leading the people into oblivion and when you have the youths who have just caused the nightclubs at the casino's to be shut down, the future is dark.

Anonymous said...

Current Pechanga Leadership is a disgrace to all Native Americans.


Votes on Hunters Disenrollment?

E.C.= 3-2, with B.L. not voting(3 CPP votes, they ignored all the documents & testimony)?

T.C.= Was it 4-3, M.M. broke the tie?

OPechanga said...

They did however, take the word of a convicted child molestor. And, how many times has the guy in the commercial, Ray Jr. been arrested?

Anonymous said...

Ray Jr. is bad?
He speaks as if he really cares?
"He wants to make a difference ,because now they can"
Help People?
A felon from Pechanga on T.V.,say it ain't so?
WOW!!!!

Anonymous said...

It is too bad that nobody got a video of this man from the commercials, Ray Basquez Jr, who says in those propoganda commercials that he wants to help people, when he was screaming profanities at peaceful demonstrators and screeching his tires during February's
protest in front of the Pechanga resort and casino.

Ray Jr, driving unsafely, went really fast close to people exersing their right to freely express their views acting like the thug that he really is.

OPechanga said...

No video, but several pictures. We told the story here:

http://originalpechanga.blogspot.com/2008/02/pechanga-member-threatens-demonstrators.html