Friday, October 17, 2008

Conference to Celebrate IGRA to Honor Chairman of Pechanga Mark Macarro for Violations of ICRA

UPDATE: MEDIA ADVISORY

October 15, 2008 Contact: John Gomez, Jr.9:30 p.m. Pechanga@msn.com

MEDIA ADVISORY

Macarro deserves Pathbreaker award … for violations of the ICRA

TEMECULA, CA – Mark Macarro, Chairman of the Pechanga Band of Mission Indian in Temecula, California will be honored tomorrow at a conference commemorating 20 Years of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the law which legalized gaming on Indian lands. Mr. Macarro, as well as several other tribal leaders, are being honored as Pathbreakers “for their influential impact on gaming in Indian Country”.

Ironically enough, Mr. Macarro’s legacy may not only be measured by his contributions to Indian gaming but by the violations of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 that have occurred during his tenure as Chairman of the Pechanga Band.

Mr. Macarro, who has been Chairman of the Pechanga Band since the mid ‘90’s, has presided over the disenrollments of over 1/3 of the Pechanga tribal membership. The mass disenfranchisement of nearly 400 duly enrolled members occurred just after the Pechanga Band had expanded its gaming facility in response to the passage of Props 5 and 1A in California. Each of the disenrollments, which occurred in 2004 and 2006, were carried out just prior to regularly scheduled elections for Tribal Chairman. Mr. Macarro won re-election each time.

The mass disenrollments and denial of membership to hundreds of other eligible members, which have been carried out by Mr. Macarro and other tribal officials, have been characterized by the most egregious violations of basic rights, including denial of due process, failure to provide equal protection of tribal and federal laws, and the passage of ex post facto laws.

Each of the growing number of basic rights violations for which Mr. Macarro is responsible for mirrors those acts which led to the introduction and passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 ("ICRA") which was intended to “… protect individual Indians from arbitrary and unjust actions of tribal governments” and to secure for the individual American Indian the broad constitutional rights afforded all other American citizens. Unfortunately, the hundreds who have been stripped of or denied their basic rights are also being denied any recourse against their oppressors as Mr. Macarro and other tribal officials have routinely invoked “sovereign immunity” to escape prosecution for their actions.

While Mr. Macarro may be receiving recognition for his work in Indian gaming, such recognition should be based on the cumulative impacts of his actions- including the gross violations of the ICRA and the termination of hundreds of Pechanga tribal members.


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A conference sponsored by Arizona State University will celebrate 20 years of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).

IGRA has been responsible for helping many Indian tribes to remove some of their people from poverty and move toward self-reliance in business ventures.

Sadly with IGRA and gaming and the seemingly endless income that gambling has generated, many tribes such as Pechanga, Picayune, Enterprise and Redding have shed their members to increase their per capita payments to those remaining.

The conference is honoring some
Pathbreakers at this event. One of those honored will be Mark Macarro, the current chairman of the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians from Temecula. They are known in some circles as the "Incredible Shrinking Tribe" and that's because Pechanga, has terminated 25% of their tribal members, taking away their per capita, health care, child care, educational assistance. This has forced some elders back on to the public's shoulders. And all so some members could take their per capita from $150,000 per year to $350,000 per year?

Pechanga has created their own
PAPER TRAIL OF TEARS with the largest extermination of Pechanga people in it's history. Pechanga has massacred more Indians in the 21st century than the white man did in the 20th century!

While we are glad that IGRA has helped so many, it's a shame that the conference overlooks those who have harmed so many. Does a Pathbreaker award wash the guilt that Macarro shares in manipulating the termination of
proven members?

What's a few HUNDRED Indians? After doing it to the first member, how many does it have to be, before what Pechanga did is WRONG?

Shame on the conference for the award to Macarro.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellently said, how can we get these comments and questions to the IGRA?? I would love to hear their retort.

Anonymous said...

darlene.lester@asu.edu; ann.m.downes@asu.edu; kathlene.rosier@asu.edu


These were on a post at www.pechanga.info/forum

Another site on tribal disenrollments by the APIS family

Anonymous said...

I'm sure the conference just looked at the glitter on the face of Macarro and not the evil in the heart.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Mark Macarro on being honored at the IGRA conference.

This is an incredible opportunity for Mark to announce that he will be bringing the tribe BACK TOGETHER through his leadership in overturning some improper decisions on the Pechanga Constitution.

What better positive publicity for the tribe and to knock this site off the blog pages. What more would they have to complain about if they were back in the tribe where they obviously belonged?

Original Perchanga, you'd have to find a new hobby.

Chairman Macarro, show that you are BETTER than the other California Tribes. HOOPA has done the right thing, in bringing MORE into the fold. You do the same THIS year and let the other tribes get the bad press.

Anonymous said...

IGRA is not concerned with the plight of Indians that have had their civil rights violated and obviously, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY is not either.

AIRRO needs its membership to grow.

Anonymous said...

What's a little corruption as long as a few can benefit?

Anonymous said...

Below is what I E mailed to the Arizona State University officials who are sponsoring the conference:

ARE YOU AWARE THAT IN HONORING MARK MACARRO, CHAIRMAN OF THE PECHANGA BAND OF LUISENO MISSION INDIANS, AT THE IGRA CONFERENCE THAT YOU ARE HONORING A CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATOR?

SINCE 2004 MR. MACARRO HAS PRESIDED OVER THE DISENROLLMENT OF HUNDREDS OF FELLOW PECHANGA TRIBAL MEMBERS WHO WERE KICKED OUT OF THEIR TRIBE WITHOUT DUE PROCESS.

APPLEANTS WERE DENIED TO HAVE ATTORNEYS PRESENT AT ANY OF THEIR CITIZENSHIP HEARINGS, DENIED COPIES OF ANY TRANSCRIPTS OF ANY OF THE PROCEEDINGS, AND NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO TAKE NOTES AT HEARINGS.

APPELANTS ACTUALLY RECEIVED LETTERS FROM THE PECHANGA TRIBAL COUNCIL THAT SAID, "NO NOTE-TAKING INSTRUMENTS OF ANY KIND WILL BE PERMITTED IN THE HEARING ROOM."

MR. MACARRO PRESIDED OVER VIOLATIONS OF THE INDIAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACT THAT ALSO VIOLATED THE PECHANGA TRIBE'S OWN CONSTITUTION'S CLAUSE OF UPHOLDING AN INDIVIDUAL'S RIGHTS WITHOUT MALICE OR PREDJUDICE.

NOT ONLY DID THE TRIBE'S ENROLLMENT COMMITTEE AND TRIBAL COUNCIL IGNORE EVERY PIECE OF EVIDENCE THAT SUPPORTED THE APPLEANTS CLAIM OF LEGITMACY, THEY ALSO ALLOWED ENROLLMENT COMMITTEE MEMBERS WHO HAD ALLEGATIONS OF WRONGDOING AGAINST THEM TO VOTE ON THE DISENROLLMENT CASES OF WHISTLE BLOWERS AND THEIR FAMLIES.

EVERYTHING I HAVE STATED CAN BE VERIFIED AND IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN COPIES OF THE LETTERS AND STATEMENTS BACKING UP MY CLAIMS I WILL BE HAPPY TO SEND THEM TO YOU.

MARK MACARRO IS NOT A PATH BREAKER BUT INSTEAD HE IS A LEADER AND PERPATRATOR OF A PAPER GENEOCIDE IN WHICH THOUSANDS OF LONG TIME TRIBAL MEMBERS IN GOOD STANDING HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM OR DENIED THEIR RIGHTFUL PLACE AS CITIZENS OF THEIR TRIBAL NATIONS.

IN CALIFORNIA ALONE AT LEAST 3000 INDIANS HAVE BEEN KICKED OUT OF GAMING TRIBES WITHOUT DUE PROCESS.

SO IT IS NOT JUST THE PECHANGA TRIBE WHO HAS "BLOOD" ON TNEIR HANDS BUT SINCE MR. MACARRO WAS THE FACE OF THE PROPOSTITIONS LEGALIZING GAMING ON CALIFORNIA RESERVATIONS THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO LIFT INDIAN PEOPLE OUT OF PROVERTY, HE IS NOW THE FACE OF A WHOLESCALE PAPER MASSACRE OF HIS FELLOW CALIFORNIA INDIANS.

WHERE IS THE HONOR IN THAT?

Anonymous said...

See NO Evil

Hear NO Evil

Honor EVIL

Anonymous said...

I sent to the Arizona State officials the following addition to my comments about IGRA honoring Mark Macarro.

I included the link to the Without a Tribe report from KNBC Los Angeles:

Here is a follow up on the
Pechanga tribe of Temecula, Ca. and its chairman Mark Macarro.

I am pasting a link that has an investigative report that appeared on KNBC Los Angeles in 2007 about what the Pechanga tribe has done in kicking out of their tribe, without due process, long time tribal members in good standing.

Note how the tribe ignored its own hired expert, re known anthropologist Dr. John Johnson of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, who said that the family in question have a legitimate claim to tribal membership.

Dr. Johnson in fact said, "there is no family today that has more right to be a Pechanga Indian than that family."

http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=64156

Arizona State University, by hosting a conference that is honoring a man, Mark Macarro of the Pehanga tribe, who has violated the rights of hundreds of Native Americans, the university is unwittingly lending its support to these rights violations.

Anonymous said...

By their disenrollment from Pechanga, the disenrollees lost any claim to tribal membership. The act of disenrollment here indicates a lack of adequate membership credentials. The simple due process accorded to the individuals facing disenrollment allowed them the opportunity to present enough material to support a claim to tribal membership. The disenrollees failed to do so. Hence, the disenrollees lost their enrollment simply because they did not have the facts on their side. The disenrollments in turn resolved longstanding questions regarding the true status of the disenrollees. By so doing, the disenrollments merely corrected an error in the membership roll. Therefore, no amount of disenrollee bitterness, negativity, and anger against Pechanga, its leadership, and its people will alter the disenrollment process or its outcome for the disenrollees. They had their chance, and could not carry the day.

OPechanga said...

The act of disenrollment for the Hunters was started as a conspiracy by the Masiel/Basquez Crime family, 9 of which petititioned their aunts on the enrollment committee.

There was no due process and no right to confront their accusers.

The TRIBE voted to halt all disenrollments and the tribal council, led by Mr. macarro did not follow the law of the people.

Anonymous said...

why should anybody trust the liars that run this tribe?...if they cheat their own, you can imagine how they must cheat in the Casino to make themselves even richer...I am so happy that their per capita is going down....just hope it keeps on going down...eventually , they will self-destruct....if you really aren't Indians then they lied when they counted you as members when they were trying to start the Casino..at that point.YOU counted,,,,why not now?...GREED!!!....I was a $2,000 a week gambler at Pechanga before I read your site.....not a penny goes to them now!!

Anonymous said...

" Anonymous said...
they did not have the facts on their side."


I'm sorry but I am starting to get real sick and tired of this type of montage that Anonymous is spouting. He is either misenformed or is plain out lying.

There will always be people who will deny that the holocaust never happened, inspite of the written records and wittnesses statements made by those who had lived through the horrible historical experance.

Creeper said...

To Anonymus who posted oct.16
"you did'nt have the facts on your side"
ENOUGH ALREADY OF YOUR BULL CRAP
no matter how many times you
repeat yourself it's still a lie.
FACE THE FACTS.
The Hunters are Pechanga, as well as the Apish and so many others in the moratorium.
You obviously belong to one of those people who are NOT Pechanga, if you are then proof it YOU WIESEL, or shut the hell up with your lies.
The facts are out there, but you are to ignorant to learn the truth.
Your Chairman Mark Macarro is a devious and malicious corrupt liar
and he deserves to be exposed.
He lost credibility a long time ago

just do it said...

What is keeping Mark Macarro in the game is all that money he takes from the till and spends it in Washington D.C. to by the political power that keeps him going.

Anonymous said...

Here is an example of the so called fairness and due process that was supposedly given to the disenrollees at Pechanga:

In 2002 new members were elected to the Pechanga band's enrollment committee.

Upon taking office on the committee the new committee members, including people from the Manuela Miranda and Hunter famlies, found evidence of wrong doing by several members on the committee, namely the people from the Basquez/Masiel family and also a descendant of Canderlaria Flores.

The new members made allegations to the tribal council about the goings on on the committee, including that the committee was not processing membership applications for applicants from certain families.

To this day I don't know if the tribal council ever followed up on the allegations of wrong doing on the enrollment committee.

In any case those same enrollment committee members who had been accused of wrong doing were then allowed by the commttee and the tribal council to vote on the disenrollment cases of both the Manuela Miranda family and the Hunter family.

The descendants of Manuela Miranda and Paulina Hunter requested the tribal council not allow those enrollment committee members who had been accused of wrong doing to vote on their cases as they could not be counted on to render an unbiased fair and impartial verdict.

In addition, the majority of the people who submitted the "so called evidence" against the M Mirandas and Hunters were from the Basquez/Masiels, which is conflict of interest.

By allowing Basquez/Masiels and a descendant of Canderlaria Flores to vote the M Mirandas and Hunters out of the tribe, and they were the deciding votes on at least the Hunter family case, the Pechanga tribal council violated the Indian Civil Rights Act as well as Pechanga's own constitution which says, "an individual's rights shall be upheld without malice or predujice."

To the anonymous tribal hack, explain how due process was accorded the disenrollees!

Anonymous said...

Since the unfairness of the proceedings against the disenrollees takes more than one post, I will continue from my last post with more examples of the lack of due process that the Pechanga tribal hack cannot explain away.

After bringing up allegations of wrong doing against enrollment committee members from the Basquez/Masiels and from a descendant of Canderlaria Flores, disenrollment challenges were filed again the M Miranda and Hunter families.

Who in turn counter filed disenrollment papers verses the Basquez/Masiels and the descendants of Canderaria Flores.

The disenrollment cases of the Basquez/Masiels and the desecendants of Canderlaria Flores were taken out of the order and those families were llegally cleared from disenrollment by as few as three enrollment committee members, less than a legal quorum, which is supposed to be at least 51 percent or a minumum of 6 members of a ten member committee.

Once those families were cleared they were reinstated to the enrollment committee and they were allowed to vote on the disenrollment cases of the M Mirandas and Hunters.

Once again, not only should they not have been allowed to vote on the M Miranda and Hunter cases for the reasons noted in my previous post, they should also not have been allowed to vote on the cases of famlies who's members had filed challenges to their membership credentials.

Another clear example of violations of the Indian Civil Rights Act and Pechanga's own constitution which is supposed to uphold the rights of individual members without malice or predijuce.

So the Pechanga tribal council, led by Chairman Marc Macarro, was derelict in its duties for not upholding the rights of long time fellow tribal members in good standing without malice or predijuce.

Gentle readers, there are still further examples of the violations of the rights of the disenrollees and of Pechanga's own laws that require another post or posts.

So who do you think presents our case better, us the disenrollees or the Pechanga tribal hack who spews out the official tribal line without any back up of his or her position?

Anonymous said...

I meant to say the Basquez/Masiel and Candalaria Flores families were illegally cleared from disenrollment, not legally cleared!

Anonymous said...

More on the unfairness and lack of due process afforded to the disenrollees at Pechanga:

As we have pointed out, we were not allowed to have attorneys present at any of the disenrollment proceedings and we were denied copies of any of the official transcripts of the hearings.

We also were not even allowed to take notes at hearings!

In addition, according to the tribe's disenrollment procedures, any tribal member subject to disenrollment shall be shown at the initial meeting with the enrollment committee specfic evidence that would prove why the documentation that was used to enroll the member was lacking in showing membership.

We were never shown or told at the initial meeting with the enrollment committee why our the documentation used to enroll us didn't prove membership.

All we were given were some hearsay letters written and submitted by members of the rougue tribal faction that calls itself the Concerned Pechanga People (CPP). By the way, most of whom were family members of the enrollment committee members who voted us out of the tribe.

Frankly we were never ever told why the documentation that was used to enroll us was lacking and even the Record of Decision informing us that we were disenrolled doens't show how our documentation is insufficient.

All we got was a listing of documents used in our case, for and against us, and some vague reasoning as to why we were being kicked out of the tribe.

Everything that we turned in in our favor; census records, probate records, notarized statements from known Pechanga elders, etc was ignored by the committee in their Record of Decision.

Gentle Readers, there are even more examples of the unfairness and lack of due process afforded the disenrollees at Pechanga that needs to be continued on yet another post!

OUR RESIDENT TRIBAL HACK EITHER DOESN'T KNOW THE FACTS OF WHAT WENT ON AT THE DISENROLLMENT PROCEEDINGS, AND THAT IS QUITE POSSIBLE AS EVERYTHING WAS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, OR HE OR SHE IS A LYING WEASEL WHO THINKS THOSE WHO VIOLATED OUR RIGHTS JUST GOT AWAY WITH IT AND THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.

Anonymous said...

Dear Oct. 16, 2008 6:05 pm, do you truly need more information or are you simply living a lie?
No matter how long you lie or hide, you are in a wrongful situation that will not last forever!
Be very concerned about not clearly facing the facts, attempting to live a lie is sick and has consequences upon the mind and body. Come clean and start fighting for the real truth, you will be much healthier.

Anonymous said...

We are not living a lie and we don't need more information as the facts show that we are truly Pechanga people.

However, in the so called case presented against us it was a violation of the Pechanga disenrollment procedures not to present the specific reasons we were being disenrolled before we we disenrolled and I as I stated, even in the Record of Decision the case was never fully presented against us.

So in effect the decision to disenroll us should be null and void for the above and other reasons!

The only thing we received from the enrollment committee was some letters from three elders all from the CPP faction who said they have never recognized us as being Pechanga people plus some statements, again all from members of the so called CPP most of who are related to the people on the committee who were the negative votes against us, that presented arguments that we refuted (but ignored by a slight majority of the committee) with our mountain of evidence in our support.

Some of which came from, among other strong evidence, from five current tribal elders who gave notarized statements saying they have always recognized us as being Pechanga people.

By the way all of the elders who gave testimony in our support were not from the CPP faction.

Anonymous hack, as Hitler said, "if you tell a lie long enough people will believe it."

Conversely if we continue to tell the truth, the truth will set us, including you, free.

Maybe it is about time you quit siding with darkness and come into the light!

Anonymous said...

This is the same Mark Macarro who promised the United States congressional resources committee in testimony on April 17, 2002, which is in the congressional record, that if the Great Oak Ranch was put into trust for the tribe, making it part of the Pechanga reservation, that no changes would be made to the land.

Macarro assurd congress that the tribe wanted the land to preserve irreplacable natural and cultural resources of the Pechanga and Luiseno people.

But once the land became part of the reservation, a large portion of this land was dug up and a golf course was put on it.

This is where the Journey at Pechanga golf course sits today.

Mark Macarro speaks with a forked tougue and this is the man IGRA honored as being a pathbreaker?

BELOW IS MACARRO'S TESTIMONY FROM THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD AND A LINK TO IT:

Mr. Hayworth. Thank you, Mr. Avery. Chairman Macarro, does the Pechanga Tribe have any plans for development of any kind on the Great Oak Ranch property? Mr. Macarro. No, we don't. As stated in our application to Interior/BIA, we stated or have designated there is no change of use in the property, and the intended use and purpose is to preserve and protect the resources that are there.

Mr. Hayworth. Without objection, we would welcome that. Just one follow-up, and for purposes of the record, Mr. Chairman, does the tribe plan to use the Great Oak Ranch for gaming purposes or any purposes other than what you have just outlined? Mr. Macarro. No, the tribe does not.

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_house_hearings&docid=f:78759.wais

Anonymous said...

The Hunters had literally turned in thousands of blue ribboned certified documents proving there right to be recognized as Pechanga.

How many blue ribbioned certified documents were turned in in opposition to them....

ancwer: NONE