Friday, June 11, 2010

Mark Macarro Pechanga's Paper Trail of Tears Leaves Elders Dead, Dishonored

An article from Vince Beiser from 2006 is still worth the read for those who don't know what gaming has done. We will be bringing back older articles to help those new readers find out what is happening in Indian Country while Congress turns a blind eye.

For many Native American tribes, the success of their gambling operations ends a run of misfortune and dispossession that dates back to when white men first dubbed them Indians.

Since full-scale reservation gambling was sanctioned by Congress in 1988, its annual take has grown to some $20 billion, with more than one hundred tribes doling out profits directly to their members.

The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians whose reservation is a patch of largely useless scrub-and-rock desert southeast of Los Angeles, rake in well over $200 million a year from a 522-room casino/resort with eight restaurants and 2,000 slot and video-poker machines. The cut for each Pechanga adult: $290,000. But if being an Indian has taken on the imprimatur of wealth, high stakes have also led tribes to deal some of their people out.

Bands from California to Connecticut have expelled thousands of long-standing members, often on flimsy grounds of inadequate Indian ancestry. By thinning their numbers, casino-operating tribes have figured out how to split the pot fewer ways.

This decision concerns the disenrollment of John Gomez Jr., whose entire extended family, consisting of 135 adults and all of their offspring, was declared in 2004 no longer to be Pechanga. Gomez and his relatives are descended from Manuela Miranda, who all sides agree was part of the Temecula tribe from which the Pechanga originate.

Decades after the federal government established the Pechanga reservation in 1882, Miranda's granddaughter - Gomez's grandmother - left the impoverished area. But Gomez's people never stopped identifying themselves as Pechanga. Gomez's father returned to the reservation every summer when he was a boy, and later he took his children there for family occasions.

In 1998, Gomez settled his own family a few miles from the reservation, in the town of Temecula, and he soon went to work for the tribe as its legal analyst. His brother has served as the executive chef of the casino's restaurant, his cousin was the casino's head of human resources, and other relatives helped draft the tribe's constitution. In 2002, Gomez and a cousin were elected to the Pechanga enrollment committee. Deluged with applications after the opening of its first gambling hall in 1995, the tribe imposed a moratorium the following year on accepting new adult members, although children of existing members were still permitted to apply.

Some of the new applicants were undoubtably opportunistic pretenders, but others had lived their entire family lives as unquestioned tribal members and simply never had reason to formally enroll. According to Gomez, he and his cousin found that the committee was not processing applications filed before the moratorium and was failing to enroll some members' children. Only after he called for an investigation, says Gomez, did questions about his own ancestry arise.

The Pechanga authorities (Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro) say they are just belatedly enforcing long-standing rules regarding descent and historical residence, the specifics of which are outlined here. Most tribes require that members show proof of a blood quantum: a minimum of one full-blooded grandparent or great-grandparent. But with so much at stake, how that Indian status is proven has become a matter of intense dispute.

The Meskwaki tribe of Iowa last year began requiring DNA tests for all would-be members. A North Carolina band is spending nearly $1 million on outside consultants to authenticate birth and death certificates. When a former chairman of California's Redding Rancheria tribe and seventy-five members of his extended family were disenrolled in 2004, they dug up the remains of two ancestors for DNA testing. Three experts agreed that the genetic evidence confirmed that they were bona fide Redding Rancherias. Yet the tribal council stuck to its decision - meaning that the roughly $3 million in casino payouts that had been going to the ousted clan now gets divided up among the tribe's remaining 230 members.

This memo, from a group that calls itself the Concerned Pechanga People, contained the first claims that Gomez's family did not meet the criteria for membership. (Several of these "concerned" Pechanga just happened to be related to the enrollment committee members Gomez had accused of stonewalling applications.) When it was presented to the full committee in December 2002, the memo set off a series of accusations and counter-accusations about the illegitimacy of other members' Pechanga roots. At one point seven of ten members on the enrollment committee were forced to step down pending reviews of their own status.
In other tribes, too, disenrollment has been used as a club to settle scores and to protect political power. An entire family was expelled from one California band after its members pushed for a recall election of the tribal council. Part of the impetus for the Redding Rancheria disenrollments, according to the tribe's own lawyer, was "all kinds of interpersonal things. There were a lot of things family members did to others that were resented."

Forced to prove their Pechanga lineage, Gomez and his family searched through government archives and boxes tucked away in homes, eventually amassing hundreds of historical documents, many as old as the baptismal record from 1864 catalogued here. But using such documentation to "authenticate" Indian ancestry is dubious at best. I

n the late nineteenth century, census takers simply eyeballed those living on reservations to determine whether they were one-quarter, half, or full-blooded Indian. Indians themselves, fearing their land would otherwise be confiscated, often felt compelled to say they were white or Mexican. Indeed, California municipalities offered bounties on Indian scalps until the late nineteenth century, giving their owners an obvious incentive to hide their true identity.

John Gomez's case hinges not on his ancestor's blood, but as the ruling examines here, on where precisely Manuela Miranda lived at a specific time. In 1875, the Temecula were forced off their land by neighboring ranchers backed by San Diego County sheriffs. Many of them drifted away to towns; others resettled in the nearby Pechanga valley, which the government eventually designated as the Pechanga reservation.

Over the years most residents abandoned this inhospitable land, and the reservation began to be repopulated only after the community finally got electricity in 1970. The tribe's constitution, passed in 1978, says that members must prove "descent from original Pechanga Temecula people."
But in 1996 the tribal council tightened the rules, declaring for the first time that members had to have an ancestor from the subset of Temeculas who relocated to the Pechanga valley.

Gomez and his family point to minutes from the 1996 meeting indicating that the more stringent qualifications were not meant to be applied retroactively to established members such as themselves. Manuela Miranda was born in 1864 in the Temecula village. She never knew her father, and her mother died when she was five, at which point she went to live with an older half-sister. After the ranchers pushed them out of the village, the half-sister moved to the Pechanga valley and a teenage Miranda was soon married off to a non-Indian, with whom she settled and eventually had tn children in nearby San Jacinto.

As is indicated here, the enrollment committee acknowledges that Miranda identified herself as an "Indian of the Pechanga Reservation" in a 1916 probate record. But at the age of sixty-four, when applying to have her name added to a new federal listing of California Indians, she said otherwise. Miranda's complicated relationship to her tribe is far from exceptional. Large numbers of Indians have moved off their reservations, often with the encouragement of government programs. And marriage outside the tribe and race has been commonplace since the late nineteenth century.

In fact, today fewer than half of all Indians even claim full-blood status. Unfortunately for Gomez, the enrollment-committee members with ties to the Concerned Pechanga People were reinstated before his case was considered: in resuming their positions, they were able to rule against him. The committee states here that Miranda never relocated to the Pechanga valley, and therefore her progeny are not Pechangas. Yet Gomez's family insists that Miranda kept in close contact with her relatives on the reservation, and in affidavits elderly tribal members have sworn that they always viewed her as one of their own.

Even though Miranda's half-sister also lived off the reservation for many years, the committee decided that her living descendants are members in good standing. (One of these descendants, Frances Miranda, is among the enrollment-committee members who voted to remove Gomez.) For her people and for each of the remaining 850 adults in the tribe, the ouster of Gomez's clan raised their individual share of casino money by some 15 percent.

Gomez's disenrollment does not mean that he is not an Indian (as is made clear here) but it does put him outside the Pechanga tribe, costing him more than his monthly casino check, his job, and the health and life insurance that came with it. He is now barred from visiting ancestor's grave sites. His grandmother is no longer allowed to attend classes at the reservation's senior-citizen center. And his cousins' children have been expelled from the Pechanga elementary school, where they were learning the tribe's language. (Members of Gomez's family also made up the core of the tribe's softball team, and their expulsion forced the Pechanga to withdraw from intertribal play.) For others, disenrollment does mean that they are declared no longer to be Indians of any sort. Thus they lose government scholarships, job training, and other benefits reserved for Native Americans.

Most federal programs require that recipients be at least one-quarter Indian, but a tribe's judgment is frequently the only proof of that blood quantum. Members of Gomez's family can attest to this dilemma: since being disenrolled many of them have lost their federally funded Indian health care. There are now more than one thousand people fighting ejections from California tribes alone, and far more are embroiled in similar disputes nationwide. Yet for the disenrolled there is little recourse.

Gomez followed the protocol specified here and appealed this decision to the tribal council, which, predictably, also ruled against him. Next he turned to state and federal courts, hoping they would be able to settle conflicting interpretations of tribal law and historical record. But the same sovereignty that allows Indian tribes to run casinos and sell fireworks on their lanes also puts them largely outside the jurisdiction of the courts. A federal judge, ruling last September on another California case, wrote, "These doctrines of tribal sovereign immunity were developed decades ago, before the gaming boom created a new and economically valuable premium on tribal membership." Although the judge was unwilling to challenge the 1978 Supreme Court decision that made membership an internal tribal matter, she nevertheless found the case "deeply troubling on the level of fundamental substantive justice."

Gomez recently helped form the American Indian Rights and Resource Organization, which is calling on Congress to address the current spate of disenrollment abuse. The group has staged a series of protests, including one in January at the annual Western Indian Gaming Conference in Palm Springs. As Gomez and a few dozen others picketed outside, their former tribal compatriots were inside the city's capacious exhibition hall, cutting deals from prospective caterers. Soon more protestors may join Gomez's side: in March the Pechanga started disenrollment proceedings against another ninety of its adult members. American Indians, it appears, are still being driven from their lands, their heritage stolen from them.

But today the ranchers are other Indians, and bounties can exceed $290,000 a head.

56 comments:

Anonymous said...

All very tiresome. In fact, this Miranda line self-admittedly traces its ancestry to Pablo Apis. He came from the San Luis Rey area, born in an Indian village there, not from the Temecula Valley. Pechanga removed the Miranda family for its lack of membership credentials, plain and simple. Further, the impetus to remove these non-members had essentially nothing to do with tribal gaming or money, and everything to do with their inability to meet the criteria for tribal membership. Goodbye, and good riddance.

stand your ground said...

They should vote this Bastard Mark Macarro out along with his corrupt co-horts, the tribal coincil and enrollment committee, if there are any decent people left on this "reservation of the damned and corrupt"

stand your ground said...

correction...council

creeper said...

YES, YES, Anonymus above.....
the same old lying song and dance crap from you....
I said it b/4 and I will say it again...follow the money trail and AT THE END YOU FIND CORRUPT MARK MACARRO AND HIS LOYAL CONSPIRATORS.
You COWARDS are just kissing Macarros Ass, without him you are NOTHING.

t'eetilawuncha! said...

Pechanga people, it is almost election time. Please go inside your heart and see were the current coucil has represented the people. Follow your heart in the upcomming elections, and ask your heart if it will lead you to make the right choice or choices for the people. Maybe you are happy and at peace with the way things are. Maybe you are ready for a change? Follow your heart.

May peace be with you!

Anonymous said...

please let everyone know what the CRITERIA FOR TRIBAL MEMBERSHIP IS
my family has been waiting for 14 years to find out we have the ability to prove our rights

Anonymous said...

two parts to this,,,first election time,the tribe has so many fake people they keep voting in fake,,,,so please stop with voting crap

second part we must be fair in hearing both sides,I understand many people were screwed out off jobs back before disenrollment and some members were offered 20 an hour to work at the casino and other tribal members were offered 5 or 6 dollars an hour (who was at the core of that problem)?

fair is hearing both sides ,I personally think all of the membership back then were acting like dickheads,and for some reason they feel they are above everybody!

but we see where their behavior got the tribe today thats all you members and ex members, we don,t want to hear your explanation for your behavior,someone needs to knock the fricken chip off your shoulders,

and by the way I heard some fool indian talking trash about being raped by the u.s government ,this country became strong because of many races ,white, german,mexican,black ,etc could you imagine this country being run by a bunch of drunks with chips in their shoulders?

Anonymous said...

I heard this story this golf pro,s son was talking trash to his dad about how good he was,(his father)stated why don,t you stop talking trash and let your clubs do the talking!

Maybe people should start talking in court and start filing suits!

Anonymous said...

Anyone can file a suit, but there is more than just a filing fee. As a matter of fact, many suits HAVE been filed.

And the courts aren't quite ready it seems. There is not enough political pressure, to get the courts to move...yet.

Anonymous said...

No not just anybody can file a suit,you cannot just stumble thru federal court, its not that simple unless (your a lawyer) If you have a background in law, criminal law or if you are post certified ,(former police officer)still it means nothing,but you have some idea how the justice system works.

or if you have filed several suits before in your own behalf then you have some idea of whats going on (you can,t just pretend to know whats up}!

nobody is going to hand anything to you,this area is new ground for everybody (even lawyers)

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know where a death from 1898 would be recorded if a person died at Pechanga??

Anonymous said...

It will never be a one man tribe. File as many lawsuits as you want, it's up to the people to accept you.

Anonymous said...

A death record for 1898 at Pechanga may be filed in the County of San Bernardino. I believe Riverside CO. appeared after that.

Anonymous said...

I've looked at your lawsuit and it looks like a jail house lawyer filled it out for ya. Must have been your correction officer days, got kinda close to a couple of birds did ya.

'aamokat said...

As far as explaining ourselves to people regarding the moratotorium, I am through doing that as there is nothing to explain because I voted against it and have always been against it, end of story.

I doubt if the tables were reversed our critic who comes here and continues to blame us the disenrolled for the moratorium could have done more than we did to stop it.

My question to that person is, if you had been in the tribe, how would you have kept the moratorium from happening?

Anonymous said...

no,that case was from the hunters attorney, not jail house ,don,t be a hater,,,,,lets see your skills,,,,,ya keep talking,,,,,we all know who the true supporters of this cause are!

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with the first poster ,I am tiresome,apply yourself,open your eyes ,,,,,,

joe liska said...

original pechanga,you stated you can tell when the justice dept visits your site?

please post the e-mail of the person who made comments about my jail house suit,and about the one man tribe!

I refuse to comment any futher on this site unless you expose these people,(waiting for e-mails )

Luiseno said...

"it's up to the people to accept you "

The people have NO SAY in who can and who can not be a member. This is one reason that the Hunters were dis-enrolled, as the council has stated that the General Membership has no say in enrollment issues, and that only the enrollment committee has authority in these matters (the General Membership voted to keep the Hunters in the Tribe and not to dis-enroll them).

Exception when it comes to Butch Murphy

Anonymous said...

You are completly false in your belief that moritorium are all blaming the disenrolled I wont deny that their are amends to be made but we all do not believe that nothing was done to prevent this the tribal council has dictated every decision on membership without regard for any members in or deseved rights to heritage ,land or culture we all know who has done this the only corrupt person is mm he has the power to take all of you out ,WEcan UNITE AND FIGHT TOGETHER OR LET THEM HAVE VICTORY MAYBE YOU ANONYMOUS ARE POSTING SO YOU ARE NOT NEXT BUT YOU WILL BE ,YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE POWER OF THE TRUE DESENDENTS OF TEMECULA INDIANS YET MORE WILL COME AND YOU WILL BE GONE AND GOOD RIDENCE TO YOU,ANYSO CALLED TRUE PEOPLES WOULD NOT BE ENROLLED SHOW YOUR PROOF OF ORIGINAL TEMECULA INDIANS AND THEN COME AND DEBATE OTHERWISE SHUT YOU TRAP.POLYSQWALIS HAS PROOF

Anonymous said...

Liska is going to suceed in his jailhouse law and what will you do then CRY LIKE A BABY

Anonymous said...

Liska will not succeed. He is not accepted by the General Membership of his Tribe. His own enrollment committee sisters aren't voting to let him in. The court can't force a Tribe to take in any member, for any reason. Most Tribes still have a blood quantum and all that don't make that blood quantum are out. The only way they can be enrolled is if the requirements are changed via a secretarial election. The Tribes determine their own membership. That is the way it is and, must remain!!

Anonymous said...

It was the knock S#$t off the shoulder remark.

You have issues, and that kind of remark divides. Asking the General Membership to go inside thier hearts is a good thing. Alot of them say the do not aggree with what has and what is happening with the tribe.

'aamokat said...

My remark was directed to the person(s) who keeps blaming us for the moratorium and not towards most of the people who are stuck in the moratorium.

Realize that I have three nephews who deserved to be in the tribe and some close and distant cousins who also have never been in the tribe and as it stands now, because we have been disenrolled, they officially, at least for now, cannot be in the tribe.

What the last poster said is right, our critic who blames the moratorium on all of the enrolled and disenrolled, is being divisive and he or she will never believe what I say about the subject, so for now I won't anwser what he or she has to say about it as it is a waste of my time.

Anonymous said...

We have watched this person since he arrived on Pechanga.info. Same BS all the time. The only thing he knows is Lawsuits and what everyone else does not do, follow him. He needs to takr a look at his own shoulder.

Just because we all do not follow the same path, does not mean we do not want the same results.

Applying pressure from the General membership to the coucil sends a direct message.

We all want the same results, even if we disagree with the avenues to get there.

Anonymous said...

who cares if I win or lose life goes on,,,,,,theres more to life then pechanga,,,,(don,t you agree)?

Anonymous said...

I kinda starting to think like creeper,I tired of telling my story ,the pechanga bs saga who cares anymore!!!!!

Anonymous said...

there,,,,youtube gone,,,once the court rules its over,,,spend time with your families,,,,

Anonymous said...

I agree with aamokat. We all want the same result, TO BE ACCEPTED AND RECOGNIZED. I sometimes think the better way if for government takeover. I somewhat understand the sovereignty issue, but by the same token, it is being abused.

I think it is time for the government to step in and correct this error on giving tribes the power to start lynch mobs with eachother. I cannot see how some tribes cannot follow rules they made and other tribes are working just fine. Maybe lessons should be taken.

If it is coming upon a new election, what are the chances of change?? Is this a yearly vote or ??

If we can prove who we are and where we came from, how can or why should we be denied our legal heritage? By the tribes not allowing us entry, we lose out of government benefits, medical, scholarships, etc...... Where can that be fair. I pay my taxes which help the native americans which in turn refuse to acknowledge me and ours and disenroll rightful members of the tribe. Where is the justice in that.

If the Hunters are reunited in the tribe, is there hatred for you or will you be welcomed by most? And why can't the majority make a difference?

I hear all of your love (hunters)for your heritage and you all must be something, I do not know if I could be so forgiving. You all are something that the members of the tribe should look up too not down on.

sanjuanflorist

Anonymous said...

People come here and post notes hoping you just give up and go away. The reason they visit is because they feel the pressure from people who will never go away.

Anonymous said...

Hey who wants to see my jail house amended complaint ,,,,this is my best work ever!

woo hooo,,,,,,,I am not giving up yet,but once the court rules there is nothing else to hang my coat on,,,,,just keepin it real,,,,,and I meant what I said,spend time with your family (edith told me that and I will take her advice)

Anonymous said...

The hunters are a good family,there is some others that are good also,there is alot of anger and hurt out there san juan,

'aamokat said...

At least Mr. Liska is trying so we have to give him a lot credit for doing that because if we don't do anything, then those who have commited injustice against us did get away with it.

Everything that is being done are like pieces of a puzzle that will fit together.

joe said...

thanks aamokat,,,,it,s a shot in the dark, oh well,,,

Anonymous said...

when is the election? I was wondering if someone should post a better candidate or two. The person should be humble and have a desire to return the tribe to its whole status of greatness.

I think people should be given a thought on who might be a better replacement, maybe noone can think of any and since at the moment aamokat is unavailable to represent us, who would be equipped to handle the task at hand and set things right?

I am not saying there aren't rolls to clean up, but EVERYONE deserves the chance to be heard.

Those of you who are allowed to live there, own property there, think of an alternate leader, share with us the whys of your choice and share with your friends and neighbors.

Is this a yearly election or .....

sanjuanflorist

'aamokat said...

sanjuanflorist, thanks for the plug but while I think I have a certain amount of common sense, I don't think I am qualified to lead a government.

I think John Gomez Jr would be a good choice but, I almost forgot, he was banished by the current corrupt regime

'aamokat said...

Oh, I forgot to add, the election is in July but I haven't seen who is running.

Maybe O.P. or somebody else can post the candidates.

I will if I can find out who they are.

Anonymous said...

sometimes its not so much ability as love and a sense of right and wrong. I suggested you because I hear how you speak of the tribe, STILL.

Next, Who is left on the res for good candidates? maybe they don't know they should run.

sanjuanflorist

Anonymous said...

you jest; I sardonically laugh. Pechanga was hijacked in 78-79. Only jackals and hyenna;voracious wolves of no descendancy blind with greed.

When even a former police chief is illegally sitting on council and Russell Murphy is brazenly sitting on council can steal, violate people's civil and human rights. You can see what wasichu are doing under cover of false sovereignty.

Gomez is not eligible.

Anonymous said...

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Anonymous said...

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Anonymous said...

I think jester is talking about ,Fantasy versus "Reality" ,I think people should talk about what avenue to take to get back into the tribe before they decide who would make a decent leader.

Anonymous said...

The learned is happy, nature to explore, the fool is happy, that he knows no more.
- Alexander Pope

Anonymous said...

Freedom lies in being bold.

I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.

The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.

Robert Frost

Anonymous said...

It matters not how strait the gait,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.


william henley,,,,

Anonymous said...

This hunters blog has much more heart then any of the others,easy to see,(thats leadership)!

Anonymous said...

well has anyone come up with a better candidate than Maccarro for tribal leader?? If noone can help members think of a better leader for their tribe, why bother voting in change?

I am not being snotty, I am just trying to get some involvement that helps make a change

sanjuanflorist

Anonymous said...

Sorry to be negative but this is a strange conversation. First, it doesn't matter what any of us want, none of us get to nominate anyone or vote. Second, most people that read this aren't going to vote for someone because we think they a better choice, if anything they vote the opposite of how we would want them to vote.
Tribal members will vote in their own family first, followed by the families their closest to. Tribal members simple don’t vote for who they think is the best candidate, you can see that by looking at the education and experience of some of the elected officials. It’s not that surprising though with all that has happened; it’s like a reality show where you might get voted out, i.e. disenrolled, if you make the wrong move. It is a shame though the tribe and casino would run much better if the tribe elected the most qualified candidates to run them.

'aamokat said...

1. The people don't know what happened to us the disenrolled (or some don't care) as it was done behind closed doors and a lot of them don't know our rights were violated.

2. They don't know (or some don't care) that the tribal council could not legally keep us the Hunters from being disenrolled after the tribe voted to end disenrollment as a part of tribal law.

3. They don't know (or some don't care) that the moratorium should have been ruled unconstitutional long ago as a lot of them think that since the majority voted for it on several occasions, that they can't do anything about it.

Unfortunately the attitude of a lot of tribal members can be summed up by a conversation I had with an elder, I can't remember what family he is from, a while back who told me that he knew what happened to us is wrong but that he just doesn't get involved in "those sort of things."

So to answer as to why people like Macarro keep getting reelected, beyond the major opposition that was removed by the disernollment of 25 percent of the tribe in the past six years and the keeping out of probably even larger numbers than that via the moratoritum, is that if rights violations don't effect those who vote personally, then they don't give it much thought.

Plus there is a prevailing attitude among tribal members that people stuck in the moratorium had plenty of time to enroll so why didn't they enroll before (not my attitude as I have always thought it was wrong) and they don't know (again or don't care)that a lot of people who are stuck in the moratotium beat the deadline but are still being kept out.

'aamokat said...

"They don't know (or some don't care) that the tribal council could not legally keep us the Hunters from being disenrolled after the tribe voted to end disenrollment as a part of tribal law."


TYPO ON THIS ONE, I MEANT TO SAY THAT WE COULDN'T LEGALLY BE DISENROLLED IN 2006 AFTER THE LAW OUTLAWING DISENROLLMENT WAS PASSED IN 2005 BUT THAT PEOPLE DIDN'T KNOW OR DIDN'T CARE THAT THE COUNCIL ILLEGALLY ALLOWED US TO BE DISENROLLED.

Anonymous said...

I see. I was actually just curious if there are any left in the tribe with honor and integrity for their tribe.

I did not know if this was a yearly election or what?

Also, the bit about moratorium people is crap. I always knew I was Pechanga and I had my BIA number and I thought I was enrolled. I was a kid. It was not until I received a letter from the BIA that I realized I was not enrolled in the tribe, just with California.

Now I have to apply, wait and prove. How could I have known to register when everyone is dead?

So I am soo sorry that enrolled members think I should have, cuz I could have and would have.

sanjuanflorist

'aamokat said...

The elections are every two years for both the tribal chairman and tribal council and on alternate two years for the Pechanga Development Corporation (PDC) which oversees the casino for the tribe.

One of the things that led to our disenrollment was when we put a member of our family on the PDC defeating Jenny (Masiel) Miranda who seemed to think she was entilted to the post no matter what the people said.

She vowed payback for her defeat, which in large part was due to the Hunter/M. Miranda coalition which showed we were gaining poltical power within the tribe.

Indians have an image as being somehow more spiritual than other people but I think gaming has shown that they can be just as sinful as anyone else.

I hate to burst anyone's bubble but some tribal members don't really care or maybe some of them believe that the tribe has done right by us even if in reality it isn't the case.

Anonymous said...

So, in essence they keep voting in basically the same people and getting the same results.

I am so sorry for all of us as well as our children and the indian nation 20 or 50 years from now.

I understand the money thing because human nature is when someone gives you a hand they want the whole arm, my kids do it all the time. But really, how much money do you actually need? I cannot imagine that any family needs 200,000 odd thousand a year to be happy or even wealthy. Even if they enrolled another 500 people they would still get what, 20,000 a month?

The problem is remember after Katrina and all the "poor" received that $2000 check they blew it. They had never had that much in their lives at any one time. They then wanted more and more until the well ran dry. People quit caring and helping. That is what is happening here. People are losing respect for the indian nations. I see it all around me due to fishing rights.

I still don't understand how the BIA can sit back when it is their job to protect all within the realms of Indian Affairs. Are they supposed to be the higher power??

sanjuanflorist

Anonymous said...

My comment above for the record is NOT about money. It is about how greed is destroying us.

I have been researching my family tree for months and my family is very much about the pioneers of San Diego. I found a relative who doesn't want to talk to me because she thinks it could be about indian Money. But her father lived with my grandmother as a child and she is alive and my family is mostly not.

Money, I would love to go back to the days of barter and trade. Life was simpler.

shanta said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
White Buffalo said...

The Pechanga tribe and tribal council has created a legacy that will follow them forever. It is so sad that the loss of spirit, community, and identity was sold for 30 pieces of silver.